Aerosol number-size distributions during clear and fog periods in the summer high Arctic: 1991, 1996 and 2001

Abstract

The present study covers submicrometer aerosol size distribution data taken during three Arctic icebreaker expeditions in the summers of 1991, 1996 and 2001. The size distributions of all expeditions were compared in log-normally fitted form to the statistics of the marine number size distribution provided by Heintzenberg et al. (2004) yielding rather similar log-normal parameters of the modes. Statistics of the modal concentrations revealed strong concentration decreases of large accumulation mode particles with increasing length of time spent over the pack ice. The travel-time dependencies of both Aitken and ultrafine modes strongly indicate, as other studies did before, the occurrence of fine-particle sources in the inner Arctic.

With two approaches evidence of fog-related aerosol source processeswas sought for in the data sets of 1996 and 2001 because they included fog drop size distributions. With increasing fog intensity modes in interstitial particle number concentrations appeared in particular in the size range around 80 nm that was nearly mode free in clear air.

A second, dynamic approach revealed that Aitken mode concentrations increased strongly above their respective fog-period medians in both years before maximum drop numbers were reached in both years. We interpret the results of both approaches as strong indications of fog-related aerosol source processes as discussed in Leck and Bigg (1999) that need to be elucidated with further data from dedicated fog experiments in future Arctic expeditions in order to understand the life cycle of the aerosol over the high Arctic pack ice area.