EMBRACE-AGS-Seed: Quantification of Halogen Emission Impacts on Atmospheric Oxidation Rates in Urban Atmospheres

This EMBRACE SEED project is focused on the study of halogen emissions and their impacts on the atmosphere of Salt Lake City Utah. The project seeks to quantify the extent of halogen-initiated chemistry through highly chemically speciated measurements of halogens, volatile organic compounds and their oxidation products, and particulate matter in the Salt Lake City region. The high level of regional halogen emissions makes the atmospheric chemistry in this airshed different from that of any other city in the United States. This proposal targets the quantitative relationship between halogen chemistry and air quality, in order to better understand how halogen emissions might impact the health of people in the region. The objectives of this research are to quantify: (1) the relative amounts of chlorine, bromine, and hydroxyl radical-initiated oxidation in the Salt Lake City airshed; and (2) the contribution of chlorine and bromine radical-initiated chemistry to particulate matter concentrations in the region. The two-year project is a collaborative effort between Weber State University and Aerodyne Research Inc. This partnership with industry will provide Weber State undergraduates access to state-of-the-art atmospheric chemistry instrumentation for six weeks of local field measurements in the summer 2024, during which time the NOAA-supported Utah Summer Ozone Study will be making many complementary measurements of key chemical species in the region. Weber State serves a dual mission: operating both as a four-year open-enrollment public university and as a regional public community college. Because of this mission, the majority of Weber State students are undergraduates who work full time, have a family, or have pursued a non-traditional path to a higher education. This project will train and support five undergraduate students directly and provide data for use in future undergraduate courses and student research projects. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.