On the annual variability of Antarctic aerosol size distributions at Halley Research Station
The Southern Ocean and Antarctic region currently best represent one of the few places left on our planet with conditions similar to the preindustrial age. Currently, climate models have a low ability to simulate conditions forming the aerosol baseline; a major uncertainty comes from the lack of und...
Published in: | Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
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Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
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COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH
2021
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Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10138/326163 |
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ftunivhelsihelda:oai:helda.helsinki.fi:10138/326163 |
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Open Polar |
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HELDA – University of Helsinki Open Repository |
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ftunivhelsihelda |
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English |
topic |
114 Physical sciences |
spellingShingle |
114 Physical sciences Lachlan-Cope, Thomas Beddows, David C. S. Brough, Neil Jones, Anna E. Harrison, Roy M. Lupi, Angelo Yoon, Young Jun Virkkula, Aki Dall'Osto, Manuel On the annual variability of Antarctic aerosol size distributions at Halley Research Station |
topic_facet |
114 Physical sciences |
description |
The Southern Ocean and Antarctic region currently best represent one of the few places left on our planet with conditions similar to the preindustrial age. Currently, climate models have a low ability to simulate conditions forming the aerosol baseline; a major uncertainty comes from the lack of understanding of aerosol size distributions and their dynamics. Contrasting studies stress that primary sea salt aerosol can contribute significantly to the aerosol population, challenging the concept of climate biogenic regulation by new particle formation (NPF) from dimethyl sulfide marine emissions. We present a statistical cluster analysis of the physical characteristics of particle size distributions (PSDs) collected at Halley (Antarctica) for the year 2015 (89 % data coverage; 6-209 nm size range; daily size resolution). By applying the Hartigan-Wong k-mean method we find eight clusters describing the entire aerosol population. Three clusters show pristine average low particle number concentrations (<121-179 cm(-3)) with three main modes (30, 75-95 and 135-160 nm) and represent 57 % of the annual PSD (up to 89 %-100 % during winter and 34 %-65 % during summer based on monthly averages). Nucleation and Aitken mode PSD clusters dominate summer months (SeptemberJanuary, 59 %-90 %), whereas a clear bimodal distribution (43 and 134 nm, respectively; Hoppel minimum at mode 75 nm) is seen only during the December-April period (6%-21 %). Major findings of the current work include: (1) NPF and growth events originate from both the sea ice marginal zone and the Antarctic plateau, strongly suggesting multiple vertical origins, including the marine boundary layer and free troposphere; (2) very low particle number concentrations are detected for a substantial part of the year (57 %), including summer (34 %-65 %), suggesting that the strong annual aerosol concentration cycle is driven by a short temporal interval of strong NPF events; (3) a unique pristine aerosol cluster is seen with a bimodal size distribution (75 and 160 ... |
author2 |
Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR) |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Lachlan-Cope, Thomas Beddows, David C. S. Brough, Neil Jones, Anna E. Harrison, Roy M. Lupi, Angelo Yoon, Young Jun Virkkula, Aki Dall'Osto, Manuel |
author_facet |
Lachlan-Cope, Thomas Beddows, David C. S. Brough, Neil Jones, Anna E. Harrison, Roy M. Lupi, Angelo Yoon, Young Jun Virkkula, Aki Dall'Osto, Manuel |
author_sort |
Lachlan-Cope, Thomas |
title |
On the annual variability of Antarctic aerosol size distributions at Halley Research Station |
title_short |
On the annual variability of Antarctic aerosol size distributions at Halley Research Station |
title_full |
On the annual variability of Antarctic aerosol size distributions at Halley Research Station |
title_fullStr |
On the annual variability of Antarctic aerosol size distributions at Halley Research Station |
title_full_unstemmed |
On the annual variability of Antarctic aerosol size distributions at Halley Research Station |
title_sort |
on the annual variability of antarctic aerosol size distributions at halley research station |
publisher |
COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10138/326163 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-44.516,-44.516,-60.733,-60.733) ENVELOPE(-26.209,-26.209,-75.605,-75.605) ENVELOPE(-126.000,-126.000,-76.800,-76.800) |
geographic |
Aitken Antarctic Halley Research Station Hartigan Southern Ocean The Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Aitken Antarctic Halley Research Station Hartigan Southern Ocean The Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Sea ice Southern Ocean |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Sea ice Southern Ocean |
op_relation |
10.5194/acp-20-4461-2020 The study was further supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy through project PI-ICE (no. CTM 201789117-R) and the Ramon y Cajal fellowship (no. RYC-201211922). The National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS) Birmingham group is funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council. Aki Virkkula was supported by the Academy of Finland's Centre of Excellence programme (Centre of Excellence in Atmospheric Science -From Molecular and Biological processes to The Global Climate; project no. 272041). The KS station SMPS measurement was supported by the KOPRI project (no. PE20060). Lachlan-Cope , T , Beddows , D C S , Brough , N , Jones , A E , Harrison , R M , Lupi , A , Yoon , Y J , Virkkula , A & Dall'Osto , M 2020 , ' On the annual variability of Antarctic aerosol size distributions at Halley Research Station ' , Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics , vol. 20 , no. 7 , pp. 4461-4476 . https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-4461-2020 6068ec0c-f7c5-4353-aa18-c3a238133f0c http://hdl.handle.net/10138/326163 000527802200003 |
op_rights |
cc_by openAccess info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
container_title |
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
container_volume |
20 |
container_issue |
7 |
container_start_page |
4461 |
op_container_end_page |
4476 |
_version_ |
1787429762913796096 |
spelling |
ftunivhelsihelda:oai:helda.helsinki.fi:10138/326163 2024-01-07T09:39:33+01:00 On the annual variability of Antarctic aerosol size distributions at Halley Research Station Lachlan-Cope, Thomas Beddows, David C. S. Brough, Neil Jones, Anna E. Harrison, Roy M. Lupi, Angelo Yoon, Young Jun Virkkula, Aki Dall'Osto, Manuel Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR) 2021-02-08T15:17:01Z 16 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/10138/326163 eng eng COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH 10.5194/acp-20-4461-2020 The study was further supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy through project PI-ICE (no. CTM 201789117-R) and the Ramon y Cajal fellowship (no. RYC-201211922). The National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS) Birmingham group is funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council. Aki Virkkula was supported by the Academy of Finland's Centre of Excellence programme (Centre of Excellence in Atmospheric Science -From Molecular and Biological processes to The Global Climate; project no. 272041). The KS station SMPS measurement was supported by the KOPRI project (no. PE20060). Lachlan-Cope , T , Beddows , D C S , Brough , N , Jones , A E , Harrison , R M , Lupi , A , Yoon , Y J , Virkkula , A & Dall'Osto , M 2020 , ' On the annual variability of Antarctic aerosol size distributions at Halley Research Station ' , Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics , vol. 20 , no. 7 , pp. 4461-4476 . https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-4461-2020 6068ec0c-f7c5-4353-aa18-c3a238133f0c http://hdl.handle.net/10138/326163 000527802200003 cc_by openAccess info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess 114 Physical sciences Article publishedVersion 2021 ftunivhelsihelda 2023-12-14T00:07:55Z The Southern Ocean and Antarctic region currently best represent one of the few places left on our planet with conditions similar to the preindustrial age. Currently, climate models have a low ability to simulate conditions forming the aerosol baseline; a major uncertainty comes from the lack of understanding of aerosol size distributions and their dynamics. Contrasting studies stress that primary sea salt aerosol can contribute significantly to the aerosol population, challenging the concept of climate biogenic regulation by new particle formation (NPF) from dimethyl sulfide marine emissions. We present a statistical cluster analysis of the physical characteristics of particle size distributions (PSDs) collected at Halley (Antarctica) for the year 2015 (89 % data coverage; 6-209 nm size range; daily size resolution). By applying the Hartigan-Wong k-mean method we find eight clusters describing the entire aerosol population. Three clusters show pristine average low particle number concentrations (<121-179 cm(-3)) with three main modes (30, 75-95 and 135-160 nm) and represent 57 % of the annual PSD (up to 89 %-100 % during winter and 34 %-65 % during summer based on monthly averages). Nucleation and Aitken mode PSD clusters dominate summer months (SeptemberJanuary, 59 %-90 %), whereas a clear bimodal distribution (43 and 134 nm, respectively; Hoppel minimum at mode 75 nm) is seen only during the December-April period (6%-21 %). Major findings of the current work include: (1) NPF and growth events originate from both the sea ice marginal zone and the Antarctic plateau, strongly suggesting multiple vertical origins, including the marine boundary layer and free troposphere; (2) very low particle number concentrations are detected for a substantial part of the year (57 %), including summer (34 %-65 %), suggesting that the strong annual aerosol concentration cycle is driven by a short temporal interval of strong NPF events; (3) a unique pristine aerosol cluster is seen with a bimodal size distribution (75 and 160 ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Sea ice Southern Ocean HELDA – University of Helsinki Open Repository Aitken ENVELOPE(-44.516,-44.516,-60.733,-60.733) Antarctic Halley Research Station ENVELOPE(-26.209,-26.209,-75.605,-75.605) Hartigan ENVELOPE(-126.000,-126.000,-76.800,-76.800) Southern Ocean The Antarctic Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 20 7 4461 4476 |