African smoke particles act as cloud condensation nuclei in the wintertime tropical North Atlantic boundary layer over Barbados
The number concentration and properties of aerosol particles serving as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) are important for understanding cloud properties, including in the tropical Atlantic marine boundary layer (MBL), where marine cumulus clouds reflect incoming solar radiation and obscure the low-a...
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ftosti:oai:osti.gov:1958773 2023-07-30T04:05:23+02:00 African smoke particles act as cloud condensation nuclei in the wintertime tropical North Atlantic boundary layer over Barbados Royer, Haley M. Pöhlker, Mira L. Krüger, Ovid Blades, Edmund Sealy, Peter Lata, Nurun Nahar Cheng, Zezhen China, Swarup Ault, Andrew P. Quinn, Patricia K. Zuidema, Paquita Pöhlker, Christopher Pöschl, Ulrich Andreae, Meinrat Gaston, Cassandra J. 2023-03-06 application/pdf http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1958773 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1958773 https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-981-2023 unknown http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1958773 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1958773 https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-981-2023 doi:10.5194/acp-23-981-2023 37 INORGANIC ORGANIC PHYSICAL AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY 2023 ftosti https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-981-2023 2023-07-11T10:24:57Z The number concentration and properties of aerosol particles serving as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) are important for understanding cloud properties, including in the tropical Atlantic marine boundary layer (MBL), where marine cumulus clouds reflect incoming solar radiation and obscure the low-albedo ocean surface. Studies linking aerosol source, composition, and water uptake properties in this region have been conducted primarily during the summertime dust transport season, despite the region receiving a variety of aerosol particle types throughout the year. In this study, we compare size-resolved aerosol chemical composition data to the hygroscopicity parameter κ derived from size-resolved CCN measurements made during the Elucidating the Role of Clouds–Circulation Coupling in Climate (EUREC 4 A) and Atlantic Tradewind Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Interaction Campaign (ATOMIC) campaigns from January to February 2020. We observed unexpected periods of wintertime long-range transport of African smoke and dust to Barbados. During these periods, the accumulation-mode aerosol particle and CCN number concentrations as well as the proportions of dust and smoke particles increased, whereas the average κ slightly decreased (κ=0.46±0.10) from marine background conditions (κ=0.52±0.09) when the submicron particles were mostly composed of marine organics and sulfate. Size-resolved chemical analysis shows that smoke particles were the major contributor to the accumulation mode during long-range transport events, indicating that smoke is mainly responsible for the observed increase in CCN number concentrations. Earlier studies conducted at Barbados have mostly focused on the role of dust on CCN, but our results show that aerosol hygroscopicity and CCN number concentrations during wintertime long-range transport events over the tropical North Atlantic are also affected by African smoke. Our findings highlight the importance of African smoke for atmospheric processes and cloud formation over the Caribbean. Other/Unknown Material North Atlantic SciTec Connect (Office of Scientific and Technical Information - OSTI, U.S. Department of Energy) Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 23 2 981 998 |
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SciTec Connect (Office of Scientific and Technical Information - OSTI, U.S. Department of Energy) |
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language |
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37 INORGANIC ORGANIC PHYSICAL AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY |
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37 INORGANIC ORGANIC PHYSICAL AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY Royer, Haley M. Pöhlker, Mira L. Krüger, Ovid Blades, Edmund Sealy, Peter Lata, Nurun Nahar Cheng, Zezhen China, Swarup Ault, Andrew P. Quinn, Patricia K. Zuidema, Paquita Pöhlker, Christopher Pöschl, Ulrich Andreae, Meinrat Gaston, Cassandra J. African smoke particles act as cloud condensation nuclei in the wintertime tropical North Atlantic boundary layer over Barbados |
topic_facet |
37 INORGANIC ORGANIC PHYSICAL AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY |
description |
The number concentration and properties of aerosol particles serving as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) are important for understanding cloud properties, including in the tropical Atlantic marine boundary layer (MBL), where marine cumulus clouds reflect incoming solar radiation and obscure the low-albedo ocean surface. Studies linking aerosol source, composition, and water uptake properties in this region have been conducted primarily during the summertime dust transport season, despite the region receiving a variety of aerosol particle types throughout the year. In this study, we compare size-resolved aerosol chemical composition data to the hygroscopicity parameter κ derived from size-resolved CCN measurements made during the Elucidating the Role of Clouds–Circulation Coupling in Climate (EUREC 4 A) and Atlantic Tradewind Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Interaction Campaign (ATOMIC) campaigns from January to February 2020. We observed unexpected periods of wintertime long-range transport of African smoke and dust to Barbados. During these periods, the accumulation-mode aerosol particle and CCN number concentrations as well as the proportions of dust and smoke particles increased, whereas the average κ slightly decreased (κ=0.46±0.10) from marine background conditions (κ=0.52±0.09) when the submicron particles were mostly composed of marine organics and sulfate. Size-resolved chemical analysis shows that smoke particles were the major contributor to the accumulation mode during long-range transport events, indicating that smoke is mainly responsible for the observed increase in CCN number concentrations. Earlier studies conducted at Barbados have mostly focused on the role of dust on CCN, but our results show that aerosol hygroscopicity and CCN number concentrations during wintertime long-range transport events over the tropical North Atlantic are also affected by African smoke. Our findings highlight the importance of African smoke for atmospheric processes and cloud formation over the Caribbean. |
author |
Royer, Haley M. Pöhlker, Mira L. Krüger, Ovid Blades, Edmund Sealy, Peter Lata, Nurun Nahar Cheng, Zezhen China, Swarup Ault, Andrew P. Quinn, Patricia K. Zuidema, Paquita Pöhlker, Christopher Pöschl, Ulrich Andreae, Meinrat Gaston, Cassandra J. |
author_facet |
Royer, Haley M. Pöhlker, Mira L. Krüger, Ovid Blades, Edmund Sealy, Peter Lata, Nurun Nahar Cheng, Zezhen China, Swarup Ault, Andrew P. Quinn, Patricia K. Zuidema, Paquita Pöhlker, Christopher Pöschl, Ulrich Andreae, Meinrat Gaston, Cassandra J. |
author_sort |
Royer, Haley M. |
title |
African smoke particles act as cloud condensation nuclei in the wintertime tropical North Atlantic boundary layer over Barbados |
title_short |
African smoke particles act as cloud condensation nuclei in the wintertime tropical North Atlantic boundary layer over Barbados |
title_full |
African smoke particles act as cloud condensation nuclei in the wintertime tropical North Atlantic boundary layer over Barbados |
title_fullStr |
African smoke particles act as cloud condensation nuclei in the wintertime tropical North Atlantic boundary layer over Barbados |
title_full_unstemmed |
African smoke particles act as cloud condensation nuclei in the wintertime tropical North Atlantic boundary layer over Barbados |
title_sort |
african smoke particles act as cloud condensation nuclei in the wintertime tropical north atlantic boundary layer over barbados |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1958773 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1958773 https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-981-2023 |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_relation |
http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1958773 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1958773 https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-981-2023 doi:10.5194/acp-23-981-2023 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-981-2023 |
container_title |
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
container_volume |
23 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
981 |
op_container_end_page |
998 |
_version_ |
1772817247227609088 |