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The following seminars and seminar schedules at locations other than the DSRC or CSL may be of interest:
| 2 February 2026 Monday, 12:20 pm MT CU Boulder, Ekeley W165 |
Making mass spectrometry harder: adding eddy covariance, thermal desorption and ion mobility techniques to study organic trace gases and aerosols
Speaker: Siegfried Schobesberger, University of Eastern Finland Abstract: The proliferation of high-resolution online mass spectrometers has revolutionized research in atmospheric chemistry over the last ~15 years. They have proven robust and versatile, allowing their coupling to an increasing variety of inlet systems. E.g., high sensitivities and fast time response allow for the application of eddy covariance to measure the vertical fluxes of trace gases in the atmosphere, giving insights to their local sources and sinks. But I will focus on what we can learn about organic aerosol by coupling with suitable inlet systems, in particular FIGAERO (filter inlet for gases and aerosols), a semi-online technique based on the thermal desorption of filter-collected aerosol particles. It allows for determining the composition of a major fraction of organic aerosol on a molecular level, and also for assessing the molecules' volatility, a key property for understanding aerosol formation. However, careful calibration is required, and non-ideal thermodynamics complicate data interpretation, including thermally induced effects such as decomposition. I will present our work with the FIGAERO inlet at the University of Eastern Finland, from calibrations to field deployments, and also show first results of my experiments at CU Boulder. For these experiments, I couple the FIGAERO with a combined ion mobility-mass spectrometer, to additionally separate isomers and to attempt to assign specific structures to the observed molecules. |
Seminar information is subject to change. Please check these schedules frequently for updated information!
