Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 3537–3553, 2015 www.atmos-meas-tech.net/8/3537/2015/ doi:10.5194/amt-8-3537-2015 © Author(s) 2015. CC Attribution 3.0 License. Detailed characterizations of the new Mines Douai comparative reactivity method instrument via laboratory experiments and modeling V. Michoud1,4, R. F. Hansen1,2,3,a, N. Locoge1,4, P. S. Stevens2,3, and S. Dusanter1,2,4 1Mines Douai, SAGE, 59508 Douai, France 2School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA 3Department of chemistry, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA 4Université de Lille, Lille, France anow at: School of chemistry, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK Correspondence to: S. Dusanter (
[email protected]) and V. Michoud (
[email protected]) Received: 1 April 2015 – Published in Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss.: 16 April 2015 Revised: 24 July 2015 – Accepted: 29 July 2015 – Published: 31 August 2015 Abstract. The hydroxyl (OH) radical is an important oxi- bient OH reactivity measurements. On average, corrections dant in the troposphere, which controls the lifetime of most of 5.2 ± 3.2, 9.2 ± 15.7, and 8.5 ± 5.8 s−1 were respectively air quality- and climate-related trace gases. However, there observed for (1), (2) and (3) during a field campaign per- are still uncertainties concerning its atmospheric budget, and formed in Dunkirk, France (summer 2014). integrated measurements of OH sinks have been valuable Numerical simulations have been performed using a box to improve this aspect. Among the analytical tools used for model to check whether experimental observations men- measuring total OH reactivity in ambient air, the compara- tioned above are consistent with our understanding of the tive reactivity method (CRM) is spreading rapidly in the at- chemistry occurring in the CRM reactor.