Volatile Organic Compounds in the Atmosphere

Every day, large quantities of volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
are emitted into the atmosphere from both anthropogenic and natural
sources. The formation of gaseous and particulate secondary
products caused by oxidation of VOCs is one of the largest unknowns
in the quantitative prediction of the earth's climate on a
regional and global scale, and on the understanding of local air
quality. To be able to model and control their impact, it is
essential to understand the sources of VOCs, their distribution in
the atmosphere and the chemical transformations which remove these
compounds from the atmosphere.

In recent years techniques for the analysis of organic compounds
in the atmosphere have been developed to increase the spectrum of
detectable compounds and their detection limits. New methods have
been introduced to increase the time resolution of those
measurements and to resolve more complex mixtures of organic
compounds. Volatile Organic Compounds in the Atmosphere
describes the current state of knowledge of the chemistry of VOCs
as well as the methods and techniques to analyse gaseous and
particulate organic compounds in the atmosphere. The aim is to
provide an authoritative review to address the needs of both
graduate students and active researchers in the field of
atmospheric chemistry research.