Abstract
Abstract. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are emitted from many sources, including wildland fire. VOCs have received heightened emphasis due to such gases' influential role in the atmosphere, as well as possible health effects. We have used extractive infrared (IR) spectroscopy on recent prescribed burns in longleaf pine stands and herein report the first detection of five compounds using this technique. The newly reported IR detections include naphthalene, methyl nitrite, allene, acrolein and acetaldehyde. We discuss the approaches used for detection, particularly the software methods needed to fit the analyte and multiple (interfering) spectral components within the selected spectral micro-window(s). We also discuss the method's detection limits and related parameters such as spectral resolution.
Highlights
Wildland fire releases significant quantities of trace gases into the environment (Akagi et al, 2011; Andreae and Merlet, 2001; Crutzen et al, 1979; Yokelson et al, 2013; Andreae, 1991), and such gases can profoundly influence atmospheric chemistry (Crutzen and Andreae, 1990)
To the best of our knowledge, the actual list of biomass burning chemical species measured by Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) has remained limited to ca. 36 compounds (Table 1); one goal of our research was to expand the list of chemical species to which infrared methods could be applied
We consider five such compounds emitted during these prescribed burns, but which had heretofore not been reported as being detected by FTIR
Summary
Wildland fire releases significant quantities of trace gases into the environment (Akagi et al, 2011; Andreae and Merlet, 2001; Crutzen et al, 1979; Yokelson et al, 2013; Andreae, 1991), and such gases can profoundly influence atmospheric chemistry (Crutzen and Andreae, 1990). Extractive systems typically use a long-path gas cell coupled to an FTIR instrument so as to increase the sensitivity Such approaches have been quite successful; an increasing number of species continue to be identified and quantified due to the availability of reference gas-phase spectral libraries such as the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) spectral library (Sharpe et al, 2004) or the HITRAN database (Gordon et al, 2017). Such libraries contain absorption cross sections that make it possible to obtain quantitative results (i.e., mixing ratios) without the need for calibration gases. All of the compounds detailed in this study have been previously detected using other ana-
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