Characterizing Greater Houston's Aerosol by Air Mass During TRACER

作者：S. A. Thompson, Bo Chen, Brianna H. Matthews, Ron Li, Christopher J. Nowotarski, Anita D. Rapp, Sarah D. Brooks · 发表于：Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1029/2025jd043353 · 被引用次数：5 · 研究领域：Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols、Atmospheric aerosols and clouds、Air Quality and Health Impacts

Abstract During the TRacking Aerosol and Convection interaction ExpeRiment (TRACER), a suite of aerosol and cloud measurements were made using the Texas A&M Rapid Onsite Atmospheric Measurement Van (ROAM‐V) mobile instrument platform. Joint ROAM‐V/radiosonde deployments focused on sampling polluted marine and continental air masses to understand summertime convection along and across the sea‐breeze front as it propagated through Houston. The polluted marine air mass at Seawolf Park, Galveston, TX was defined by two characteristic aerosol populations. Although the background total particle concentrations averaged 2,500 cm −3 , the air mass was also influenced by frequent but irregular periods of ship emission with significantly higher aerosol concentrations at times exceeding 34,000 cm −3 . Ship emission influenced periods, typically lasting <10 min, contained smaller, less hygroscopic particles resulting in a 69% relative decline in cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) activated fraction at 1% supersaturation compared to background periods. Measurements in continental air masses northwest of Houston revealed an average aerosol concentration of 5,208 cm −3 with a κ value near 0.1 reasonably describing the CCN population, independent of particle size. In continental air masses, substantial differences in particle size and CCN activation over small distances (<42 miles between sites) suggest considerable site‐to‐site variability in addition to the expected day‐to‐day differ...