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Title:Regional new particle formation as modulators of cloud condensation nuclei and cloud droplet number in the eastern Mediterranean
Authors:ID Kalkavouras, Panayiotis (Author)
ID Bougiatioti, Aikaterini (Author)
ID Kalivitis, Nikos (Author)
ID Stavroulas, Iasonas (Author)
ID Tombrou, Maria (Author)
ID Nenes, Athanasios (Author)
ID Mihalopoulos, Nikolaos (Author)
Files:.pdf acp-19-6185-2019.pdf (3,07 MB)
MD5: 2D45D5404C7E0EE316AFF161E29D56E3
 
URL https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/19/6185/2019/acp-19-6185-2019.pdf
 
Language:English
Work type:Unknown
Typology:1.01 - Original Scientific Article
Organization:UNG - University of Nova Gorica
Abstract:A significant fraction of atmospheric particles that serve as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) are thought to originate from the condensational growth of new particle formation (NPF) from the gas phase. Here, 7 years of continuous aerosol and meteorological measurements (June 2008 to May 2015) at a remote background site of the eastern Mediterranean were recorded and analyzed to assess the impact of NPF (of 162 episodes identified) on CCN and cloud droplet number concentration (CDNC) formation in the region. A new metric is introduced to quantitatively determine the initiation and duration of the influence of NPF on the CCN spectrum. NPF days were found to increase CCN concentrations (from 0.10 % to 1.00 % supersaturation) between 29 % and 77 %. Enhanced CCN concentrations from NPF are mostly observed, as expected, under low preexisting particle concentrations and occur in the afternoon, relatively later in the winter and autumn than in the summer. Potential impacts of NPF on cloud formation were quantified by introducing the observed aerosol size distributions and chemical composition into an established cloud droplet parameterization. We find that the supersaturations that develop are very low (ranging between 0.03 % and 0.27 %) for typical boundary layer dynamics (σw ∼0.3 m s−1) and NPF is found to enhance CDNC by a modest 13 %. This considerable contrast between CCN and CDNC response is in part from the different supersaturation levels considered, but also because supersaturation drops from increasing CCN because of water vapor competition effects during the process of droplet formation. The low cloud supersaturation further delays the appearance of NPF impacts on CDNC to clouds formed in the late evening and nighttime – which has important implications for the extent and types of indirect effects induced by NPF events. An analysis based on CCN concentrations using prescribed supersaturation can provide very different, even misleading, conclusions and should therefore be avoided. The proposed approach here offers a simple, yet highly effective way for a more realistic impact assessment of NPF events on cloud formation.
Keywords:regional NPF, CCN, cloud droplets, Eastern Mediterranean, regional background
Publication date:01.01.2019
Year of publishing:2019
Number of pages:str. 6185-6203
Numbering:Vol. 19, issue 9
PID:20.500.12556/RUNG-9063 New window
COBISS.SI-ID:195134723 New window
UDC:53
ISSN on article:1680-7316
eISSN:1680-7324
DOI:10.5194/acp-19-6185-2019 New window
NUK URN:URN:SI:UNG:REP:YXMXBW9H
Publication date in RUNG:13.05.2024
Views:983
Downloads:5
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Record is a part of a journal

Title:Atmospheric chemistry and physics
Shortened title:Atmos. chem. phys.
Publisher:European Geophysical Society, Copernicus GmbH
ISSN:1680-7316
COBISS.SI-ID:23215911 New window

Licences

License:CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Link:http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Description:This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.
Licensing start date:09.05.2019

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