In situ observations of aerosol particles remaining from evaporated cirrus crystals: Comparing clean and polluted air masses

• Main Authors: Seifert, M., Ström, J., Krejci, R., Minikin, A., Petzold, A., Gayet, Jean-François, Schumann, U., Ovarlez, J.
• Other Authors: Department of Meteorology Stockholm (MISU), Stockholm University, Air Pollution Laboratory Stockholm, DLR Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre = DLR Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IPA), Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt Oberpfaffenhofen-Wessling (DLR), Laboratoire de météorologie physique (LaMP), Université Blaise Pascal - Clermont-Ferrand 2 (UBP)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (UMR 8539) (LMD), Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-École polytechnique (X)-École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Département des Géosciences - ENS Paris, École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2002
• Subjects: [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean; Atmosphere; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-00327803; https://hal.science/hal-00327803/document; https://hal.science/hal-00327803/file/acpd-2-1599-2002.pdf

International audience In situ observations of aerosol particles contained in cirrus crystals are presented and compared to interstitial aerosol size distributions (non-activated particles in between the cirrus crystals). The observations were conducted in cirrus clouds in the Southern and Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes during the INCA project. The first campaign in March and April 2000 was performed from Punta Arenas, Chile (54° S) in pristine air. The second campaign in September and October 2000 was performed from Prestwick, Scotland (53° N) in the vicinity of the North Atlantic flight corridor. Size distribution measurements of crystal residuals (particles remaining after evaporation of the crystals) show that small aerosol particles (D p < 0.1µm) dominate the number density of residuals. The crystal residual size distributions were significantly different in the two campaigns. On average the residual size distributions were shifted towards larger sizes in the Southern Hemisphere. For a given integral residual number density, the calculated particle volume was on average three times larger in the Southern Hemisphere. This may be of significance to the vertical redistribution of aerosol mass by clouds in the tropopause region. In both campaigns the mean residual size increased with increasing crystal number density. The observations of ambient aerosol particles were consistent with the expected higher pollution level in the Northern Hemisphere. The fraction of residual particles only contributes to approximately a percent or less of the total number of particles, which is the sum of the residual and interstitial particles.