Secondary aerosol formation in marine Arctic environments: a model measurement comparison at Ny-Ålesund

• Published in: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
• Main Authors: C. Xavier, M. Baykara, R. Wollesen de Jonge, B. Altstädter, P. Clusius, V. Vakkari, R. Thakur, L. Beck, S. Becagli, M. Severi, R. Traversi, R. Krejci, P. Tunved, M. Mazzola, B. Wehner, M. Sipilä, M. Kulmala, M. Boy, P. Roldin
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2022
• Subjects: Physics; QC1-999; Chemistry; QD1-999; Arctic; Ny-Ålesund; Aitken; Ny Ålesund; Phytoplankton
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10023-2022; https://doaj.org/article/cf48584521fc4ea09a5891812b0e9e02

In this study, we modeled the aerosol particle formation along air mass trajectories arriving at the remote Arctic research stations Gruvebadet (67 m a.s.l.) and Zeppelin (474 m a.s.l.), Ny-Ålesund, during May 2018. The aim of this study was to improve our understanding of processes governing secondary aerosol formation in remote Arctic marine environments. We run the Lagrangian chemistry transport model ADCHEM, along air mass trajectories generated with FLEXPART v10.4. The air masses arriving at Ny-Ålesund spent most of their time over the open ice-free ocean. In order to capture the secondary aerosol formation from the DMS emitted by phytoplankton from the ocean surface, we implemented a recently developed comprehensive DMS and halogen multi-phase oxidation chemistry scheme, coupled with the widely used Master Chemical Mechanism (MCM). The modeled median particle number size distributions are in close agreement with the observations in the marine-influenced boundary layer near-sea-surface Gruvebadet site. However, while the model reproduces the accumulation mode particle number concentrations at Zeppelin, it overestimates the Aitken mode particle number concentrations by a factor of ∼5.5 . We attribute this to the deficiency of the model to capture the complex orographic effects on the boundary layer dynamics at Ny-Ålesund. However, the model reproduces the average vertical particle number concentration profiles within the boundary layer (0–600 m a.s.l.) above Gruvebadet, as measured with condensation particle counters (CPCs) on board an unmanned aircraft system (UAS). The model successfully reproduces the observed Hoppel minima, often seen in particle number size distributions at Ny-Ålesund. The model also supports the previous experimental findings that ion-mediated H 2 SO 4 –NH 3 nucleation can explain the observed new particle formation in the marine Arctic boundary layer in the vicinity of Ny-Ålesund. Precursors resulting from gas- and aqueous-phase DMS chemistry contribute to the subsequent growth of the ...