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Atmosphere
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Measurement and Application of Isotopes and Organic Tracers in Atmosphere
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Measurement and Application of Isotopes and Organic Tracers in Atmosphere

A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Air Quality".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 May 2023) | Viewed by 10668

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Junwen Liu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute for Environmental and Climate Research, Jinan University, Guangzhou 511443, China
Interests: black carbon aerosol; air pollution; source apportionment; isotope
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Zheng Zong

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yantai 264003, China
Interests: air pollution; stable nitrogen isotope; Bayesian model; source apportionment; nitrate
Dr. Caiqing Yan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Environment Research Institute, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China
Interests: particulate matter; carbonaceous aerosol; organic aerosols; carbon isotopes; source apportionment; health effects
Dr. Yanlin Zhang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Applied Meteorology, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, China
Interests: air pollution; climate change; radiocarbon; stable isotopes; organic tracers

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Air pollution and global warming pose serious threats to human health and the environment, yet knowledge regarding these two issues remains limited. Organic tracers (PAHs, anhydrosugar, dicarboxylic acids, alkanoic acids, etc.) and isotopes (Δ14C, δ13C, δ15N, δ18O, δ34S, etc.) are powerful tools for investigating sources, atmospheric processing, and the budget of atmospheric pollutants (e.g., carbonaceous aerosols, nitrate, sulfate, ammonia, and volatile organic compounds) and greenhouse gases (e.g., carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide). The measurements of specific tracers and isotopes can significantly improve our understanding of the environmental and climatic effects from anthropogenic activities and thus will provide fundamental scientific supports for the mitigation strategies of air quality.

In view of the above, this Special Issue aims to collect the latest original research and review papers on the studies of atmospheric pollutants and greenhouse gases. The topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • analysis techniques of isotopes and organic tracers in atmosphere
  • source apportionment and atmospheric processing of air pollutants and greenhouse gases using the measurements of isotopes and source-specific tracers
  • characteristics of isotopes and organic tracers in emission sources (e.g., biomass burning, industry emission and vehicular exhaust)
  • identification of oxidation paths and aging processes for key air pollutants (e.g., sulfate, nitrate, primary and secondary organic aerosols).

Dr. Junwen Liu
Dr. Zheng Zong
Dr. Caiqing Yan
Dr. Yanlin Zhang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Atmosphere is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • air pollutants
  • greenhouse gases
  • isotopes
  • organic tracers
  • source apportionment
  • atmospheric aging

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 3594 KiB  
Article
Source Identification of PM2.5 during a Smoke Haze Period in Chiang Mai, Thailand, Using Stable Carbon and Nitrogen Isotopes
by Sawaeng Kawichai, Tippawan Prapamontol, Fang Cao, Wenhuai Song and Yanlin Zhang
Atmosphere 2022, 13(7), 1149; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13071149 - 20 Jul 2022
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2609
Abstract
Open biomass burning (BB) has contributed severely to the ambient levels of particulate matter of less than 2.5 μm diameter (PM2.5) in upper northern Thailand over the last decade. Some methods have been reported to identify the sources of burning using [...] Read more.
Open biomass burning (BB) has contributed severely to the ambient levels of particulate matter of less than 2.5 μm diameter (PM2.5) in upper northern Thailand over the last decade. Some methods have been reported to identify the sources of burning using chemical compositions, i.e., ions, metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, etc. However, recent advances in nuclear techniques have been limited in use due to their specific instrumentation. The aims of this study were to investigate the sources of ambient PM2.5 in Chiang Mai city using stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen isotopes (δ15N). The mean concentrations of total carbon (TC) and total nitrogen (TN) in PM2.5 were 12.2 ± 5.42 and 1.91 ± 1.07 μg/m3, respectively, whereas δ13C and δ15N PM2.5 were −26.1 ± 0.77‰ and 10.3 ± 2.86‰, respectively. This isotopic analysis confirmed that biomass burning was the source of PM2.5 and that C3 and C4 plants contributed about 74% and 26%, respectively. These study results confirm that the stable isotope is an important tool in identifying the sources of aerosols. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Measurement and Application of Isotopes and Organic Tracers in Atmosphere)
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15 pages, 6422 KiB  
Article
Chemical Characterization, Source, and SOA Production of Intermediate Volatile Organic Compounds during Haze Episodes in North China
by Xinxin Feng, Jinhu Zhao, Yanli Feng, Junjie Cai, Caiqing Yan and Yingjun Chen
Atmosphere 2021, 12(11), 1484; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12111484 - 9 Nov 2021
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2865
Abstract
The growth of secondary organic aerosols (SOA) is a vital cause of the outbreaks of winter haze in North China. Intermediate volatile organic compounds (IVOCs) are important precursors of SOA. Therefore, the chemical characteristics, source, and SOA production of IVOCs during haze episodes [...] Read more.
The growth of secondary organic aerosols (SOA) is a vital cause of the outbreaks of winter haze in North China. Intermediate volatile organic compounds (IVOCs) are important precursors of SOA. Therefore, the chemical characteristics, source, and SOA production of IVOCs during haze episodes have attracted much attention. Hourly time resolution IVOC samples during two haze episodes collected in Hebei Province in North China were analyzed in this study. Results showed that: (1) the concentration of IVOCs measured was within the range of 11.3~85.1 μg·cm−3 during haze episodes, with normal alkanes (n-alkanes), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), branched alkanes (b-alkanes), and the residue unresolved complex mixture (R-UCM) accounting for 8.6 ± 2.3%, 6.8 ± 2.2%, 24.1 ± 3.8%, and 60.5 ± 6.5% of IVOCs, respectively. NC12-nC15 in n-alkanes, naphthalene and its alkyl substitutes in PAHs, b-alkanes in B12–B16 bins, and R-UCM in B12–B16 bins are the main components, accounting for 87.0 ± 0.2%, 87.6 ± 2.9%, 85.9 ± 5.4%, 74.0 ± 8.3%, respectively. (2) Based on the component characteristics of IVOCs and the ratios of n-alkanes/b-alkanes in emission sources and the hourly variation of IVOCs during haze episodes, coal combustion (CC), biomass burning (BB), gasoline vehicles (GV), and diesel vehicles (DV)were identified as important emission sources of IVOCs in Hebei Province. (3) During haze episodes, temporal variation of the estimated SOA production based on different methods (such as IVOCs concentration, OC/ECmin tracer, and the PMF model) were similar; however, the absolute values were different. This difference may be due to the transformation of IVOCs to SOA affected by various factors such as SOA production from different IVOC components, meteorological conditions, atmospheric oxidation, etc. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Measurement and Application of Isotopes and Organic Tracers in Atmosphere)
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17 pages, 1531 KiB  
Article
Investigation of Air Pollutants Related to the Vehicular Exhaust Emissions in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal
by Yukiko Fukusaki, Masataka Umehara, Yuka Kousa, Yoshimi Inomata and Satoshi Nakai
Atmosphere 2021, 12(10), 1322; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12101322 - 10 Oct 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3758
Abstract
The Kathmandu Valley, which is surrounded by high hills and mountains, has been plagued by air pollution, especially in winter. We measured the levels of volatile organic compounds, nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, ammonia, ozone, PM2.5, and carbon monoxide in [...] Read more.
The Kathmandu Valley, which is surrounded by high hills and mountains, has been plagued by air pollution, especially in winter. We measured the levels of volatile organic compounds, nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, ammonia, ozone, PM2.5, and carbon monoxide in the Kathmandu Valley during the winter to investigate the impact of vehicular emissions and the contribution of gaseous air pollutants to secondary pollutants. The most common gaseous pollutants were discovered to be gasoline components, which were emitted more frequently by engine combustion than gasoline evaporation. Considering the ethylene to acetylene ratio, it was discovered that most vehicles lacked a well-maintained catalyst. Compared to previous studies, it was considered that an increase in the number of gasoline vehicles offset the effect of the measures and exceeded it, increasing the level of air pollutants. Aromatics and alkenes accounted for 66–79% and 43–59% of total ozone formation potential in Koteshwor and Sanepa, respectively. In terms of individual components, it was determined that ethylene, propylene, toluene, and m-xylene all significantly contributed to photochemical ozone production. As those components correlated well with isopentane, which is abundant in gasoline vehicle exhaust, it was determined that gasoline vehicles are the primary source of those components. It was indicated that strategies for regulating gasoline vehicle exhaust emissions are critical for controlling the photochemical smog in the Kathmandu Valley. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Measurement and Application of Isotopes and Organic Tracers in Atmosphere)
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