Toivo Pohja

Observations of ultrafine aerosol particle formation and growth in boreal forest

Number size distribution of ambient submicron and ultrafine aerosol particles have been measured on a continuous basis (every 10 minutes) for three quarters of the year 1996, at a forest site in Southern Finland. Continuous monitoring offers additional insight over the diurnal dynamics of the submicron size distribution, including existence of clearly separate size modes as well as events of new particle formation. Selected examples of the measured size distributions are presented, including the particle formation events observed at the measurement site. Typical characteristics of days with particle formation events versus days of no events are discussed.

Relaxed Eddy Accumulation System for Size-Resolved Aerosol Particle Flux Measurements

Abstract A novel relaxed eddy accumulation (REA) system for aerosol particle flux measurement has been developed and tested. The system consisted of a fast-response sonic anemometer, a flow system, and software for operating the valves and the concentration analysis system. The prototype was used during September–October 2001 at the SMEAR II station of the University of Helsinki. The REA system was operated with a varying threshold for valve switching determined by the running mean standard deviation of the vertical wind speed. Such a varying threshold made the flux proportionality coefficient β independent of observation conditions. Using temperature as a tracer, β was determined to be 0.392 ± 0.002. The system was validated by comparing the carbon dioxide fluxes estimated by REA with the ones measured by the eddy covariance technique. The system was used subsequently for flux measurements of 50-nm aerosol particles and deposition velocity estimation. Observed deposition velocities over a pine forest dur...

Onset of photosynthesis in spring speeds up monoterpene synthesis and leads to emission bursts

Abstract Emissions of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC) by boreal evergreen trees have strong seasonality, with low emission rates during photosynthetically inactive winter and increasing rates towards summer. Yet, the regulation of this seasonality remains unclear. We measured in situ monoterpene emissions from Scots pine shoots during several spring periods and analysed their dynamics in connection with the spring recovery of photosynthesis. We found high emission peaks caused by enhanced monoterpene synthesis consistently during every spring period (monoterpene emission bursts, MEB). The timing of the MEBs varied relatively little between the spring periods. The timing of the MEBs showed good agreement with the photosynthetic spring recovery, which was studied with simultaneous measurements of chlorophyll fluorescence, CO 2 exchange and a simple, temperature history‐based proxy for state of photosynthetic acclimation, S. We conclude that the MEBs were related to the early stages of photosynthetic recovery, when the efficiency of photosynthetic carbon reactions is still low whereas the light harvesting machinery actively absorbs light energy. This suggests that the MEBs may serve a protective functional role for the foliage during this critical transitory state and that these high emission peaks may contribute to atmospheric chemistry in the boreal forest in springtime.

Experimental and numerical analysis of stomatal absorption of sulphur dioxide and transpiration by pine needles

Abstract We present the experimental results of flow chamber measurements on SO 2 dry deposition, and of separate field measurements on transpiration of Scots pine ( Pinus sylvestris L) twigs under typical northerly summertime conditions. These results are interpreted by a numerical model, which solves the steady-state diffusion equation for a single stoma approximated to have cylindrical symmetry. An analytical method to estimate the maximal effect of interference (merging concentration fields of adjacent stomata) between stomatal pores is introduced. As a result, a functional pore radius is found to be of order of 2–3 μm, which is significantly smaller than the maximal anatomical size of stomatal aperture. This indicates that stomata are capable to transfer vapours to different degrees. If the obtained estimates for needle resistances are divided by a factor of 4, the leaf area index of local pine canopy, the bulk stomatal resistance for SO 2 is of the order of 200–300 s m −1 .

Observations of biomass burning smoke from Russian wild fire episodes in Finland 2010

Forest and peat bog fires occur almost every summer in several parts of Russian boreal forests due to long rainless and heat periods at summertime. Particulate matter and different gases (CO, CO2, NOx, O3, SO2) in air can be transported thousands of kilometers away from the fire areas. Increased concentrations of the different parameters, like carbon monoxide and aerosol particles were observed on certain days in Southern Finland and even Finnish Lapland during Russian wild fire episodes in summer 2010. During these days the wind direction was from East or Southeast to Finland.

New Particle Formation in Clean Savannah Environment

Southern African savanna background environment lacks previous, continuous long-term combined sub-micrometer aerosol number concentration and gas measurements. We have build a mobile measurement trailer, which contains measurements of aerosol number size distributions 10-840 nm, positive and negative ion size distributions 0.4-40 nm, aerosol mass PM 10 , PM 2.5 , PM 1 , inorganic compound in PM 10 and PM 2.5 , gases like SO 2 , NO, NOx, CO, O 3 and basic meteorology. In addition, we measure periodically VOCs. The trailer is well- protected against thunder storms, electricity breaks and other typical problems. It is connected to internet via GPRS-modem. Preliminary results show that in a clean savanna environment, new particle formation takes place every sunny day, with relatively high nucleation rates and very high growth rates (up to 15 nm/h).