Aerosol particle characteristics measured in the United Arab Emirates and their response to mixing in the boundary layer

Aerosol particles play an important role in the microphysics of clouds and hence in their likelihood to precipitate. In the changing climate already-dry areas such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are predicted to become even drier. Comprehensive observations of the daily and seasonal variation in aerosol particle properties in such locations are required, reducing the uncertainty in such predictions. We analyse observations from a 1-year measurement campaign at a background location in the United Arab Emirates to investigate the properties of aerosol particles in this region, study the impact of boundary layer mixing on background aerosol particle properties measured at the surface, and study the temporal evolution of the aerosol particle cloud formation potential in the region. We used in situ aerosol particle measurements to characterise the aerosol particle composition, size, number, and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) properties; in situ SO2 measurements as an anthropogenic signature; and a long-range scanning Doppler lidar to provide vertical profiles of the horizontal wind and turbulent properties to monitor the evolution of the boundary layer. Anthropogenic sulfate dominated the aerosol particle mass composition in this location. There was a clear diurnal cycle in the surface wind direction, which had a strong impact on aerosol particle total number concentration, SO2 concentration, and black carbon mass concentration. Local sources were the predominant source of black carbon as concentrations clearly depended on the presence of turbulent mixing, with much higher values during calm nights. The measured concentrations of SO2, instead, were highly dependent on the surface wind direction as well as on the depth of the boundary layer when entrainment from the advected elevated layers occurred. The wind direction at the surface or of the elevated layer suggests that the oil refineries and the cities of Dubai and Abu Dhabi and other coastal conurbations were the remote sources of SO2. We observed new-aerosol-particle formation events almost every day (on 4 d out of 5 on average). Calm nights had the highest CCN number concentrations and lowest κ values and activation fractions. We did not observe any clear dependence of CCN number concentration and κ parameter on the height of the daytime boundary layer, whereas the activation fraction did show a slight increase with increasing boundary layer height due to the change in the shape of the aerosol particle size distribution where the relative portion of larger aerosol particles increased with increasing boundary layer height. We believe that this indicates that size is more important than chemistry for aerosol particle CCN activation at this site. The combination of instrumentation used in this campaign enabled us to identify periods when anthropogenic pollution from remote sources that had been transported in elevated layers was present and had been mixed down to the surface in the growing boundary layer.

Scale Invariant Turbulence and Gibbs Free Energy in the Atmosphere

A method of calculating the Gibbs Free Energy (Exergy) for the Earth’s atmosphere using statistical multifractality — scale invariance - is described, and examples given of its application to the stratosphere, including a methodology for extension to aerosol particles. The role of organic molecules in determining the radiative transfer characteristics of aerosols is pointed out. These methods are discussed in the context of the atmosphere as an open system far from chemical and physical equilibrium, and used to urge caution in deploying “solar radiation management”.

New investigations on homogeneous ice nucleation: the effects of water activity and water saturation formulations

Laboratory measurements at the AIDA cloud chamber and airborne in situ observations suggest that the homogeneous freezing thresholds at low temperatures are possibly higher than expected from the so-called “Koop line”. This finding is of importance, because the ice onset relative humidity affects the cirrus cloud coverage and, at the very low temperatures of the tropical tropopause layer, together with the number of ice crystals also the transport of water vapor into the stratosphere. Both the appearance of cirrus clouds and the amount of stratospheric water feed back to the radiative budget of the atmosphere. In order to explore the enhanced ice onset humidities, we re-examine the entire homogeneous ice nucleation process, ice onset, and nucleated crystal numbers, by means of a two-moment microphysics scheme embedded in the trajectory-based model (CLaMS-Ice) as follows: the well-understood and described theoretical framework of homogeneous ice nucleation includes certain formulations of the water activity of the freezing aerosol particles and the saturation vapor pressure of water with respect to liquid water. However, different formulations are available for both parameters. Here, we present extensive sensitivity simulations testing the influence of three different formulations for the water activity and four for the water saturation on homogeneous ice nucleation. We found that the number of nucleated ice crystals is almost independent of these formulations but is instead sensitive to the size distribution of the freezing aerosol particles. The ice onset humidities, also depending on the particle size, are however significantly affected by the choices of the water activity and water saturation, in particular at cold temperatures ≲205 K. From the CLaMS-Ice sensitivity simulations, we here provide combinations of water saturation and water activity formulations suitable to reproduce the new, enhanced freezing line.

Solvent and cosolute dependence of Mg surface enrichment in submicron aerosol particles

The formation of multicomponent aerosol particles from precursor solution droplets often involves segregation and surface enrichment of the different solutes, resulting in non-homogeneous particle structures and diverse morphologies. In particular,...

Hygroscopicity of Internally Mixed Ammonium Sulfate and Secondary Organic Aerosol Particles Formed at Low and High Relative Humidity

Volatile organic matter that is suspended in the atmosphere such as α-Pinene and β-caryophyllene undergoes aging processes, as well as chemical and photooxidation reactions to create secondary organic aerosol (SOA),...

STUDY OF THE COAGULATION OF AEROSOL PARTICLES IN THE SCRUBBER ULTRASOUND CHAMBER

В данной работе представлены результаты исследования процесса коагуляции частиц аэрозоля моноаммонийфосфата в модельной ультразвуковой (УЗ) камере скруббера. Изучено поведение аэрозольных частиц внутри камеры на расстоянии 100 мм и 400 мм от ультразвукового излучателя с частотой излучения 22 кГц. Представленные результаты показывают практически отсутствие коагуляции частиц при интенсивности звукового давления 140 dB и процесс активной коагуляции при интенсивности звукового давления 150 dB для выбранного образца. Начальная массовая концентрация фосфата аммония в камере составляла 1 г/м3. Измерения дисперсного состава аэрозоля внутри камеры показали, что более интенсивно коагуляция проходила в области 400 мм. Через 30 минут воздействия значение среднего объемно-поверхностного диаметра частиц аэрозоля в камере изменилось на 238,4 %. This paper presents the results of the study of the coagulation of the monoammonium phosphate aerosol particles in the model ultrasonic scrubber chamber. The behavior of aerosol particles inside the chamber is studied at the distance of 100 mm and 400 mm from the ultrasonic emitter with 22 kHz of the radiation frequency. The presented results show almost complete absence of particle coagulation at the sound pressure intensity of 140 DB and the active coagulation process at the intensity of 150 dB for the selected sample. The initial mass concentration of ammonium phosphate in the chamber was 1 g / m3. Measuring the dispersed composition of the aerosol showed that coagulation proceeds more intensively in the region of 400 mm. After 30 minutes of exposure the value of the average surfactant diameter of the aerosol particles in the chamber has changed by 238.4%.