0000000000753566

AUTHOR

T. Klimach

Aerosol properties, source identification, and cloud processing in orographic clouds measured by single particle mass spectrometry on a central European mountain site during HCCT-2010

Cloud residues and out-of-cloud aerosol particles with diameters between 150 and 900 nm were analysed by online single particle aerosol mass spectrometry during the 6-week study Hill Cap Cloud Thuringia (HCCT)-2010 in September–October 2010. The measurement location was the mountain Schmücke (937 m a.s.l.) in central Germany. More than 160 000 bipolar mass spectra from out-of-cloud aerosol particles and more than 13 000 bipolar mass spectra from cloud residual particles were obtained and were classified using a fuzzy c-means clustering algorithm. Analysis of the uncertainty of the sorting algorithm was conducted on a subset of the data by comparing the clustering output with particle-by-par…

research product

Comparison of aircraft measurements during GoAmazon2014/5 and ACRIDICON-CHUVA

Abstract. The indirect effect of atmospheric aerosol particles on the Earth's radiation balance remains one of the most uncertain components affecting climate change throughout the industrial period. The large uncertainty is partly due to the incomplete understanding of aerosol–cloud interactions. One objective of the GoAmazon2014/5 and the ACRIDICON (Aerosol, Cloud, Precipitation, and Radiation Interactions and Dynamics of Convective Cloud Systems)-CHUVA (Cloud Processes of the Main Precipitation Systems in Brazil) projects was to understand the influence of emissions from the tropical megacity of Manaus (Brazil) on the surrounding atmospheric environment of the rainforest and to investiga…

research product

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…

research product

Particulate trimethylamine in the summertime Canadian high Arctic lower troposphere

Size-resolved and vertical profile measurements of single particle chemical composition (sampling altitude range 50–3000 m) were conducted in July 2014 in the Canadian high Arctic during an aircraft-based measurement campaign (NETCARE 2014). We deployed the single particle laser ablation aerosol mass spectrometer ALABAMA (vacuum aerodynamic diameter range approximately 200–1000 nm) to identify different particle types and their mixing states. On the basis of the single particle analysis, we found that a significant fraction (23 %) of all analyzed particles (in total: 7412) contained trimethylamine (TMA). Two main pieces of evidence suggest that these TMA-containing particles originated from…

research product

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…

research product

Quantitative single-particle analysis with the Aerodyne aerosol mass spectrometer: development of a new classification algorithm and its application to field data

Single-particle mass spectrometry has proven a valuable tool for gaining information on the mixing state of aerosol particles. With the Aerodyne aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS) equipped with a light-scattering probe, non-refractory components of submicron particles with diameters larger than about 300 nm can even be quantified on a single-particle basis. Here, we present a new method for the analysis of AMS single-particle mass spectra. The developed algorithm classifies the particles according to their components (e.g. sulphate, nitrate, different types of organics) and simultaneously provides quantitative information about the composition of the single particles. This classification algor…

research product

Design of a mobile aerosol research laboratory and data processing tools for effective stationary and mobile field measurements

A compact mobile aerosol research laboratory (MoLa) for stationary and mobile measurements of aerosol and trace gas characteristics was developed at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (MPIC) in Mainz, Germany. Major efforts were made to design an aerosol inlet system which is optimized and characterised for both, stationary and mobile measurements using a particle loss modelling approach. The instrumentation on board allows the determination of a multitude of physical and chemical aerosol parameters, for example particle number and mass concentration (PM<sub>1/2.5/10</sub>), particle size distributions in the diameter range 6 nm up to 32 μm, and chemical composition of the s…

research product

Quantitative single particle analysis with the Aerodyne aerosol mass spectrometer: development of a new classification algorithm and its application to field data

Abstract. Single particle mass spectrometry has proven a valuable tool for gaining information on the mixing state of aerosol particles. With the Aerodyne aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS) equipped with a light scattering probe, non-refractory components of submicron particles with diameters larger than about 300 nm can even be quantified on a single particle basis. Here, we present a new method for the analysis of AMS single particle mass spectra. The developed algorithm classifies the particles according to their components (e.g., sulphate, nitrate, different types of organics) and simultaneously provides quantitative information about the composition of the single particles. This classific…

research product

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 …

research product

Bioaerosols in the Amazon rain forest: temporal variations and vertical profiles of Eukarya, Bacteria, and Archaea

The Amazon rain forest plays a major role in global hydrological cycling, and biogenic aerosols are likely to influence the formation of clouds and precipitation. Information about the sources and altitude profiles of primary biological aerosol particles, however, is sparse. We used fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), a molecular biological staining technique largely unexplored in aerosol research, to investigate the sources and spatiotemporal distribution of Amazonian bioaerosols on the domain level. We found wet season bioaerosol number concentrations in the range of 1–5 × 105 m−3 accounting for > 70 % of the coarse mode aerosol. Eukaryotic and bacterial particles predominated, …

research product

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 …

research product

Aerosol properties, source identification, and cloud processing in orographic clouds measured by single particle mass spectrometry on a Central European mountain site during HCCT-2010

Abstract. Cloud residues and out-of-cloud aerosol particles with diameters between 150 and 900 nm have been analysed by on-line single particle aerosol mass spectrometry during the six-week study HCCT-2010 in September/October 2010. The measurement location was the mountain Schmücke (937 m a.s.l.) in Central Germany. More than 170 000 bipolar mass spectra from out-of-cloud aerosol particles and more than 14 000 bipolar mass spectra from cloud residual particles were obtained and were classified using a fuzzy c-means clustering algorithm. Analysis of the uncertainty of the sorting algorithm was conducted on a subset of the data by comparing the clustering output with particle-by-particle ins…

research product