ИСТИНА

Biomass burning emissions can significantly influence air quality and climate, specifically in Asia. However, investigations of chemical properties of particles emitted from Asian biomass species are few. In order to develop emission inventories and profiles, the chemical composition of typical Siberian biomass burning smoke was measured during small-scale experiments in a large aerosol chamber. Smoke particles were characterized in terms of organic and inorganic components, including inorganic ions (measured by ion chromatography, IC), water-soluble organic carbon (measured by a total organic carbon analyzer, TOC), carbohydrates (quantified by high performance anion exchange chromatography, HPAEC), organic and elemental carbon (determined by thermo optical analysis), and selected organic molecular tracers (measured by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry, HPLC-MS), in order to identify unique patterns in their abundance as a function of different source emissions. Specifically, the chemical fingerprint of the smoke particles was evaluated as a function of fuel type (pine, debris), particle size, combustion phase (smoldering versus flaming) and the degree of processing (fresh versus aged). The results showed good agreement with literature values of emission factors for certain species and conditions, while some unique patterns were observed here for the first time. Smoldering combustion produced substantially more organic matter than flaming fires. Little chemical transformation (aging of smoke particles) was noticed over a period of two days in the absence of sun light for levoglucosan, demonstrating the stability of this major biomass smoke tracer. The results from this study show the importance of various factors influencing the chemical and physical properties of smoke particles derived from different types of biomass burning.