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Long-term measurements of atmospheric mass concentrations of black carbon (BC) are needed to investigate changes in its emission, transport, and deposition. However, depending on instrumentation, parameters related to BC such as aerosol absorption coefficient (babs) have been measured instead. Most ground-based measurements of babs in the Arctic have been made by filter-based absorption photometers, including particle soot absorption photometers (PSAP), continuous light absorption photometer (CLAP), Aethalometers, and multi-angle absorption photometers (MAAP). The measured babs can be converted to mass concentrations of BC (MBC) by assuming the value of the mass absorption cross section (MAC; MBC = babs/MAC). However, the accuracy of conversion of babs to MBC has not been adequately assessed. Here, we introduce a systematic method for deriving MAC values from babs measured by these instruments and independently measured MBC. In this method, MBC was measured with a filter-based absorption photometer with a heated inlet (COSMOS). COSMOS-derived MBC (MBC (COSMOS)) is traceable to a rigorously calibrated single particle soot photometer (SP2) and the absolute accuracy of MBC (COSMOS) has been demonstrated previously to be about 15 % in Asia and the Arctic. The necessary conditions for application of this method are a high correlation of the measured babs with independently measured MBC, and long-term stability of the regression slope, which is denoted as MACcor (MAC derived from the correlation). In general, babs-MBC (COSMOS) correlations were high (r2 = 0.76-0.95 for hourly data) at Alert in Canada, Ny-Ålesund in Svalbard, Barrow in Alaska, Pallastunturi in Finland, and Fukue in Japan, and stable for up to 10 years. We successfully estimated MACcor values (10.6-15.2 m2 g-1 at a wavelength of 550 nm) for these instruments and these MACcor values can be used to obtain error-constrained estimates of MBC from babs measured at these sites even in the past, when COSMOS measurements were not made. Because the absolute values of MBC in these Arctic sites estimated by this method are consistent with each other, they are applicable to the study of spatial and temporal variation of MBC in the Arctic and to evaluation of the performance of numerical model calculations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gas flaring is an important source of atmospheric soot/black carbon, especially in sensitive Arctic regions.However, emissions have traditionally been challenging to measure and remain poorly characterized, confounding international reporting requirements and adding uncertainty to climate models.The sky-LOSA optical measurement technique has emerged as a powerful means to quantify flare black carbon emissions in the field, but broader adoption has been hampered by the complexity of its deployment, where decisions during setup in the field can have profound, non-linear impacts on achievable measurement uncertainties.To address this challenge, this paper presents a prescriptive measurement protocol and associated open-source software tool that simplifies acquisition of sky-LOSA data in the field.Leveraging a comprehensive Monte Carlo-based General Uncertainty Analysis (GUA) to predict measurement uncertainties over the entire breadth of possible measurement conditions, general heuristics are identified to guide a sky-LOSA user toward optimal data collection.These are further extended in the open-source software utility, SetupSkyLOSA, which interprets the GUA results to provide detailed guidance for any specific combination of location, date/time, and flare, plume, and ambient conditions.Finally, a case study of a sky-LOSA measurement at an oil and gas facility in Mexico is used to demonstrate the utility of the software tool, where potentially small region(s) of optimal instrument setup are easily and quickly identified.It is hoped that this work will help increase the accessibility of the sky-LOSA technique and ultimately the availability of field measurement data for flare black carbon emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]