Summary of research paper published in Journal of Atmospheric Chemistry titled: Assessment of polar organic aerosols at a regional background site in southern Africa

Abstract

A recent paper reported GCxGC-TOFMS analysis used for the first time in southern Africa to tentatively characterise and semiquantify ~1 000 organic compounds in aerosols at Welgegund – a regional background atmospheric monitoring station (Booyens et al., 2015). This was considered to be the largest number of ambient organic compounds tentatively characterised in atmospheric samples utilising GCxGC-TOFMS. In this new paper, ambient polar organic aerosols characterised are further explored in terms of temporal variations, as well as the influence of meteorology and sources. Organic aerosols in southern Africa are affected by globally important sources, which include (primary and secondary) biomass burning aerosols