New insights into urban ethanol and oxygenated volatile organic compound sources from combined flux tower and mobile measurements
- 1University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley, United States of America)
Abstract
Oxygenated volatile organic compounds (OVOCs) including ethanol, methanol, acetone, and acetaldehyde are important components of urban VOC emissions, yet their sources and emissions magnitudes remain highly uncertain. In this study, we leveraged data from a Vocus proton-transfer reaction mass spectrometer deployed during a long-term tower-based eddy covariance flux study and a mobile monitoring campaign to characterize the emissions and sources of urban OVOCs. Ethanol accounted for about half of the measured molar flux and a fifth of the calculated OH reactivity flux. A tracer-based source apportionment approach revealed that cooking was the predominant source of ethanol in the flux footprint (63 % of the ethanol flux), followed by volatile chemical products (VCPs) and other sources (28 %), and motor vehicles (9 %). This result supports the recent inclusion of cooking in VOC emissions inventories and further supports indoor environments as important contributors to urban atmospheric chemistry. Cooking was also a major source of acetaldehyde, while VCPs were the main sources of acetone and methanol in the flux footprint. Mobile monitoring within the flux footprint and beyond informed the representativeness of the tower-based measurements and identified additional OVOC sources. In the broader urban region, fossil fuel combustion was a key source of acetaldehyde, and industrial zones and waste treatment facilities missed by the flux tower were hotspots for ethanol, methanol, and acetone emissions. Together, these results provide new constraints on the sources, seasonality, and magnitude of OVOC fluxes in urban environments through a unique synthesis of tower-based and mobile measurements.
Versions
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BibTeX
@article{katz2026insights,
title = {{New insights into urban ethanol and oxygenated volatile organic compound sources from combined flux tower and mobile measurements}},
author = {Erin F. Katz and Caleb M. Arata and Eva Y. Pfannerstill and Robert J. Weber and Haley Byrne and Michael J. Milazzo and Samuel J. Cliff and Joshua Apte and Allen H. Goldstein},
journal = {Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.5194/acp-26-15611-2026},
url = {https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-15611-2026},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - New insights into urban ethanol and oxygenated volatile organic compound sources from combined flux tower and mobile measurements
AU - Erin F. Katz
AU - Caleb M. Arata
AU - Eva Y. Pfannerstill
AU - Robert J. Weber
AU - Haley Byrne
AU - Michael J. Milazzo
AU - Samuel J. Cliff
AU - Joshua Apte
AU - Allen H. Goldstein
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/06
JO - Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
DO - 10.5194/acp-26-15611-2026
UR - https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-15611-2026
AB - Oxygenated volatile organic compounds (OVOCs) including ethanol, methanol, acetone, and acetaldehyde are important components of urban VOC emissions, yet their sources and emissions magnitudes remain highly uncertain. In this study, we leveraged data from a Vocus proton-transfer reaction mass spectrometer deployed during a long-term tower-based eddy covariance flux study and a mobile monitoring campaign to characterize the emissions and sources of urban OVOCs. Ethanol accounted for about half of the measured molar flux and a fifth of the calculated OH reactivity flux. A tracer-based source apportionment approach revealed that cooking was the predominant source of ethanol in the flux footprint (63 % of the ethanol flux), followed by volatile chemical products (VCPs) and other sources (28 %), and motor vehicles (9 %). This result supports the recent inclusion of cooking in VOC emissions inventories and further supports indoor environments as important contributors to urban atmospheric chemistry. Cooking was also a major source of acetaldehyde, while VCPs were the main sources of acetone and methanol in the flux footprint. Mobile monitoring within the flux footprint and beyond informed the representativeness of the tower-based measurements and identified additional OVOC sources. In the broader urban region, fossil fuel combustion was a key source of acetaldehyde, and industrial zones and waste treatment facilities missed by the flux tower were hotspots for ethanol, methanol, and acetone emissions. Together, these results provide new constraints on the sources, seasonality, and magnitude of OVOC fluxes in urban environments through a unique synthesis of tower-based and mobile measurements.
SN - 1680-7324
ER -