Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net 1680-7367 1680-7375 4 4 2004 10.5194/acpd-4-3947-2004 http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/4/3947/2004/ http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/4/3947/2004/acpd-4-3947-2004.html http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/4/3947/2004/acpd-4-3947-2004.pdf 3947 3973 2004-07-20 Ion production rate in a boreal forest based on ion, particle and radiation measurements L. Laakso lauri.laakso@iki.fi T. Petäjä K. E. J. Lehtinen M. Kulmala J. Paatero U. Hõrrak H. Tammet J. Joutsensaari Department of Physical Sciences, P.O. Box 64, FIN-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland Finnish Meteorological Institute, Air Quality Research, Sahaajankatu 20E, FIN-00880 Helsinki, Finland Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Tartu, 18 U¨ likooli Street, Tartu, 50090, Estonia Department of Applied Physics, University of Kuopio, P.O. Box 1627, FIN-70211 Kuopio, Finland In this study the ion production rates in a boreal forest are studied based on two different methods: 1) cluster ion and particle concentration measurements, 2) external radiation and radon concentration measurements. Both methods produce reasonable estimates for ion production rates. The average ion production rate calculated from aerosol particle size distribution and air ion mobility distribution measurements was 2.6 cm^−3s^−1 and based on external radiation and radon measurements 4.5 cm^−3s^−1. The first method based on ion and particle measurements gave lower values for the ion production rates especially during the day. A possible reason for this is that particle measurements started only from 3 nm, so the sink of small ions during the nucleation events was underestimated. Another reason is that the possible fogs, which caused an extra sink of small ions are not taken into account in the calculations. It may also be possible that the hygroscopic growth factors of aerosol particles were underestimated. A fourth possible reason for the discrepancy is the nucleation mechanism itself. If the ions were somehow present in the nucleation process, there could have been an additional ion sink during the nucleation days. On the other hand, not all the radiation energy is converted to ions and the possible effect of alpha recoil is also omitted.