GOTHAAM

GOTHAAM proposes to investigate the atmospheric chemical oxidation processes in the Greater New York City region during the summertime, and how those processes evolve over the diel cycle.

The objectives include the following:

• identify and quantify the relative contributions of volatile organic compounds released from consumer products (VCPs), volatile organic compounds from fossil fuel derived sources (VOCff), and biogenic VOCs (BVOC) to OH reactivity, ozone formation potential, and SOA formation during varying meteorological conditions;
• determine the relative importance of the various oxidation mechanisms with respect to VOC oxidation and SOA evolution during the day;
• quantify nighttime oxidation processes and the partitioning of reservoir species such as ClNO2, and how the nighttime evolution impacts the next morning's chemical processes and aerosol evolution and load;
• and provide a rigorous evaluation of chemical mechanisms in state of the art chemistry transport models.