Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 3191–3203, 2020 https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-3191-2020 © Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Photophoretic spectroscopy in atmospheric chemistry – high-sensitivity measurements of light absorption by a single particle Nir Bluvshtein, Ulrich K. Krieger, and Thomas Peter Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zurich, 8092, Switzerland Correspondence: Nir Bluvshtein (
[email protected]) Received: 28 February 2020 – Discussion started: 4 March 2020 Revised: 30 April 2020 – Accepted: 16 May 2020 – Published: 18 June 2020 Abstract. Light-absorbing organic atmospheric particles, the UV–vis wavelength range, attributing them with a nega- termed brown carbon, undergo chemical and photochemi- tive (cooling) radiative effect. However, light-absorbing or- cal aging processes during their lifetime in the atmosphere. ganic aerosol, termed brown carbon (BrC), with wavelength- The role these particles play in the global radiative balance dependent light absorption (λ−2 − λ−6) in the UV–vis wave- and in the climate system is still uncertain. To better quan- length range (Chen and Bond, 2010; Hoffer et al., 2004; tify their radiative forcing due to aerosol–radiation interac- Kaskaoutis et al., 2007; Kirchstetter et al., 2004; Lack et al., tions, we need to improve process-level understanding of ag- 2012b; Moosmuller et al., 2011; Sun et al., 2007), may be the ing processes, which lead to either “browning” or “bleach- dominant light absorber downwind of urban and industrial- ing” of organic aerosols. Currently available laboratory tech- ized areas and in biomass burning plumes (Feng et al., 2013).