Xuan Zhang leads chamber study of monoterpene and oxygenated aromatics

ACOM scientist Xuan Zhang recently led a major community project in the NCAR Atmospheric Simulation Chamber. The study called MOONLIGHT (Monoterpene and Oxygenated aromatics Oxidation at Night and under LIGHTs) lasted about one month, from late May to late June 2019, and involved scientists (including many students and early-career scientists) from six different groups who visited from five different Universities (University of Washington; University of California Berkeley; University of Wyoming; University of Colorado (CIRES/NOAA); Colorado State University). The project focused on understanding the processes involved in the daytime and nighttime oxidation of a suite of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from biomass burning, and was complementary to an NSF-funded field campaign held in Summer of 2018 (WE-CAN, led by Dr. Emily Fischer, CSU). A major focus of the project was on quantifying the optical properties of the secondary organic aerosols formed in biomass burning plumes. Data characterizing the evolution of both gas- and condensed-phase composition have successfully been collected, and the exciting process of data analysis now begins.