Overview of the Alaskan Layered Pollution and Chemical Analysis (ALPACA) Field Experiment

William Simpson, Jingqiu Mao, Gilberto Fochesatto, Kathy Law, Peter DeCarlo, Julia Schmale, Kerri Pratt, Steve Arnold, Jochen Stutz, Jack Dibb, Jessie Creamean, Rodney Weber, Brent Williams, Becky Alexander, Lu Hu, Robert Yokelson, Manabu Shiraiwa, Stefano Decesari, Cort Anastasio, Barbara D'AnnaRobert Gilliam, Athanasios Nenes, Jason St. Clair, Barbara Trost, James Flynn, Joel Savarino, Laura Conner, Nathan Kettle, Krista Heeringa, Sarah Albertin, Andrea Baccarini, Brice Barret, Michael Battaglia, Slimane Bekki, T.J. Brado, Natalie Brett, David Brus, James Campbell, Meeta Cesler-Maloney, Sol Cooperdock, Karolina Cysneiros de Carvalho, Herve Delbarre, Paul DeMott, Conor Dennehy, Elsa Dieudonne, Kayane Dingilian, Antonio Donateo, Konstantinos Doulgeris, Kasey Edwards, Kathleen Fahey, Ting Fang, Fangzhou Guo, Laura Heinlein, Andrew Holen, Deanna Huff, Amna Ijaz, Sarah Johnson, Sukriti Kapur, Damien Ketcherside, Ezra Levin, Emily Lill, Allison Moon, Tatsuo Onishi, Gianluca Pappaccogli, Russell Perkins, Roman Pohorsky, Jean-Christophe Raut, Francois Ravetta, Tjarda Roberts, Ellis Robinson, Federico Scoto, Vanessa Selimovic, Michael Sunday, Brice Temime-Roussel, Xinxiu Tian, Judy Wu, Yuhan Yang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The Alaskan Layered Pollution And Chemical Analysis (ALPACA) field experiment was a collaborative study designed to improve understanding of pollution sources and chemical processes during winter (cold climate and low-photochemical activity), to investigate indoor pollution, and to study dispersion of pollution as affected by frequent temperature inversions. A number of the research goals were motivated by questions raised by residents of Fairbanks, Alaska, where the study was held. This paper describes the measurement strategies and the conditions encountered during the January and February 2022 field experiment, and reports early examples of how the measurements addressed research goals, particularly those of interest to the residents. Outdoor air measurements showed high concentrations of particulate matter and pollutant gases including volatile organic carbon species. During pollution events, low winds and extremely stable atmospheric conditions trapped pollution below 73 m, an extremely shallow vertical scale. Tethered-balloon-based measurements intercepted plumes aloft, which were associated with power plant point sources through transport modeling. Because cold climate residents spend much of their time indoors, the study included an indoor air quality component, where measurements were made inside and outside a house to study infiltration and indoor sources. In the absence of indoor activities such as cooking and/or heating with a pellet stove, indoor particulate matter concentrations were lower than outdoors; however, cooking and pellet stove burns often caused higher indoor particulate matter concentrations than outdoors. The mass-normalized particulate matter oxidative potential, a health-relevant property measured here by the reactivity with dithiothreiol, of indoor particles varied by source, with cooking particles having less oxidative potential per mass than pellet stove particles.
Original languageAmerican English
Pages (from-to)200-222
Number of pages23
JournalACS ES&T Air
Volume1
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 2024

NREL Publication Number

  • NREL/JA-5600-87874

Keywords

  • aerosol particles
  • air pollution
  • Alaska
  • Arctic
  • atmospheric chemistry
  • cold climate

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