Predicting atmospheric background number concentration of ice-nucleating particles in the Arctic
Mixed-phase clouds (MPCs) can have a net warming or cooling radiative effect on Earth's climate influenced by the phase and concentration of cloud particles. They have received considerable attention due to high spatial coverage and occurrence frequency in the Arctic. To initiate ice formation...
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ftcopernicus:oai:publications.copernicus.org:acp100749 2023-05-15T14:48:18+02:00 Predicting atmospheric background number concentration of ice-nucleating particles in the Arctic Li, Guangyu Wieder, Jörg Pasquier, Julie T. Henneberger, Jan Kanji, Zamin A. 2022-11-11 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14441-2022 https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/22/14441/2022/ eng eng doi:10.5194/acp-22-14441-2022 https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/22/14441/2022/ eISSN: 1680-7324 Text 2022 ftcopernicus https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14441-2022 2022-11-14T17:22:41Z Mixed-phase clouds (MPCs) can have a net warming or cooling radiative effect on Earth's climate influenced by the phase and concentration of cloud particles. They have received considerable attention due to high spatial coverage and occurrence frequency in the Arctic. To initiate ice formation in MPCs at temperatures above −38 ∘ C, ice-nucleating particles (INPs) are required, which therefore have important implications on the radiative properties of MPCs by altering the ice-to-liquid ratio of hydrometeors. As a result, constraining ambient INP concentrations could promote accurate representation of cloud microphysical processes and reduce the uncertainties in estimating the cloud-phase-related climate feedback in climate models. Currently, INP parameterizations are lacking for remote Arctic environments. Here we present INP number concentrations and their variability measured in Ny-Ålesund (Svalbard) at temperatures between 0 and −30 ∘ C. No distinguishable seasonal difference was observed from 12 weeks of field measurements during October and November 2019 and March and April 2020. Compared to existing studies, the absence of a seasonal difference is not surprising, as most seasonal differences are reported for summer versus winter time INP concentrations. In addition, correlating INP concentrations to aerosol physical properties was not successful. Therefore, we propose a lognormal-distribution-based parameterization to predict Arctic INP concentration solely as a function of temperature, specifically for the transition seasons autumn and spring to fill in the data gap in the literature pertaining to these seasons. In practice, the parameterized variables allow for (i) the prediction of the most likely INP concentrations and (ii) the retrieval of the governing distribution of INP concentrations at given temperatures in the Arctic. Text Arctic Ny Ålesund Ny-Ålesund Svalbard Copernicus Publications: E-Journals Arctic Ny-Ålesund Svalbard Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 22 21 14441 14454 |
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Copernicus Publications: E-Journals |
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English |
description |
Mixed-phase clouds (MPCs) can have a net warming or cooling radiative effect on Earth's climate influenced by the phase and concentration of cloud particles. They have received considerable attention due to high spatial coverage and occurrence frequency in the Arctic. To initiate ice formation in MPCs at temperatures above −38 ∘ C, ice-nucleating particles (INPs) are required, which therefore have important implications on the radiative properties of MPCs by altering the ice-to-liquid ratio of hydrometeors. As a result, constraining ambient INP concentrations could promote accurate representation of cloud microphysical processes and reduce the uncertainties in estimating the cloud-phase-related climate feedback in climate models. Currently, INP parameterizations are lacking for remote Arctic environments. Here we present INP number concentrations and their variability measured in Ny-Ålesund (Svalbard) at temperatures between 0 and −30 ∘ C. No distinguishable seasonal difference was observed from 12 weeks of field measurements during October and November 2019 and March and April 2020. Compared to existing studies, the absence of a seasonal difference is not surprising, as most seasonal differences are reported for summer versus winter time INP concentrations. In addition, correlating INP concentrations to aerosol physical properties was not successful. Therefore, we propose a lognormal-distribution-based parameterization to predict Arctic INP concentration solely as a function of temperature, specifically for the transition seasons autumn and spring to fill in the data gap in the literature pertaining to these seasons. In practice, the parameterized variables allow for (i) the prediction of the most likely INP concentrations and (ii) the retrieval of the governing distribution of INP concentrations at given temperatures in the Arctic. |
format |
Text |
author |
Li, Guangyu Wieder, Jörg Pasquier, Julie T. Henneberger, Jan Kanji, Zamin A. |
spellingShingle |
Li, Guangyu Wieder, Jörg Pasquier, Julie T. Henneberger, Jan Kanji, Zamin A. Predicting atmospheric background number concentration of ice-nucleating particles in the Arctic |
author_facet |
Li, Guangyu Wieder, Jörg Pasquier, Julie T. Henneberger, Jan Kanji, Zamin A. |
author_sort |
Li, Guangyu |
title |
Predicting atmospheric background number concentration of ice-nucleating particles in the Arctic |
title_short |
Predicting atmospheric background number concentration of ice-nucleating particles in the Arctic |
title_full |
Predicting atmospheric background number concentration of ice-nucleating particles in the Arctic |
title_fullStr |
Predicting atmospheric background number concentration of ice-nucleating particles in the Arctic |
title_full_unstemmed |
Predicting atmospheric background number concentration of ice-nucleating particles in the Arctic |
title_sort |
predicting atmospheric background number concentration of ice-nucleating particles in the arctic |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14441-2022 https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/22/14441/2022/ |
geographic |
Arctic Ny-Ålesund Svalbard |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Ny-Ålesund Svalbard |
genre |
Arctic Ny Ålesund Ny-Ålesund Svalbard |
genre_facet |
Arctic Ny Ålesund Ny-Ålesund Svalbard |
op_source |
eISSN: 1680-7324 |
op_relation |
doi:10.5194/acp-22-14441-2022 https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/22/14441/2022/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14441-2022 |
container_title |
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
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22 |
container_issue |
21 |
container_start_page |
14441 |
op_container_end_page |
14454 |
_version_ |
1766319389068492800 |