Revealing the chemical characteristics of Arctic low-level cloud residuals – in situ observations from a mountain site

• Published in: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
• Main Authors: Gramlich, Yvette, Siegel, Karolina, Haslett, Sophie L., Freitas, Gabriel, Krejci, Radovan, Zieger, Paul, Mohr, Claudia
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: Arctic; Barents Sea; Kara Sea; Ny-Ålesund; Svalbard; Ny Ålesund
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-6813-2023; https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/23/6813/2023/

The role aerosol chemical composition plays in Arctic low-level cloud formation is still poorly understood. In this study we address this issue by combining in situ observations of the chemical characteristics of cloud residuals (dried liquid cloud droplets or ice crystals) and aerosol particles from the Zeppelin Observatory in Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard (approx. 480 m a.s.l.). These measurements were part of the 1-year-long Ny-Ålesund Aerosol and Cloud Experiment 2019–2020 (NASCENT). To obtain the chemical composition of cloud residuals at molecular level, we deployed a Filter Inlet for Gases and AEROsols coupled to a Chemical Ionization Mass Spectrometer (FIGAERO-CIMS) with iodide as the reagent ion behind a ground-based counterflow virtual impactor (GCVI). The station was enshrouded in clouds roughly 15 % of the time during NASCENT, out of which we analyzed 14 cloud events between December 2019 and December 2020. During the entire year, the composition of the cloud residuals shows contributions from oxygenated organic compounds, including organonitrates, and traces of the biomass burning tracer levoglucosan. In summer, methanesulfonic acid (MSA), an oxidation product of dimethyl sulfide (DMS), shows large contributions to the sampled mass, indicating marine natural sources of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and ice nucleating particle (INP) mass during the sunlit part of the year. In addition, we also find contributions of the inorganic acids nitric acid and sulfuric acid, with outstanding high absolute signals of sulfuric acid in one cloud residual sample in spring and one in late summer (21 May and 12 September 2020), probably caused by high anthropogenic sulfur emissions near the Barents Sea and Kara Sea. During one particular cloud event, on 18 May 2020, the air mass origin did not change before, during, or after the cloud. We therefore chose it as a case study to investigate cloud impact on aerosol physicochemical properties. We show that the overall chemical composition of the organic aerosol particles was ...