EMBRACE Project Kicks Off

Weber State University and Aerodyne Research have teamed up for a National Science Foundation EMBRACE (EMpowering BRoader Academic Capacity and Education) project. This new program focuses on R2/R3 universities and is designed to mitigate barriers faced by non-R1 institutions in obtaining federal funding.  

During this 6-week field campaign, students from Weber State University are using state-of-the-art instrumentation from Aerodyne Research along with support from Aerodyne scientists to examine the atmospheric chemistry of the Salt Lake City airshed. This area is distinct from other metropolitan areas in the United States due to the region’s unique combination of industrial halogen emissions and topography. For example, approximately 75 percent of the chlorine emissions in the United States occur within 50 miles of downtown Salt Lake City. Previous efforts to model the impacts of these emissions have predicted significant impacts on the region’s oxidation budget, ozone, and particulate matter (PM) concentrations. Understanding how this distinct atmospheric chemistry affects Salt Lake City’s 2.7 million residents is vital.

Setting Up in Utah 1
Setup1
Setting Up in Utah 2
This study aims to quantify:
  1. The relative amounts of gas phase oxidation initiated by chlorine, bromine, and hydroxyl radicals in the Salt Lake City airshed
  2. The contribution of this halogen-initiated chemistry to PM concentrations in the region
 
The instruments deployed for this study include an Aerodyne GC system coupled with a fast-switching chemical ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometer (FS-CI-TOF-MS) to measure the gas phase composition of organics (VOCs, S/IVOCs) and inorganics (halogens) and an aerosol chemical speciation monitor (ACSM) for PM composition measurements. The measurement site is co-located with a Utah State monitoring station and is operated in collaboration with the NOAA mobile laboratory.
 
Learn more about EMBRACE here.