Spatiotemporal characterization of irradiance and photolysis rate constants of indoor gas-phase species in the UTest house during HOMEChem.

Abstract

We made intensive measurements of wavelength-resolved spectral irradiance in a test house during the HOMEChem campaign and report diurnal profiles and two-dimensional spatial distribution of photolysis rate constants (J) of several important indoor photolabile gases. Results show that sunlight entering through windows, which was the dominant source of ultraviolet (UV) light in this house, led to clear diurnal cycles, and large time- and location-dependent variations in local gas-phase photochemical activity. Local J values of several key indoor gases under direct solar illumination were 1.8-7.4 times larger-and more strongly dependent on time, solar zenith angle, and incident angle of sunlight relative to the window-than under diffuse sunlight. Photolysis rate constants were highly spatially heterogeneous and fast photochemical reactions in the gas phase were generally confined to within tens of cm of the region that were directly sunlit. Opening windows increased UV photon fluxes by 3 times and increased predicted local hydroxyl radical (OH) concentrations in the sunlit region by 4.5 times to 3.2×107 moleccm-3 due to higher J values and increased contribution from O3 photolysis. These results can be used to improve the treatment of photochemistry in indoor chemistry models and are a valuable resource for future studies that use the publicly available HOMEChem measurements.