Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Geophysical Research Letters
Publication Date
3-23-2004
Volume
31
Issue
6
Disciplines
Biochemistry | Chemistry | Life Sciences | Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Abstract
In this report we analyze airborne measurements to suggest that methanol in biomass burning smoke is lost heterogeneously in clouds. When a smoke plume intersected a cumulus cloud during the SAFARI 2000 field project, the observed methanol gas phase concentration rapidly declined. Current understanding of gas and aqueous phase chemistry cannot explain the loss of methanol documented by these measurements. Two plausible heterogeneous reactions are proposed to explain the observed simultaneous loss and production of methanol and formaldehyde, respectively. If the rapid heterogeneous processing of methanol, seen in a cloud impacted by smoke, occurs in more pristine clouds, it could affect the oxidizing capacity of the troposphere on a global scale.
DOI
10.1029/2003GL018775
Rights
© 2004, American Geophysical Union.
Recommended Citation
Tabazadeh, A.; Yokelson, Robert J.; Singh, H. B.; Hobbs, Peter V.; Crawford, J. H.; and Iraci, L. T., "Heterogeneous Chemistry Involving Methanol in Tropospheric Clouds" (2004). Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Publications. 12.
https://scholarworks.umt.edu/chem_pubs/12