Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net 1680-7367 1680-7375 7 6 2007 10.5194/acpd-7-18015-2007 http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/7/18015/2007/ http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/7/18015/2007/acpd-7-18015-2007.html http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/7/18015/2007/acpd-7-18015-2007.pdf 18015 18042 2007-12-17 Organic composition of carbonaceous aerosols in an aged prescribed fire plume B. Yan M. Zheng Y. T. Hu S. Lee H. K. Kim A. G. Russell ted.russell@ce.gatech.edu School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA Aged smoke from a prescribed fire (dominated by conifers) impacted Atlanta, GA on 28 February 2007 and dramatically increased hourly ambient concentrations of PM2.5 and organic carbon (OC) up to 140 and 72 μg m−3, respectively. It was estimated that over 1 million residents were exposed to the smoky air lasting from the late afternoon to midnight. To better understand the processes impacting the aging of fire plumes, a detailed chemical speciation of carbonaceous aerosols was conducted by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) analysis. Ambient concentrations of many organic species (levoglucosan, resin acids, retene, n-alkanes, n-alkanoic acids) associated with wood burning emission were significantly elevated on the event day. Levoglucosan increased by a factor of 10, while hopanes, steranes, cholesterol and major polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) did not show obvious increases. Strong odd over even carbon number predominance was found for n-alkanes versus even over odd predominance for n-alkanoic acids. Alteration of resin acids during transport from burning sites to monitors is suggested by the observations. 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