Objective
To investigate the "in situ" formation of organic aerosols from the oxidation of natural hydrocarbons in forest areas of Mediterranean
A detailed study of the aerosol composition, and of the gas phase in condensable products and in photochemical
active species will be performed. The impact of organic aerosols on the local tropospheric chemistry and ozone
budget will be elucidated. This project will continue an active collaboration between european research groups
which was established in the frame of the EC project "FIELDVOC" dealing with the oxidation processes of
VOCs and particularly of isoprene in forested areas.
The project will involve two intensive field studies, coupled with a chemical modelling of the photooxidation
of biogenic VOC (mainly isoprene and monoterpenes). In the experimental part of the project two intensive
experiments are planned, they are based on the study of the chemical composition of organic aerosols and of
their evolution with aging of the air masses during their transport over the forest. They include "in situ"
measurements of gaseous species of photochemical interest (NMHC's, isoprene, terpenes, nitrogen oxides,
ozone, carbon monoxide, hydroxyl radicals), derived products of oxidation (ketones, aldehydes), aerosol mass
and size distributions, total organic carbon in aerosols, and speciation of this organic fraction (fatty acids,
alcohols, alkanes).
One major aim of the experimental part will be to determine the mass balance of organic aerosols and to
evaluate the dependence of the yield of aerosol production from the concentration of major organic precursors
(mainly alpha and beta pinene and isoprene) and from the concentration of nitrogen oxides and oxidants.
The interpretation of the data will be performed with a 1D
transport/chemistry model adapted to the VOCs
photochemistry. The chemical scheme of the model will incorporate the latest kinetic data obtained from the
laboratory studies of two other projects dealing with the study of VOCs impact on aerosols formation (EC
projects "BIOVOC" and "SARBVOC"). It will be improved in order to take into account the formation of the
organic species previously identified in the aerosol phase. By reference to the experimental data, the model will
take into account the heterogeneous reactions and the VOCs emissions. The variation of the concentrations of
secondary product will be used to evaluate the ability of the model in simulating the VOCs oxidation in the
forest conditions. Then the model will be used to calculate the mass of solid organic matter produced from the
oxidation of the VOCs, and the results compared to the observations.
From a comparison between "in situ" measurements and modelling, a conversion factor of the VOCs to aerosols
will be evaluated. Then the impact of the nitrogen oxides and ozone levels on aerosol formation and conversely
the effect of VOCs oxidation and aerosols on the local ozone budget will be determined.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
- natural scienceschemical sciencesorganic chemistryketones
- natural scienceschemical sciencesinorganic chemistryinorganic compounds
- natural scienceschemical sciencesorganic chemistryvolatile organic compounds
- natural scienceschemical scienceselectrochemistryelectrolysis
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculeslipids
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Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
91198 Gif-sur-Yvette
France