Impact of Manaus urban pollution on gases and particulate matter composition in the Amazon forest

• Grant number: 13/25058-1
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): March 01, 2014
• Effective date (End): May 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Geosciences
• Principal Investigator: Paulo Eduardo Artaxo Netto
• Grantee: Joel Ferreira de Brito
• Home Institution: Instituto de Física (IF). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo, SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 13/05014-0 - GoAmazon: interactions of the urban plume of Manaus with biogenic forest emissions in Amazonia, AP.PFPMCG.TEM

Abstract

This postdoctoral project focuses on investigating the impact of atmospheric emissions of an isolated urban area (Manaus) within the otherwise pristine Amazon Basin forest. The focus of this Pos Doc plan is to study the formation of secondary organic aerosols (SOA) from the interactions of NOx and other urban emissions with VOCs form the forest. The impact of the Manaus plume on the aerosol life cycle in Amazonia will be studied. We shall determine how the pollution and forest emissions affect reactivity, oxidation, new particle formation and SOA. We also propose to study the role of the OH radical and VOCs such as isoprene on the aerosol production, and how it is influenced by tropical forests. We propose to study as well the distribution of secondary inorganic aerosols (such as ammonium sulfate and ammonium nitrate) inside a plume of a tropical megacity, and which are the aerosol optical properties, and subsequent climate impact of urban aerosols (both primary and secondary) and the formation of SOA on a tropical forest environment. To attain the proposed goals, VOCs fluxes from the pristine forest, upwind of Manaus will be measured as well as the change in composition of the VOCs downwind of the city. In order to do that it is proposed to set-up, operate and analyze the data of a large set of instruments directly downwind of the city of Manaus. Three sites will be installed upwind of Manaus (ATTO, ZF2 and EMBRAPA) and two sites downwind of the city (Iranduba and Manacapurú) will provide ideal atmospheric transport characteristics. The instrumentation will consist of state-of-the-art real time aerosol chemical characterization, the ACSM, and the high-sensitive VOC monitoring, the PTRMS. Further instrumentation shall provide aerosol size distribution, aerosol optical properties, CO/CO2, O3, SO2, elemental composition, OC-EC analysis, etc. Such powerful combination allows an unprecedented understanding of atmospheric dynamics and chemistry and will also allow the climatic effects of this pollution-VOCs interaction on aerosols, clouds, precipitation and radiation balance over Central Amazonia. (AU)