{"id":77,"date":"2016-03-22T17:28:47","date_gmt":"2016-03-22T17:28:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newvista.cira.colostate.edu\/Improve\/?page_id=77"},"modified":"2026-08-13T20:54:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T20:54:24","slug":"reconstructed-fine-mass","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/vista.cira.colostate.edu\/Improve\/reconstructed-fine-mass\/","title":{"rendered":"Reconstructed Fine Mass"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Data collected from the IMPROVE program are used to calculate aerosol particle mass and visibility parameters.&nbsp; IMPROVE Reconstructed Fine Mass (RCFM) is the sum of ammonium sulfate, ammonium nitrate, particulate organic mass, elemental carbon, soil, and sea salt. &nbsp;The algorithm for RCFM has the following form, with concentrations in \u03bcg m<sup>-3<\/sup>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[RCFM] = ammonium sulfate + ammonium nitrate + organic mass + elemental carbon + fine soil + sea salt<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Each of these components is derived from IMPROVE measurements, with concentrations designated in square brackets, where:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ammonium Nitrate = 1.29 \u00d7 [ NO<sub>3<\/sub><sup>&#8211;<\/sup>];<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ammonium Sulfate = 4.125 \u00d7 [S];<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fine Soil = 2.2 \u00d7 [Al] + 2.49 \u00d7 [Si] + 1.63 \u00d7 [Ca] + 2.42 \u00d7 [Fe] + 1.94 \u00d7 [Ti];<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Organic Mass by Carbon = 1.8 \u00d7 ([OC1]+[OC2]+[OC3]+[OC4]+[OP]);<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Elemental = [EC1]+[EC2]+[EC3]-[OP];<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sea Salt = 1.8 \u00d7 [Cl<sup>&#8211;<\/sup>];<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In these calculation, OC1, OC2, OC3,and OC4 designate organic carbon fractions; EC1, EC2 and EC3 designate elemental carbon fractions; and OP designates pyrolized organic carbon; all are determined from the TOR method.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Key assumptions on which this model is based include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>All aerosol sulfur is in the form of (NH<sub>4<\/sub>)<sub>2<\/sub>SO<sub>4<\/sub>;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>All aerosol nitrate is in the form of NH<sub>4<\/sub>NO<sub>3<\/sub>;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>All Al, Ca, Si, Fe, and Ti are of crustal source;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>All crustal material is made up of the same basic oxides;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The A, B, and C modules all have cut points of 2.5 \u03bcm.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Updates to Mass Equations<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The preceding equations are used to calculate RCFM in the FED databases. However, several updates to the calculation of the individual species have been proposed as discussed in the <a href=\"https:\/\/vista.cira.colostate.edu\/Improve\/data-user-guide\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/vista.cira.colostate.edu\/Improve\/data-user-guide\/\">Data User Guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ammonium Sulfate  = 1.375 \u00d7 [SO<sub>4<\/sub><sup>&#8211;<\/sup>]<\/p>\n\n\n<p>Fine Soil = 2.53 \u00d7 [Al] + 2.86 \u00d7 [Si] + 1.87 \u00d7 [Ca] + 2.78 \u00d7 [Fe] + 2.23 \u00d7 [Ti]<\/p>\n\n\n<p>Organic Mass = <em>R<sub>oc<\/sub><\/em> \u00d7 ([OC1]+[OC2]+[OC3]+[OC4]+[OP]); where  is the monthly-varying organic matter to organic carbon ratio (OM\/OC) organic mass to organic carbon ratio<\/p>\n<table>\n    <thead>\n        <tr>\n            <th>Month<\/th>\n            <th><em>R<sub>OC<\/sub><\/em><\/th>\n        <\/tr>\n    <\/thead>\n    <tbody>\n        <tr>\n            <td>January<\/td>\n            <td> 1.5<\/td>\n        <\/tr>\n        <tr>\n            <td>February<\/td>\n            <td> 1.5<\/td>\n        <\/tr>\n        <tr>\n            <td>March<\/td>\n            <td> 1.5<\/td>\n        <\/tr>\n        <tr>\n            <td>April<\/td>\n            <td> 1.6<\/td>\n        <\/tr>\n        <tr>\n            <td>May<\/td>\n            <td> 1.7<\/td>\n        <\/tr>\n        <tr>\n            <td>June<\/td>\n            <td> 1.9<\/td>\n        <\/tr>\n        <tr>\n            <td>July<\/td>\n            <td> 2.0<\/td>\n        <\/tr>\n        <tr>\n            <td>August   <\/td>\n            <td> 2.1<\/td>\n        <\/tr>\n        <tr>\n            <td>September   <\/td>\n            <td> 2.0<\/td>\n        <\/tr>\n        <tr>\n            <td>October   <\/td>\n            <td> 1.7<\/td>\n        <\/tr>\n        <tr>\n            <td>November   <\/td>\n            <td> 1.7<\/td>\n        <\/tr>\n        <tr>\n            <td>December   <\/td>\n            <td> 1.7<\/td>\n        <\/tr>\n    <\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Data collected from the IMPROVE program are used to calculate aerosol particle mass and visibility parameters.&nbsp; IMPROVE Reconstructed Fine Mass (RCFM) is the sum of ammonium sulfate, ammonium nitrate, particulate organic mass, elemental carbon, soil, and sea salt. &nbsp;The algorithm for RCFM has the following form, with concentrations in \u03bcg m-3: [RCFM] = ammonium sulfate [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-77","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vista.cira.colostate.edu\/Improve\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/77","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vista.cira.colostate.edu\/Improve\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vista.cira.colostate.edu\/Improve\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vista.cira.colostate.edu\/Improve\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vista.cira.colostate.edu\/Improve\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/vista.cira.colostate.edu\/Improve\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/77\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4887,"href":"https:\/\/vista.cira.colostate.edu\/Improve\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/77\/revisions\/4887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vista.cira.colostate.edu\/Improve\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}