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Hygroscopic growth and cloud forming potential of Arctic aerosol based on observed chemical and physical characteristics (a 1 year study 2007-2008)

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Author

Summary, in English

Aerosol particle samples were collected, and the particle size distribution was measured during 1 year at the Zeppelin station (474 m asl) on Svalbard. The chemical constituents, hygroscopicity, and cloud forming properties of the aerosol were analyzed. The aerosol contained mostly sulfate and nitrate during the summer, whereas from September to February the main components were sodium and chloride. The highest concentration (20%) of water-soluble organic matter was sampled in December. The hygroscopic growth factors for the water-soluble fraction were 1.56-2.01 at 90% relative humidity, peaking in October, when the measured supersaturations needed for cloud drop formation were also the lowest. Sea-salt components showed a positive correlation with the cloud forming capability, whereas the organic content had no correlation. The hygroscopicity factors, or kappa values, were determined in three ways for each month: (1)kappa(H-TDMA) from measurements of the hygroscopic growth of particles produced from atomization of the filter extracts, (2)kappa(CCNC) from measurements of the critical supersaturation as a function of size for these particles, and (3)kappa(chem) was modeled based on the organic and inorganic composition of the filter samples. Using the measured particle size distributions and the critical activation diameters from the Cloud Condensation Nuclei Counter (CCNC) measurements, it was found that the number of CCN varied more with supersaturation during the summer months. The best agreement between all three kappa values was in December and January. Comparisons with earlier studies do not suggest any trend in the Arctic aerosol seasonal variability over the last decade.

Publishing year

2014

Language

English

Pages

14080-14097

Publication/Series

Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres

Volume

119

Issue

24

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell

Topic

  • Production Engineering, Human Work Science and Ergonomics

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 2169-8996