0000000000544286

AUTHOR

D. Fütterer

Aircraft-based observations of isoprene-epoxydiol-derived secondary organic aerosol (IEPOX-SOA) in the tropical upper troposphere over the Amazon region

During the ACRIDICON-CHUVA field project (September–October 2014; based in Manaus, Brazil) aircraft-based in situ measurements of aerosol chemical composition were conducted in the tropical troposphere over the Amazon using the High Altitude and Long Range Research Aircraft (HALO), covering altitudes from the boundary layer (BL) height up to 14.4 km. The submicron non-refractory aerosol was characterized by flash-vaporization/electron impact-ionization aerosol particle mass spectrometry. The results show that significant secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation by isoprene oxidation products occurs in the upper troposphere (UT), leading to increased organic aerosol mass concentratio…

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Illustration of microphysical processes in Amazonian deep convective clouds in the gamma phase space: introduction and potential applications

Abstract. The behavior of tropical clouds remains a major open scientific question, resulting in poor representation by models. One challenge is to realistically reproduce cloud droplet size distributions (DSDs) and their evolution over time and space. Many applications, not limited to models, use the gamma function to represent DSDs. However, even though the statistical characteristics of the gamma parameters have been widely studied, there is almost no study dedicated to understanding the phase space of this function and the associated physics. This phase space can be defined by the three parameters that define the DSD intercept, shape, and curvature. Gamma phase space may provide a commo…

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Aerosol characteristics and particle production in the upper troposphere over the Amazon Basin

Airborne observations over the Amazon Basin showed high aerosol particle concentrations in the upper troposphere (UT) between 8 and 15 km altitude, with number densities (normalized to standard temperature and pressure) often exceeding those in the planetary boundary layer (PBL) by 1 or 2 orders of magnitude. The measurements were made during the German–Brazilian cooperative aircraft campaign ACRIDICON–CHUVA, where ACRIDICON stands for Aerosol, Cloud, Precipitation, and Radiation Interactions and Dynamics of Convective Cloud Systems and CHUVA is the acronym for Cloud Processes of the Main Precipitation Systems in Brazil: A Contribution to Cloud Resolving Modeling and to the GPM …

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Influx of African biomass burning aerosol during the Amazonian dry season through layered transatlantic transport of black carbon-rich smoke

Black carbon (BC) aerosols influence the Earth's atmosphere and climate, but their microphysical properties, spatiotemporal distribution, and long-range transport are not well constrained. This study presents airborne observations of the transatlantic transport of BC-rich African biomass burning (BB) smoke into the Amazon Basin using a Single Particle Soot Photometer (SP2) as well as several complementary techniques. We base our results on observations of aerosols and trace gases off the Brazilian coast onboard the HALO (High Altitude and LOng range) research aircraft during the ACRIDICON-CHUVA campaign in September 2014. During flight AC19 over land and ocean at the northeastern coastline …

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