Summertime observations of elevated levels of ultrafine particles in the high Arctic marine boundary layer

• Published in: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
• Main Authors: Burkart, Julia, Willis, Megan D., Bozem, Heiko, Thomas, Jennie L., Law, Kathy S., Hoor, Peter, Aliabadi, Amir A., Köllner, Franziska, Schneider, Johannes, Herber, Andreas, Abbatt, Jonathan P. D., Leaitch, W. Richard
• Other Authors: Department of Chemistry University of Toronto, University of Toronto, Institut für Physik Mainz, Johannes Gutenberg - Universität Mainz = Johannes Gutenberg University (JGU), TROPO - LATMOS, Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales (LATMOS), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Environmental Engineering Program Guelph, University of Guelph, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (MPIC), Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung = Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research = Institut Alfred-Wegener pour la recherche polaire et marine (AWI), Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft = Helmholtz Association, Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), European Union, European Project: 265863,EC:FP7:TPT,FP7-OCEAN-2010,ACCESS(2011)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2017
• Subjects: [PHYS.PHYS.PHYS-AO-PH]Physics [physics]/Physics [physics]/Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics [physics.ao-ph]; [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean; Atmosphere; [SDU.STU.CL]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Climatology; Arctic; Nunavut; Resolute Bay
• Online Access: https://insu.hal.science/insu-01352502; https://insu.hal.science/insu-01352502/document; https://insu.hal.science/insu-01352502/file/acp-17-5515-2017.pdf; https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-5515-2017

International audience Motivated by increasing levels of open ocean in the Arctic summer and the lack of prior altitude-resolved studies, extensive aerosol measurements were made during 11 flights of the NETCARE July 2014 airborne campaign from Resolute Bay, Nunavut. Flights included vertical profiles (60 to 3000 m above ground level) over open ocean, fast ice, and boundary layer clouds and fogs. A general conclusion, from observations of particle numbers between 5 and 20 nm in diameter (N 5 − 20 ), is that ultrafine particle formation occurs readily in the Canadian high Arctic marine boundary layer, especially just above ocean and clouds, reaching values of a few thousand particles cm −3 . By contrast, ultrafine particle concentrations are much lower in the free troposphere. Elevated levels of larger particles (for example, from 20 to 40 nm in size, N 20 − 40 ) are sometimes associated with high N 5 − 20 , especially over low clouds, suggestive of aerosol growth. The number densities of particles greater than 40 nm in diameter (N > 40 ) are relatively depleted at the lowest altitudes, indicative of depositional processes that will lower the condensation sink and promote new particle formation. The number of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN; measured at 0.6 % supersaturation) are positively correlated with the numbers of small particles (down to roughly 30 nm), indicating that some fraction of these newly formed particles are capable of being involved in cloud activation. Given that the summertime marine Arctic is a biologically active region, it is important to better establish the links between emissions from the ocean and the formation and growth of ultrafine particles within this rapidly changing environment.