Search results for "aerosol"

Comparison of AERONET and SKYRAD4.2 inversion products retrieved from a Cimel CE318 sunphotometer

2012

SKYNET is an international research network of ground based sky – sunphotometers for the observation and monitoring of columnar aerosol properties. The algorithm developed by SKYNET is called SKYRAD.pack, and it is used on Prede instruments only. In this study, we have modified the SKYRAD.pack software in order to adapt it to Cimel sunphotometers. A one month database of Cimel data obtained at Burjassot (Valencia, Spain) has been processed with this program and the obtained inversion products have been compared with AERONET retrievals. In general, the differences found were consistent with the individual error assessments for both algorithms. Although the aerosol optical depth com…

A multi-model assessment of the impact of sea spray geoengineering on cloud droplet number

2012

Artificially increasing the albedo of marine boundary layer clouds by the mechanical emission of sea spray aerosol has been proposed as a geoengineering technique to slow the warming caused by anthropogenic greenhouse gases. A previous global model study (Korhonen et al., 2010) found that only modest increases (< 20%) and sometimes even decreases in cloud drop number (CDN) concentrations would result from emission scenarios calculated using a windspeed dependent geoengineering flux parameterisation. Here we extend that work to examine the conditions under which decreases in CDN can occur, and use three independent global models to quantify maximum achievable CDN changes. We find that dec…

The Pagami Creek smoke plume after long-range transport to the upper troposphere over Europe – aerosol properties and black carbon mixing state

2014

Abstract. During the CONCERT 2011 field experiment with the DLR research aircraft Falcon, an enhanced aerosol layer with particle linear depolarization ratios of 6–8% at 532 nm was observed at altitudes above 10 km over northeast Germany on 16 September 2011. Dispersion simulations with HYSPILT suggest that the elevated aerosol layer originated from the Pagami Creek forest fire in Minnesota, USA, which caused pyro-convective uplift of particles and gases. The 3–4 day-old smoke plume had high total refractory black carbon (rBC) mass concentrations of 0.03–0.35 μg m−3 at standard temperature and pressure (STP) with rBC mass equivalent diameter predominantly smaller than 130 nm. Assuming a cor…

2013

Abstract. Bioaerosols are relevant for public health and may play an important role in the climate system, but their atmospheric abundance, properties, and sources are not well understood. Here we show that the concentration of airborne biological particles in a North American forest ecosystem increases significantly during rain and that bioparticles are closely correlated with atmospheric ice nuclei (IN). The greatest increase of bioparticles and IN occurred in the size range of 2–6 μm, which is characteristic for bacterial aggregates and fungal spores. By DNA analysis we found high diversities of airborne bacteria and fungi, including groups containing human and plant pathogens (mildew, s…

2014

Abstract. In-cloud production of sulfate modifies aerosol size distribution, with important implications for the magnitude of indirect and direct aerosol cooling and the impact of SO2 emissions on the environment. We investigate which sulfate sources dominate the in-cloud addition of sulfate to different particle classes as an air parcel passes through an orographic cloud. Sulfate aerosol, SO2 and H2SO4 were collected upwind, in-cloud and downwind of an orographic cloud for three cloud measurement events during the Hill Cap Cloud Thuringia campaign in autumn 2010 (HCCT-2010). Combined SEM and NanoSIMS analysis of single particles allowed the δ34S of particulate sulfate to be resolved for pa…

Temperature effect on phase state and reactivity controls atmospheric multiphase chemistry and transport of PAHs

2017

Atmospheric refrigerator increases the global transport and health risks of carcinogenic PAHs.

Balloon-borne match measurements of midlatitude cirrus clouds

2014

Observations of high supersaturations with respect to ice inside cirrus clouds with high ice water content (> 0.01 g kg−1) and high crystal number densities (> 1 cm−3) are challenging our understanding of cloud microphysics and of climate feedback processes in the upper troposphere. However, single measurements of a cloudy air mass provide only a snapshot from which the persistence of ice supersaturation cannot be judged. We introduce here the "cirrus match technique" to obtain information about the evolution of clouds and their saturation ratio. The aim of these coordinated balloon soundings is to analyze the same air mass twice. To this end the standard radiosonde equipment is complemente…

A study on the sensitivities of simulated aerosol optical properties to composition and size distribution using airborne measurements

2014

We present a flexible framework to calculate the optical properties of atmospheric aerosols at a given relative humidity based on their composition and size distribution. The similarity of this framework to climate model parameterisations allows rapid and extensive sensitivity tests of the impact of uncertainties in data or of new measurements on climate relevant aerosol properties. The data collected by the FAAM BAe-146 aircraft during the EUCAARI-LONGREX and VOCALS-REx campaigns have been used in a closure study to analyse the agreement between calculated and measured aerosol optical properties for two very different aerosol types. The agreement achieved for the EUCAARI-LONGREX flights is…

2017

Abstract. Lightning represents one of the dominant emission sources for NOx in the troposphere. The direct release of oxidised nitrogen in the upper troposphere does not only affect ozone formation, but also chemical and microphysical properties of aerosol particles in this region. This study investigates the direct impact of LNOx emissions on upper-tropospheric nitrate using a global chemistry climate model. The simulation results show a substantial influence of the lightning emissions on the mixing ratios of nitrate aerosol in the upper troposphere of more than 50 %. In addition to the impact on nitrate, lightning substantially affects the oxidising capacity of the atmosphere with substan…

2020

Abstract. Aerosol mass spectrometers (AMS) are frequently applied in atmospheric aerosol research in connection with climate, environmental or health-related projects. This is also true for the measurement of the organic fraction of particulate matter, still the least understood group of components contributing to atmospheric aerosols. While quantification of the organic and/or inorganic aerosol fractions is feasible, more detailed information about individual organic compounds or compound classes can usually not be provided by AMS measurements. In this study, we present a new method to detect organic peroxides in the particle phase in real-time using an AMS. Peroxides (ROOR') are of high i…