Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions
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10.5194/acpd-7-14209-2007
http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/7/14209/2007/
http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/7/14209/2007/acpd-7-14209-2007.html
http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/7/14209/2007/acpd-7-14209-2007.pdf
14209
14232
2007-10-08
When does new particle formation not occur in the upper troposphere?
D. R. Benson
L.-H. Young
S.-H. Lee
slee19@kent.edu
T. L. Campos
D. C. Rogers
J. Jensen
Kent State University, Department of Chemistry, Kent, OH, USA
National Center for Atmospheric Research, Earth Observing Laboratory, Broomfield, CO, USA
Recent aircraft studies showed that new particle formation is very active in
the free troposphere and lower stratosphere. And, these observations lead to
a new question: when does new particle formation <i>not</i> occur? Here, we provide
case studies to show how convection and surface area affect new particle
formation in the upper troposphere, using the measured aerosol size
distributions during the NSF/NCAR GV Progressive Science Missions in
December 2005. There were ten research flights, including three days of
nighttime experiments, at latitudes from 18 to 52° N and altitudes up
to 14 km. About 78% of the total samples showed the new particle
formation feature with number concentrations of particles with diameters
from 4 to 9 nm, 670±1270 cm<sup>−3</sup>, and the total particle number
concentrations with diameters from 4 to 2000 nm, 920±1470 cm<sup>−3</sup>.
Our case studies show that new particle formation was closely associated
with convection and low surface areas of preexisting aerosol particles (<4 μm² cm<sup>−3</sup>). On the other hand, for the cases where no new
particle formation events were observed, air masses usually did not
experience a vertical motion and air often originated from either the upper
troposphere or lower stratosphere where precursor concentrations are
relatively low; in addition, it was also a general trend that non-event
cases also had higher surface areas (~16 μm² cm<sup>−3</sup>).
These observations are consistent with other observations during the
Progressive Science Missions (Young et al., 2007). Because of the lower
temperatures in this region (T<250 K), nucleation is thermodynamically
favorable; but because of low aerosol precursor concentrations, nucleation
is sensitive to aerosol precursor concentration and surface area. Under such
conditions, convection (which brings higher concentrations of aerosol
precursors and water vapor to higher altitudes) and low surface area play
critical roles on whether new particle formation takes place or not.
Latitude dependence of new particles also shows higher particle
concentrations in the midlatitude tropopause region than in the subtropics,
consistent with Hermann et al. (2003).
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