Atmospheric oxalic acid and related secondary organic aerosols in Qinghai Lake, a continental background site in Tibet Plateau

Summertime PM2.5 aerosols collected from Qinghai Lake (3200 m a.s.l.), a remote continental site in the northeastern part of Tibetan Plateau, were analyzed for dicarboxylic acids (C2–C11), ketocarboxylic acids and α-dicarbonyals. Oxalic acid (C2) is the dominant dicarboxylic acid in the samples, followed by malonic, succinic and azelaic acids. Total dicarboxylic acids (231 ± 119 ng m−3), ketocarboxylic acids (8.4 ± 4.3 ng m−3), and α-dicarbonyls (2.7 ± 2.1 ng m−3) at the Tibetan background site are 2–5 times less than those detected in lowland areas such as 14 Chinese megacities. Compared to those in other urban and marine areas enhancements in relative abundances of C2/total diacids and diacids-C/WSOC of the PM2.5 samples suggest that organic aerosols in the region are more oxidized due to strong solar radiation. Molecular compositions and air mass trajectories demonstrate that the above secondary organic aerosols in the Qinghai Lake atmosphere are largely derived from long-range transport. Ratios of oxalic acid, glyoxal and methylglyoxal to levoglucosan in PM2.5 aerosols emitted from household burning of yak dung, a major energy source for Tibetan in the region, are 30–400 times lower than those in the ambient air, which further indicates that primary emission from biomass burning is a negligible source of atmospheric oxalic acid and α-dicarbonyls at this background site.