Abstract
Abstract. A method for real-time profiling of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) was developed combining the advantages of a tethered balloon as a research platform and of proton transfer reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-MS) as an analytical technique for fast and highly sensitive VOC measurements. A 200 m Teflon tube was used to draw sampling air from a tethered aerodynamic balloon to the PTR-MS instrument. Positive and negative artefacts (i.e. formation and loss of VOCs in the tube) were characterised in the laboratory and in the field by a set of 11 atmospherically relevant VOCs including both pure and oxygenated hydrocarbons. The only two compounds that increased or decreased when sampled through the tube were acetone (+7%) and xylene (-6%). The method was successfully deployed during a winter field campaign to determine the small scale spatial and temporal patterns of air pollutants under winter inversion conditions.
Highlights
Tethered balloons have been used as research platforms to investigate boundary layer dynamics for a long time
Nearby sources and surface inversions, that are strong in winter, often separate volatile organic compounds (VOCs)-rich air from cleaner air aloft
Using the onset of the -i-naccreetoanistreileor decrease as starting points, a 90% increase and fall were reached within 1.9 and 3.1 s, respec_ti_v>ely
Summary
Tethered balloons have been used as research platforms to investigate boundary layer dynamics for a long time (see Stull, 1988, and references therein). Proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-MS) (Hansel et al, 1995; Lindinger et al, 1998) has become a powerful analytical technique for high time resolution (
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