A single parameter representation of hygroscopic growth and cloud condensation nucleus activity
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Open Access
- 18 April 2007
- journal article
- Published by Copernicus GmbH in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
- Vol. 7 (8) , 1961-1971
- https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-7-1961-2007
Abstract
We present a method to describe the relationship between particle dry diameter and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) activity using a single hygroscopicity parameter κ. Values of the hygroscopicity parameter are between 0.5 and 1.4 for highly-CCN-active salts such as sodium chloride, between 0.01 and 0.5 for slightly to very hygroscopic organic species, and 0 for nonhygroscopic components. Observations indicate that atmospheric particulate matter is typically characterized by 0.1<κs/a=0.072 J m−2 and present a table of κ derived for this value and T=298.15 K. The predicted hygroscopicities for mixtures that contain the surfactant fulvic acid agree within uncertainties with the measured values. It thus appears that this approach is adequate for predicting CCN activity of mixed particles containing surface active materials, but the generality of this assumption requires further verification.Keywords
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