The Relationship between Particle Properties and Ice Nucleation:
Laboratory and Field Investigation and Parameterization Development
EMSL Project ID
25623
Abstract
Atmospheric aerosols impact the climate by scattering and absorbing solar radiation and in their role as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). Cloud properties are strongly dependent on the number of CCNs and on their hygroscopic properties. A significant effort has been devoted to develop a better understanding of the relationship between the properties of aerosol particles and their potency to act as CCNs. In contrast ice nucleation (IN), the process responsible for the formation of ice clouds, is poorly understood. Because the concentration of ice nuclei particles in clouds tend to be very small to measure their size and composition requires extremely high sensitivities. Moreover, to develop a better understanding of the relationship between particle compositions and cloud properties requires knowledge of the internal compositions of individual particles. Dr. Zelenyuk was able to develop a single particle mass spectrometer (SPLAT) that has extremely high sensitivities and provides quantitative information on the size and compositions of volatile and non-volatile fractions of individual particles. We propose to take advantage of this unique tool to conduct measurements in the laboratory and in the field to develop a quantitative dataset of the dependence of the IN rates on supersaturation, temperature and particle size and composition. In April 2008 at the North Slope of Alaska ARM site, the Indirect and Semidirect Aerosol Campaign (ISDAC) field program will directly address the interaction between particles and clouds. We intend to deploy SPLAT on an aircraft to make the detailed measurements of particle size and compositions. These data will serve to improve our understanding and test our models.Project Details
Project type
Large-Scale EMSL Research
Start Date
2007-09-01
End Date
2010-09-30
Status
Closed
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator
Team Members
Related Publications
Earle M, PS Liu, JW Strapp, A Zelenyuk, D Imre, G McFarquhar, NC Shantz, and WR Leaitch. 2011. "Factors influencing the microphysics and radiative properties of liquid-dominated Arctic clouds: insight from observations of aerosol and clouds during ISDAC." Journal of Geophysical Research. D. (Atmospheres) 116:D00T09. doi:10.1029/2011JD015887
Shantz NC, I Gultepe, E Andrews, A Zelenyuk, M Earle, AM MacDonald, PS Liu, and WR Leaitch. 2014. "Optical, physical, and chemical properties of springtime aerosol over Barrow Alaska in 2008." International Journal of Climatology. doi:10.1002/joc.3898
Zelenyuk A, D Imre, J Wilson, Z Zhang, J Wang, and K Mueller. 2015. "Airborne Single Particle Mass Spectrometers (SPLAT II & miniSPLAT) and New Software for Data Visualization and Analysis in a Geo-Spatial Context." Journal of The American Society for Mass Spectrometry:1-14. doi:10.1007/s13361-014-1043-4
Zelenyuk A, D Imre, M Earle, RC Easter, A Korolev, WR Leaitch, P Liu, AM Macdonald, M Ovchinnikov, and W Strapp. 2010. "In-Situ Characterization of Cloud Condensation Nuclei, Interstitial, and background Particles using Single Particle Mass Spectrometer, SPLAT II." Analytical Chemistry 82(19):7943-7951. doi:10.1021/ac1013892