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Viscosities and diffusion rates of organics within secondary organic aerosol (SOA) remain uncertain. Using the bead-mobility technique, we measured the viscosities as a function of water activity (aw) of SOA generated by the ozonolysis of limonene followed by browning by exposure to NH3 (referred to as brown limonene SOA or brown LSOA). These measurements together with viscosity measurements reported in the literature show that the viscosity of brown LSOA increases by 3-5 orders of magnitude as the aw decreases from 0.9 to approximately 0.05. In addition, we measured diffusion coefficients of intrinsic fluorescent organic molecules within brown LSOA matrices using rectangular area fluorescence recovery after photobleaching. Based on the diffusion measurements, as the aw decreases from 0.9 to 0.33, the average diffusion coefficient of the intrinsic fluorescent organic molecules decreases from 5.5·10-9 cm² s-1 to 7.1·10-13 cm² s-1 and the mixing times of intrinsic fluorescent organic molecules within 200 nm brown LSOA particles increases from 0.002 s to 14 s. These results suggest that the mixing times of large organics in the brown LSOA studied here are short (< 1 hr) for aw and temperatures often found in the PBL. Since the diffusion coefficients and mixing times reported here correspond to SOA generated using a high mass loading (~ 1,000 μg m-3), biogenic SOA particles found in the atmosphere with mass loadings ≤ 10 μg m-3 are likely to have higher viscosities and longer mixing times. These new measurements of viscosity and diffusion were used to test the accuracy of the Stokes-Einstein relation for predicting diffusion rates of organics within brown LSOA matrices. The results show that the Stokes-Einstein equation gives accurate predictions of diffusion coefficients of large organics within brown LSOA matrices when the viscosity of the matrix is as high as 10² to 104 Pa s. These results have important implications for predicting diffusion and mixing with SOA particles in the atmosphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yanbu, on the Red Sea, is an affluent Saudi Arabian industrial city of modest size. Substantial effort has been spent to balance environmental quality, especially air pollution, and industrial development. We have analyzed six years of observations of criteria pollutants O3, SO2, particles (PM2.5and PM10) and the known ozone precursors—volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxides (NOx). The results suggest frequent VOC-limited conditions in which ozone concentrations increase with decreasing NOxand with increasing VOCs when NOxis plentiful. For the remaining circumstances ozone has a complex non-linear relationship with the VOCs. The interactions between these factors at Yanbu cause measurable impacts on air pollution including the weekend effect in which ozone concentrations stay the same or even increase despite significantly lower emissions of the precursors on the weekends. Air pollution was lower during the Eids (al-Fitr and al-Adha), Ramadan and the Hajj periods. During Ramadan, there were substantial night time emissions as the cycle everyday living is almost reversed between night and day. The exceedances of air pollution standards were evaluated using criteria from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), World Health Organization (WHO), the Saudi Presidency of Meteorology and Environment (PME) and the Royal Commission Environmental Regulations (RCER). The latter are stricter standards set just for Yanbu and Jubail. For the fine particles (PM2.5), an analysis of the winds showed a major impact from desert dust. This effect had to be taken into account but still left many occasions when standards were exceeded. Fewer exceedances were found for SO2, and fewer still for ozone. The paper presents a comprehensive view of air quality at this isolated desert urban environment. Implications: Frequent VOC-limited conditions are found at Yanbu in Saudi Arabia that increase ozone pollution if NOxis are reduced. In this desert environment, increased nightlife produces the highest levels of VOCs and NOxat night rather than the day. The effects increase during Ramadan. Fine particles peak twice a day—the morning peak is caused by traffic and increases with decreasing wind, potentially representing health concerns, but the larger afternoon peak is caused by the wind, and it increases with increasing wind speeds. These features suggest that exposure to pollutants must be redefined for such an environment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For more than 20 years the global emissions and the lifetime of methane have probably been constant, so the buildup of methane in the atmosphere has been slowing down for as long. During this time, there have been periodic events occurring every seven to eight years, when global methane concentrations increased by some 10 ppb and later fell back, in some cases due to temporary increases of emissions from the northern tropics that spread to the global scale. These conclusions are derived from the accumulated global observations that now span 23 years and define the role of human activities in the recent cycle of atmospheric methane. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]