HR: 14:55h
AN: A13I-06    [Abstracts]
TI: Quantification of Ethene Emissions from Petrochemical Industries in Houston, Texas: Large Disagreements with Emission Inventories
AU: * de Gouw, J A
EM: Joost.deGouw@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, 325 Broadway CSD7, Boulder, CO 80305, United States
AU: * de Gouw, J A
EM: Joost.deGouw@noaa.gov
AF: CIRES, University of Colorado, Campus Box 216, Boulder, CO 80309, United States
AU: Warneke, C
EM: Carsten.Warneke@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, 325 Broadway CSD7, Boulder, CO 80305, United States
AU: Warneke, C
EM: Carsten.Warneke@noaa.gov
AF: CIRES, University of Colorado, Campus Box 216, Boulder, CO 80309, United States
AU: te Lintel Hekkert, S
EM: Lintelhekkert@sensor-sense.nl
AF: Sensor Sense, Toernooiveld 1, Nijmegen, 6525 ED, Netherlands
AU: Holloway, J S
EM: John.S.Holloway@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, 325 Broadway CSD7, Boulder, CO 80305, United States
AU: Holloway, J S
EM: John.S.Holloway@noaa.gov
AF: CIRES, University of Colorado, Campus Box 216, Boulder, CO 80309, United States
AU: Parrish, D D
EM: David.D.Parrish@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, 325 Broadway CSD7, Boulder, CO 80305, United States
AU: Peischl, J
EM: Jeff.Peischl@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, 325 Broadway CSD7, Boulder, CO 80305, United States
AU: Peischl, J
EM: Jeff.Peischl@noaa.gov
AF: CIRES, University of Colorado, Campus Box 216, Boulder, CO 80309, United States
AU: Ryerson, T B
EM: Thomas.B.Ryerson@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, 325 Broadway CSD7, Boulder, CO 80305, United States
AU: Mellqvist, J
EM: johan.mellqvist@chalmers.se
AF: Chalmers University of Technology, Kemivagen 9, Gothenburg, SE-412, Sweden
AU: Atlas, E A
EM: eatlas@rsmas.miami.edu
AF: University of Miami, 4600 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, FL 33149, United States
AU: Fried, A
EM: fried@ucar.edu
AF: National Center for Atmospheric Research, 1850 Table Mesa Drive, Boulder, CO 80305, United States
AB: Reactive alkenes from petrochemical industries are known to play an important role in the formation of ozone in Houston, Texas. In this work we developed a fast-response detector of ethene based on laser photo-acoustic spectroscopy (LPAS) and used it onboard the NOAA WP-3D aircraft to measure ethene in industrial plumes around Houston in the summer of 2006. The new LPAS instrument was evaluated by comparison with measurement results from the whole air sampler (WAS), and the two measurements were found to agree within the combined measurement uncertainties of +/- (200 pptv + 15%). Emission fluxes of ethene were estimated (1) by integrating the measured ethene concentration across the width of industrial plumes, (2) by multiplying the concentration with the orthogonal wind speed measured from the aircraft, and (3) by assuming that the emissions are homogeneously distributed across the height of the boundary layer as estimated using aircraft ascents and descents. The estimated ethene fluxes were compared with the results of simultaneous Solar Occultation Flux (SOF) measurements inside a mobile laboratory, and agreement within a factor of 2 was obtained. Previous work had indicated that current emission inventories underestimate reactive alkene emissions in Houston by 1-2 orders of magnitude. These findings were confirmed both by the LPAS measurements onboard the NOAA WP-3D and the SOF measurements. Finally, the measured mixing ratios of ethene were compared between the results from 2006 and an earlier mission in 2000. In contrast with CO and ethyne, which are predominantly from traffic, ethene and its photoproduct formaldehyde showed the largest decreases between 2000 and 2006, suggesting possible reductions of approximately 40% in the industrial emissions of ethene.
DE: 0345 Pollution: urban and regional (0305, 0478, 4251)
DE: 0365 Troposphere: composition and chemistry
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting