Volatile organic compounds in marine air at Cape Grim, Australia

Environmental context. Gaseous organic compounds fuel the production of ozone in the background lower atmosphere. There have been no measurements of many of these compounds in the temperate and polar latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere. Here some first results are presented that show in general much lower concentrations than the Northern Hemisphere, due in part to the lower land surfaces and biomass burning in the Southern Hemisphere.

Abstract. Measurements were made of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) at Cape Grim using proton transfer reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-MS) during the Precursors to Particles (P2P) Campaign from 10 February to 1 March 2006. Approximately 14 days of clean air data were obtained along with 4 days of data from when polluted air, first from a smoke plume from a fire on Robbins Island adjacent to the station and then air from Victoria, was present. This paper deals with the results obtained in clean air, the focus of the P2P campaign. The protonated masses and probable VOCs measured in the clean marine air were: methanol, 33; acetonitrile, 42; acetaldehyde, 45; acetone, 59; isoprene, 69; methylvinyl ketone/methacrolein (MVK/MACR), 71; methylethyl ketone, 73; and benzene, 79. The measurements at Cape Grim were in some cases near the detection limit and an analytical challenge. The range of concentrations detected in clean maritime air, the relationship to the limited range of previous measurements in marine air in the Northern Hemisphere tropics, and the physical, chemical and biological processes controlling these compounds in the marine air are discussed. The methanol concentrations observed at Cape Grim are consistent with global modelling, incorporating sources that are mainly of vegetation origin. Isoprene has recently been implicated as a precursor to cloud condensation nuclei over the Southern Ocean. In this snapshot of observations at Cape Grim, Tasmania, isoprene and the isoprene oxidation products MVK and MACR appeared to be absent in air from the Southern Ocean. However, isoprene has a very short atmospheric lifetime and the spatial distribution of its emissions may be very heterogeneous. The concentrations of the other VOCs in marine air at Cape Grim, acetonitrile, acetaldehyde, acetone, methylethyl ketone and benzene, were typically a factor of four lower than that observed over the remote tropical ocean in the Northern Hemisphere. The lower concentrations of carbonyls and their precursor hydrocarbons may indicate a limitation on ozone production potential in the Southern Hemisphere compared with the Northern Hemisphere troposphere.

Additional keywords: atmospheric composition, oxygenated volatile organic compounds, proton transfer reaction mass spectrometry, Southern Ocean, volatile organic compounds.