The effect of complex black carbon microphysics on the determination of the optical properties of brown carbon

Abstract

Assessment of the impacts of brown carbon (BrC) requires accurate determination of its physical properties, but a model must be invoked to derive these from instrument data. Ambient measurements were made in London at a site influenced by traffic and solid fuel (principally wood) burning, apportioned by single particle soot photometer data and optical properties measured using multiwavelength photoacoustic spectroscopy. Two models were applied: a commonly used Mie model treating the particles as single-coated spheres and a Rayleigh-Debye-Gans approximation treating them as aggregates of smaller-coated monomers. The derived solid fuel BrC parameters at 405nm were found to be highly sensitive to the model treatment, with a mass absorption cross section ranging from 0.47 to 1.81m2/g and imaginary refractive index from 0.013 to 0.062. This demonstrates that a detailed knowledge of particle morphology must be obtained and invoked to accurately parameterize BrC properties based on aerosol phase measurements.