A comprehensive laboratory study on the immersion freezing behavior of illite NX particles: a comparison of 17 ice nucleation measurement techniques

• Published in: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
• Main Authors: N. Hiranuma, S. Augustin-Bauditz, H. Bingemer, C. Budke, J. Curtius, A. Danielczok, K. Diehl, K. Dreischmeier, M. Ebert, F. Frank, N. Hoffmann, K. Kandler, A. Kiselev, T. Koop, T. Leisner, O. Möhler, B. Nillius, A. Peckhaus, D. Rose, S. Weinbruch, H. Wex, Y. Boose, P. J. DeMott, J. D. Hader, T. C. J. Hill, Z. A. Kanji, G. Kulkarni, E. J. T. Levin, C. S. McCluskey, M. Murakami, B. J. Murray, D. Niedermeier, M. D. Petters, D. O'Sullivan, A. Saito, G. P. Schill, T. Tajiri, M. A. Tolbert, A. Welti, T. F. Whale, T. P. Wright, K. Yamashita
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2015
• Subjects: Physics; QC1-999; Chemistry; QD1-999; inuit
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-2489-2015; https://doaj.org/article/658942d714a649919f6f1d4811b466df

Immersion freezing is the most relevant heterogeneous ice nucleation mechanism through which ice crystals are formed in mixed-phase clouds. In recent years, an increasing number of laboratory experiments utilizing a variety of instruments have examined immersion freezing activity of atmospherically relevant ice-nucleating particles. However, an intercomparison of these laboratory results is a difficult task because investigators have used different ice nucleation (IN) measurement methods to produce these results. A remaining challenge is to explore the sensitivity and accuracy of these techniques and to understand how the IN results are potentially influenced or biased by experimental parameters associated with these techniques. Within the framework of INUIT (Ice Nuclei Research Unit), we distributed an illite-rich sample (illite NX) as a representative surrogate for atmospheric mineral dust particles to investigators to perform immersion freezing experiments using different IN measurement methods and to obtain IN data as a function of particle concentration, temperature ( T ), cooling rate and nucleation time. A total of 17 measurement methods were involved in the data intercomparison. Experiments with seven instruments started with the test sample pre-suspended in water before cooling, while 10 other instruments employed water vapor condensation onto dry-dispersed particles followed by immersion freezing. The resulting comprehensive immersion freezing data set was evaluated using the ice nucleation active surface-site density, n s , to develop a representative n s ( T ) spectrum that spans a wide temperature range (−37 °C < T < −11 °C) and covers 9 orders of magnitude in n s . In general, the 17 immersion freezing measurement techniques deviate, within a range of about 8 °C in terms of temperature, by 3 orders of magnitude with respect to n s . In addition, we show evidence that the immersion freezing efficiency expressed in n s of illite NX particles is relatively independent of droplet size, particle ...