Due to the server upgrades and relocation, this website will undergo extensive downtime on Monday and Tuesday, May 20-21.
It will become inaccessible beginning Monday afternoon or evening, and then remain off-line until late Tuesday.

Publication Abstracts

Tsigaridis and Kanakidou 2007

Tsigaridis, K., and M. Kanakidou, 2007: Secondary organic aerosol importance in the future atmosphere. Atmos. Environ., 41, 4682-4692, doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2007.03.045.

In order to investigate the secondary organic aerosol (SOA) response to changes in biogenic volatile organic compounds (VOC) emissions in the future atmosphere and how important will SOA be relative to the major anthropogenic aerosol component (sulfate), the global three-dimensional chemistry/transport model TM3 has been used. Emission estimates of biogenic VOC (BVOC) and anthropogenic gases and particles from the literature for the year 2100 have been adopted.

According to our present-day model simulations, isoprene oxidation produces 4.6 Tg SOA/yr, that is less than half of the 12.2 Tg SOA/yr formed by the oxidation of other BVOC. In the future, nitrate radicals and ozone become more important than nowadays, but remain minor oxidants for both isoprene and aromatics. SOA produced by isoprene is estimated to almost triple, whereas the production from other BVOC more than triples. The calculated future SOA burden change, from 0.8 Tg at present to 2.0 Tg in the future, is driven by changes in emissions, oxidant levels and pre-existing particles. The non-linearity in SOA formation and the involved chemical and physical feedbacks prohibit the quantitative attribution of the computed changes to the above-mentioned individual factors. In 2100, SOA burden is calculated to exceed that of sulfate, indicating that SOA might become more important than nowadays. These results critically depend on the biogenic emissions and thus are subject to the high uncertainty associated with these emissions estimated due to the insufficient knowledge on plant response to carbon dioxide changes. Nevertheless, they clearly indicate that the change in oxidants and primary aerosol caused by human activities can contribute as much as the change in BVOC emissions to the increase of the biogenic SOA production in the future atmosphere.

Export citation: [ BibTeX ] [ RIS ]

BibTeX Citation

@article{ts03200f,
  author={Tsigaridis, K. and Kanakidou, M.},
  title={Secondary organic aerosol importance in the future atmosphere},
  year={2007},
  journal={Atmospheric Environment},
  volume={41},
  pages={4682--4692},
  doi={10.1016/j.atmosenv.2007.03.045},
}

[ Close ]

RIS Citation

TY  - JOUR
ID  - ts03200f
AU  - Tsigaridis, K.
AU  - Kanakidou, M.
PY  - 2007
TI  - Secondary organic aerosol importance in the future atmosphere
JA  - Atmos. Environ.
JO  - Atmospheric Environment
VL  - 41
SP  - 4682
EP  - 4692
DO  - 10.1016/j.atmosenv.2007.03.045
ER  -

[ Close ]

• Return to 2007 Publications

• Return to Publications Homepage