Sources of Formaldehyde and its Role in Radical Formation During ASIA-AQ (Invited Presentation)

Air quality in Asia continues to be a public health crisis, with millions of people exposed to dangerous levels of pollutants. The lack of detailed air quality observations makes it difficult to develop effective strategies for improvement. NASA’s Airborne and Satellite Investigation of Asian Air Quality (ASIA-AQ) mission is an international field study with the goal of investigating local air quality, quantifying emissions, and validating satellites across the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, and Taiwan. These regions have a diverse array of emission sources including biogenic, transportation, industry, and biomass burning. Formaldehyde (HCHO) is either directly emitted or photochemically produced during the oxidation of VOCs, playing a critical role in the formation of radicals and ozone in the troposphere. Using observations from the Goddard In Situ Airborne Formaldehyde (ISAF) instrument aboard NASA’s DC-8 aircraft, along with Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS), this study identifies the sources and sinks of HCHO under different emissions and examines the role HCHO plays in radical production.