A simple non-linear analytical relationship between aerosol accumulation number and sub-micron volume, explaining their observed ratio in the clean and polluted marine boundary layer
Open Access
- 1 January 2000
- journal article
- Published by Stockholm University Press in Tellus B: Chemical and Physical Meteorology
- Vol. 52 (2) , 439
- https://doi.org/10.3402/tellusb.v52i2.16171
Abstract
We propose an analytical expression for the relation between aerosol accumulation number and sub-micron volume over the marine boundary layer (MBL), based on a simple balance equation. By providing appropriate source and sink terms which account for entrainment, coagulation, in-cloud scavenging and condensational growth, the model is able to reproduce the observed ratio between MBL particles larger than 80 nm diameter (as a proxy for accumulation mode number) and submicron aerosol volume, from freshly polluted to background conditions. Entrainment and coagulation are essential in predicting the observed ratio. Budget and lifetime calculations show that, due to relatively low source rates of oceanic non-sea-salt-sulfate and sea-salt, the anthropogenic signature in aerosol volume remains significant even after 8 days of MBL transport. DOI: 10.1034/j.1600-0889.2000.00091.xKeywords
This publication has 19 references indexed in Scilit:
- Time-scale analysis of marine boundary layer aerosol evolution: Lagrangian case studies under clean and polluted cloudy conditionsTellus B: Chemical and Physical Meteorology, 2000
- Aerosol physical properties and processes in the lower marine boundary layer: a comparison of shipboard sub-micron data from ACE-1 and ACE-2Tellus B: Chemical and Physical Meteorology, 2000
- A one‐dimensional sectional model to simulate multicomponent aerosol dynamics in the marine boundary layer: 2. Model applicationJournal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 1998
- Measurements of the relationship between submicron aerosol number and volume concentrationJournal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 1998
- Influence of sea-salt on aerosol radiative properties in the Southern Ocean marine boundary layerNature, 1998
- The Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) Combined Precipitation DatasetBulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 1997
- Deducing droplet concentration and supersaturation in marine boundary layer clouds from surface aerosol measurementsJournal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 1996
- Marine boundary layer measurements of new particle formation and the effects nonprecipitating clouds have on aerosol size distributionJournal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 1994
- Effect of nonprecipitating clouds on the aerosol size distribution in the marine boundary layerGeophysical Research Letters, 1986
- Aerosol size distributions in air masses advecting off the east coast of the United StatesJournal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 1985