Toward Recreating the Breath of Cities in the Atmospheric Simulation Chamber SAPHIR

Abstract Atmospheric simulation chambers are essential for studying oxidation processes, yet many experiments rely on single-precursor systems at concentrations that limit their representativeness for the chemical complexity of urban air. Here, we present a framework linking emission inventories, chamber experiments, and field observations by constructing emission fingerprints of major urban sources, including vegetation, volatile chemical products, cooking emissions, and gasoline and diesel exhaust. Applied during the CHANEL campaign in the SAPHIR outdoor chamber, these fingerprints advanced toward reproducing gas-phase mixtures representative of Los Angeles (gasoline-dominated traffic), a diesel-dominated city, and a future low-vehicle-emission scenario. The resulting mixtures generated peroxy-to-hydroperoxy radical ratios (RO2/HO2) close to unity, bimolecular RO2 lifetimes comparable with urban atmospheric observations, although lower NO levels favored RO2 + HO2 over RO2 + NO reactions. Comparison with aircraft measurements over Los Angeles using ammonium (NH4+) chemical ionization mass spectrometry showed reasonable agreement, with 465 organic product ions detected in both data sets, representing 78% of the product ions observed in the ambient air. Furthermore, 87% of common product ions agreed within a factor of 3 of the linear correlation, demonstrating that chamber experiments can capture key aspects of both atmospherically relevant radical chemistry and the oxidation product diversity of urban air.

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Publication Details

Journal
Environmental Science & Technology
Published
2026-10-14
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.6c05767
Primary Topic
Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Toward Recreating the Breath of Cities in the Atmospheric Simulation Chamber SAPHIR

Andrê S. H. Prévôt, C. Warneke, Vlassis A. Karydis, Franz Röhrer et al.
Environmental Science & Technology
Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols
article

Toward Recreating the Breath of Cities in the Atmospheric Simulation Chamber SAPHIR

Andrê S. H. Prévôt, C. Warneke, Vlassis A. Karydis, Franz Röhrer, Birger Bohn, Michelle Färber, Max G. Adam, Ann M. Middlebrook, Emily Matthews, Michael A. Robinson, Iida Pullinen, Juliane L. Fry, Jens Top, Sana Farhoudian, Peeyush Khare, Chelsea E. Stockwell, Achim Grasse, Andreas Wahner, Siddharth Iyer, Ralf Tillmann, Alexandra P. Tsimpidi, Kelvin H. Bates, Angela Buchholz, Thomas J. Bannan, Siegfried Schobesberger, Matthew Mitchell Coggon, Aristeidis Voliotis, Hugh Coe, Matthieu Riva, Avinash Kumar, Eka Dian Pusfitasari, Hendrik Fuchs, Markus Sebastian Leiminger, Tobias Reinecke, Yuantao Wang, Anna Novelli, Thorsten Hohaus, M. Graus, Shawon Barua, Matti P. Rissanen, Eva Y. Pfannerstill, Imad El Haddad, Sarah Albertin, Steven S. S Brown, Robert Wegener, Georgios I. Gkatzelis, Aki Nissinen, Gordon B. McFiggans, Changmin Cho, Farhan Ramadzan Nursanto, Milan Roska, Clémence Depp, Rabbia Asgher, Lu Liu, Boxing Yang, Markus Müller, David M. Bell, Netta Vinkvist, Sébastien Perrier, Anke Christine Nölscher, Andrea Carolina Marcillo Lara, Yanfang Chen, Yizhen Wu, Quanfu He, Yuwei Wang
article en

Abstract

Abstract Atmospheric simulation chambers are essential for studying oxidation processes, yet many experiments rely on single-precursor systems at concentrations that limit their representativeness for the chemical complexity of urban air. Here, we present a framework linking emission inventories, chamber experiments, and field observations by constructing emission fingerprints of major urban sources, including vegetation, volatile chemical products, cooking emissions, and gasoline and diesel exhaust. Applied during the CHANEL campaign in the SAPHIR outdoor chamber, these fingerprints advanced toward reproducing gas-phase mixtures representative of Los Angeles (gasoline-dominated traffic), a diesel-dominated city, and a future low-vehicle-emission scenario. The resulting mixtures generated peroxy-to-hydroperoxy radical ratios (RO2/HO2) close to unity, bimolecular RO2 lifetimes comparable with urban atmospheric observations, although lower NO levels favored RO2 + HO2 over RO2 + NO reactions. Comparison with aircraft measurements over Los Angeles using ammonium (NH4+) chemical ionization mass spectrometry showed reasonable agreement, with 465 organic product ions detected in both data sets, representing 78% of the product ions observed in the ambient air. Furthermore, 87% of common product ions agreed within a factor of 3 of the linear correlation, demonstrating that chamber experiments can capture key aspects of both atmospherically relevant radical chemistry and the oxidation product diversity of urban air.

Environmental Science & Technology
Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (FR), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (US), University of Helsinki (FI), Tampere University (FI), Forschungszentrum Jülich (DE), University of Eastern Finland (FI), Lyon College (US), University of Cologne (DE), University of Colorado Boulder (US), Paul Scherrer Institute (CH), University of Colorado System (US), University of Manchester (GB), Ionicon Analytik (Austria) (AT), NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory (US), Wageningen University & Research (NL)
University of Manchester, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, Academy of Finland, Paul Scherrer Institut, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Universität zu Köln, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, HORIZON EUROPE Framework Programme, Wageningen University and Research
Sustainable cities and communities
Openalex Percentile: Top 20%
Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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