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Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    A phenomenology of new particle formation (NPF) at 13 European sites
    (Katlenburg-Lindau : European Geosciences Union, 2021) Bousiotis, Dimitrios; Pope, Francis D.; Beddows, David C. S.; Dall'Osto, Manuel; Massling, Andreas; Nøjgaard, Jakob Klenø; Nordstrøm, Claus; Niemi, Jarkko V.; Portin, Harri; Petäjä, Tuukka; Perez, Noemi; Alastuey, Andrés; Querol, Xavier; Kouvarakis, Giorgos; Mihalopoulos, Nikos; Vratolis, Stergios; Eleftheriadis, Konstantinos; Wiedensohler, Alfred; Weinhold, Kay; Merkel, Maik; Tuch, Thomas; Harrison, Roy M.
    New particle formation (NPF) events occur almost everywhere in the world and can play an important role as a particle source. The frequency and characteristics of NPF events vary spatially, and this variability is yet to be fully understood. In the present study, long-term particle size distribution datasets (minimum of 3 years) from 13 sites of various land uses and climates from across Europe were studied, and NPF events, deriving from secondary formation and not traffic-related nucleation, were extracted and analysed. The frequency of NPF events was consistently found to be higher at rural background sites, while the growth and formation rates of newly formed particles were higher at roadsides (though in many cases differences between the sites were small), underlining the importance of the abundance of condensable compounds of anthropogenic origin found there. The growth rate was higher in summer at all rural background sites studied. The urban background sites presented the highest uncertainty due to greater variability compared to the other two types of site. The origin of incoming air masses and the specific conditions associated with them greatly affect the characteristics of NPF events. In general, cleaner air masses present higher probability for NPF events, while the more polluted ones show higher growth rates. However, different patterns of NPF events were found, even at sites in close proximity (<ĝ€¯200ĝ€¯km), due to the different local conditions at each site. Region-wide events were also studied and were found to be associated with the same conditions as local events, although some variability was found which was associated with the different seasonality of the events at two neighbouring sites. NPF events were responsible for an increase in the number concentration of ultrafine particles of more than 400ĝ€¯% at rural background sites on the day of their occurrence. The degree of enhancement was less at urban sites due to the increased contribution of other sources within the urban environment. It is evident that, while some variables (such as solar radiation intensity, relative humidity, or the concentrations of specific pollutants) appear to have a similar influence on NPF events across all sites, it is impossible to predict the characteristics of NPF events at a site using just these variables, due to the crucial role of local conditions. © Author(s) 2021.
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    Comparison of particle number size distribution trends in ground measurements and climate models
    (Katlenburg-Lindau : EGU, 2022) Leinonen, Ville; Kokkola, Harri; Yli-Juuti, Taina; Mielonen, Tero; Kühn, Thomas; Nieminen, Tuomo; Heikkinen, Simo; Miinalainen, Tuuli; Bergman, Tommi; Carslaw, Ken; Decesari, Stefano; Fiebig, Markus; Hussein, Tareq; Kivekäs, Niku; Krejci, Radovan; Kulmala, Markku; Leskinen, Ari; Massling, Andreas; Mihalopoulos, Nikos; Mulcahy, Jane P.; Noe, Steffen M.; van Noije, Twan; O'Connor, Fiona M.; O'Dowd, Colin; Olivie, Dirk; Pernov, Jakob B.; Petäjä, Tuukka; Seland, Øyvind; Schulz, Michael; Scott, Catherine E.; Skov, Henrik; Swietlicki, Erik; Tuch, Thomas; Wiedensohler, Alfred; Virtanen, Annele; Mikkonen, Santtu
    Despite a large number of studies, out of all drivers of radiative forcing, the effect of aerosols has the largest uncertainty in global climate model radiative forcing estimates. There have been studies of aerosol optical properties in climate models, but the effects of particle number size distribution need a more thorough inspection. We investigated the trends and seasonality of particle number concentrations in nucleation, Aitken, and accumulation modes at 21 measurement sites in Europe and the Arctic. For 13 of those sites, with longer measurement time series, we compared the field observations with the results from five climate models, namely EC-Earth3, ECHAM-M7, ECHAM-SALSA, NorESM1.2, and UKESM1. This is the first extensive comparison of detailed aerosol size distribution trends between in situ observations from Europe and five earth system models (ESMs). We found that the trends of particle number concentrations were mostly consistent and decreasing in both measurements and models. However, for many sites, climate models showed weaker decreasing trends than the measurements. Seasonal variability in measured number concentrations, quantified by the ratio between maximum and minimum monthly number concentration, was typically stronger at northern measurement sites compared to other locations. Models had large differences in their seasonal representation, and they can be roughly divided into two categories: for EC-Earth and NorESM, the seasonal cycle was relatively similar for all sites, and for other models the pattern of seasonality varied between northern and southern sites. In addition, the variability in concentrations across sites varied between models, some having relatively similar concentrations for all sites, whereas others showed clear differences in concentrations between remote and urban sites. To conclude, although all of the model simulations had identical input data to describe anthropogenic mass emissions, trends in differently sized particles vary among the models due to assumptions in emission sizes and differences in how models treat size-dependent aerosol processes. The inter-model variability was largest in the accumulation mode, i.e. sizes which have implications for aerosol-cloud interactions. Our analysis also indicates that between models there is a large variation in efficiency of long-range transportation of aerosols to remote locations. The differences in model results are most likely due to the more complex effect of different processes instead of one specific feature (e.g. the representation of aerosol or emission size distributions). Hence, a more detailed characterization of microphysical processes and deposition processes affecting the long-range transport is needed to understand the model variability.
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    A full year of aerosol size distribution data from the central Arctic under an extreme positive Arctic Oscillation: insights from the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition
    (Katlenburg-Lindau : EGU, 2023) Boyer, Matthew; Aliaga, Diego; Pernov, Jakob Boyd; Angot, Hélène; Quéléver, Lauriane L. J.; Dada, Lubna; Heutte, Benjamin; Dall'Osto, Manuel; Beddows, David C. S.; Brasseur, Zoé; Beck, Ivo; Bucci, Silvia; Duetsch, Marina; Stohl, Andreas; Laurila, Tiia; Asmi, Eija; Massling, Andreas; Thomas, Daniel Charles; Nøjgaard, Jakob Klenø; Chan, Tak; Sharma, Sangeeta; Tunved, Peter; Krejci, Radovan; Hansson, Hans Christen; Bianchi, Federico; Lehtipalo, Katrianne; Wiedensohler, Alfred; Weinhold, Kay; Kulmala, Markku; Petäjä, Tuukka; Sipilä, Mikko; Schmale, Julia; Jokinen, Tuija
    The Arctic environment is rapidly changing due to accelerated warming in the region. The warming trend is driving a decline in sea ice extent, which thereby enhances feedback loops in the surface energy budget in the Arctic. Arctic aerosols play an important role in the radiative balance and hence the climate response in the region, yet direct observations of aerosols over the Arctic Ocean are limited. In this study, we investigate the annual cycle in the aerosol particle number size distribution (PNSD), particle number concentration (PNC), and black carbon (BC) mass concentration in the central Arctic during the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition. This is the first continuous, year-long data set of aerosol PNSD ever collected over the sea ice in the central Arctic Ocean. We use a k-means cluster analysis, FLEXPART simulations, and inverse modeling to evaluate seasonal patterns and the influence of different source regions on the Arctic aerosol population. Furthermore, we compare the aerosol observations to land-based sites across the Arctic, using both long-term measurements and observations during the year of the MOSAiC expedition (2019-2020), to investigate interannual variability and to give context to the aerosol characteristics from within the central Arctic. Our analysis identifies that, overall, the central Arctic exhibits typical seasonal patterns of aerosols, including anthropogenic influence from Arctic haze in winter and secondary aerosol processes in summer. The seasonal pattern corresponds to the global radiation, surface air temperature, and timing of sea ice melting/freezing, which drive changes in transport patterns and secondary aerosol processes. In winter, the Norilsk region in Russia/Siberia was the dominant source of Arctic haze signals in the PNSD and BC observations, which contributed to higher accumulation-mode PNC and BC mass concentrations in the central Arctic than at land-based observatories. We also show that the wintertime Arctic Oscillation (AO) phenomenon, which was reported to achieve a record-breaking positive phase during January-March 2020, explains the unusual timing and magnitude of Arctic haze across the Arctic region compared to longer-term observations. In summer, the aerosol PNCs of the nucleation and Aitken modes are enhanced; however, concentrations were notably lower in the central Arctic over the ice pack than at land-based sites further south. The analysis presented herein provides a current snapshot of Arctic aerosol processes in an environment that is characterized by rapid changes, which will be crucial for improving climate model predictions, understanding linkages between different environmental processes, and investigating the impacts of climate change in future Arctic aerosol studies.
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    High Gas-Phase Methanesulfonic Acid Production in the OH-Initiated Oxidation of Dimethyl Sulfide at Low Temperatures
    (Columbus, Ohio : American Chemical Society, 2022) Shen, Jiali; Scholz, Wiebke; He, Xu-Cheng; Zhou, Putian; Marie, Guillaume; Wang, Mingyi; Marten, Ruby; Surdu, Mihnea; Rörup, Birte; Baalbaki, Rima; Amorim, Antonio; Ataei, Farnoush; Bell, David M.; Bertozzi, Barbara; Brasseur, Zoé; Caudillo, Lucía; Chen, Dexian; Chu, Biwu; Dada, Lubna; Duplissy, Jonathan; Finkenzeller, Henning; Granzin, Manuel; Guida, Roberto; Heinritzi, Martin; Hofbauer, Victoria; Iyer, Siddharth; Kemppainen, Deniz; Kong, Weimeng; Krechmer, Jordan E.; Kürten, Andreas; Lamkaddam, Houssni; Lee, Chuan Ping; Lopez, Brandon; Mahfouz, Naser G. A.; Manninen, Hanna E.; Massabò, Dario; Mauldin, Roy L.; Mentler, Bernhard; Müller, Tatjana; Pfeifer, Joschka; Philippov, Maxim; Piedehierro, Ana A.; Roldin, Pontus; Schobesberger, Siegfried; Simon, Mario; Stolzenburg, Dominik; Tham, Yee Jun; Tomé, António; Umo, Nsikanabasi Silas; Wang, Dongyu; Wang, Yonghong; Weber, Stefan K.; Welti, André; Wollesen de Jonge, Robin; Wu, Yusheng; Zauner-Wieczorek, Marcel; Zust, Felix; Baltensperger, Urs; Curtius, Joachim; Flagan, Richard C.; Hansel, Armin; Möhler, Ottmar; Petäjä, Tuukka; Volkamer, Rainer; Kulmala, Markku; Lehtipalo, Katrianne; Rissanen, Matti; Kirkby, Jasper; El-Haddad, Imad; Bianchi, Federico; Sipilä, Mikko; Donahue, Neil M.; Worsnop, Douglas R.
    Dimethyl sulfide (DMS) influences climate via cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) formation resulting from its oxidation products (mainly methanesulfonic acid, MSA, and sulfuric acid, H2SO4). Despite their importance, accurate prediction of MSA and H2SO4from DMS oxidation remains challenging. With comprehensive experiments carried out in the Cosmics Leaving Outdoor Droplets (CLOUD) chamber at CERN, we show that decreasing the temperature from +25 to -10 °C enhances the gas-phase MSA production by an order of magnitude from OH-initiated DMS oxidation, while H2SO4production is modestly affected. This leads to a gas-phase H2SO4-to-MSA ratio (H2SO4/MSA) smaller than one at low temperatures, consistent with field observations in polar regions. With an updated DMS oxidation mechanism, we find that methanesulfinic acid, CH3S(O)OH, MSIA, forms large amounts of MSA. Overall, our results reveal that MSA yields are a factor of 2-10 higher than those predicted by the widely used Master Chemical Mechanism (MCMv3.3.1), and the NOxeffect is less significant than that of temperature. Our updated mechanism explains the high MSA production rates observed in field observations, especially at low temperatures, thus, substantiating the greater importance of MSA in the natural sulfur cycle and natural CCN formation. Our mechanism will improve the interpretation of present-day and historical gas-phase H2SO4/MSA measurements.
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    Overview: Integrative and Comprehensive Understanding on Polar Environments (iCUPE) – concept and initial results
    (Katlenburg-Lindau : EGU, 2020) Petäjä, Tuukka; Duplissy, Ella-Maria; Tabakova, Ksenia; Schmale, Julia; Altstädter, Barbara; Ancellet, Gerard; Arshinov, Mikhail; Balin, Yurii; Baltensperger, Urs; Bange, Jens; Beamish, Alison; Belan, Boris; Berchet, Antoine; Bossi, Rossana; Cairns, Warren R.L.; Ebinghaus, Ralf; El Haddad, Imad; Ferreira-Araujo, Beatriz; Franck, Anna; Huang, Lin; Hyvärinen, Antti; Humbert, Angelika; Kalogridis, Athina-Cerise; Konstantinov, Pavel; Lampert, Astrid; MacLeod, Matthew; Magand, Olivier; Mahura, Alexander; Marelle, Louis; Masloboev, Vladimir; Moisseev, Dmitri; Moschos, Vaios; Neckel, Niklas; Onishi, Tatsuo; Osterwalder, Stefan; Ovaska, Aino; Paasonen, Pauli; Panchenko, Mikhail; Pankratov, Fidel; Pernov, Jakob B.; Platis, Andreas; Popovicheva, Olga; Raut, Jean-Christophe; Riandet, Aurélie; Sachs, Torsten; Salvatori, Rosamaria; Salzano, Roberto; Schröder, Ludwig; Schön, Martin; Shevchenko, Vladimir; Skov, Henrik; Sonke, Jeroen E.; Spolaor, Andrea; Stathopoulos, Vasileios K.; Strahlendorff, Mikko; Thomas, Jennie L.; Vitale, Vito; Vratolis, Sterios; Barbante, Carlo; Chabrillat, Sabine; Dommergue, Aurélien; Eleftheriadis, Konstantinos; Heilimo, Jyri; Law, Kathy S.; Massling, Andreas; Noe, Steffen M.; Paris, Jean-Daniel; Prévôt, André S.H.; Riipinen, Ilona; Wehner, Birgit; Xie, Zhiyong; Lappalainen, Hanna K.
    The role of polar regions is increasing in terms of megatrends such as globalization, new transport routes, demography, and the use of natural resources with consequent effects on regional and transported pollutant concentrations. We set up the ERA-PLANET Strand 4 project “iCUPE – integrative and Comprehensive Understanding on Polar Environments” to provide novel insights and observational data on global grand challenges with an Arctic focus. We utilize an integrated approach combining in situ observations, satellite remote sensing Earth observations (EOs), and multi-scale modeling to synthesize data from comprehensive long-term measurements, intensive campaigns, and satellites to deliver data products, metrics, and indicators to stakeholders concerning the environmental status, availability, and extraction of natural resources in the polar areas. The iCUPE work consists of thematic state-of-the-art research and the provision of novel data in atmospheric pollution, local sources and transboundary transport, the characterization of arctic surfaces and their changes, an assessment of the concentrations and impacts of heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants and their cycling, the quantification of emissions from natural resource extraction, and the validation and optimization of satellite Earth observation (EO) data streams. In this paper we introduce the iCUPE project and summarize initial results arising out of the integration of comprehensive in situ observations, satellite remote sensing, and multi-scale modeling in the Arctic context.
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    Phenomenology of ultrafine particle concentrations and size distribution across urban Europe
    (Amsterdam [u.a.] : Elsevier Science, 2023) Trechera, Pedro; Garcia-Marlès, Meritxell; Liu, Xiansheng; Reche, Cristina; Pérez, Noemí; Savadkoohi, Marjan; Beddows, David; Salma, Imre; Vörösmarty, Máté; Casans, Andrea; Casquero-Vera, Juan Andrés; Hueglin, Christoph; Marchand, Nicolas; Chazeau, Benjamin; Gille, Grégory; Kalkavouras, Panayiotis; Mihalopoulos, Nikos; Ondracek, Jakub; Zikova, Nadia; Niemi, Jarkko V.; Manninen, Hanna E.; Green, David C.; Tremper, Anja H.; Norman, Michael; Vratolis, Stergios; Eleftheriadis, Konstantinos; Gómez-Moreno, Francisco J.; Alonso-Blanco, Elisabeth; Gerwig, Holger; Wiedensohler, Alfred; Weinhold, Kay; Merkel, Maik; Bastian, Susanne; Petit, Jean-Eudes; Favez, Olivier; Crumeyrolle, Suzanne; Ferlay, Nicolas; Martins Dos Santos, Sebastiao; Putaud, Jean-Philippe; Timonen, Hilkka; Lampilahti, Janne; Asbach, Christof; Wolf, Carmen; Kaminski, Heinz; Altug, Hicran; Hoffmann, Barbara; Rich, David Q.; Pandolfi, Marco; Harrison, Roy M.; Hopke, Philip K.; Petäjä, Tuukka; Alastuey, Andrés; Querol, Xavier
    The 2017–2019 hourly particle number size distributions (PNSD) from 26 sites in Europe and 1 in the US were evaluated focusing on 16 urban background (UB) and 6 traffic (TR) sites in the framework of Research Infrastructures services reinforcing air quality monitoring capacities in European URBAN & industrial areaS (RI-URBANS) project. The main objective was to describe the phenomenology of urban ultrafine particles (UFP) in Europe with a significant air quality focus. The varying lower size detection limits made it difficult to compare PN concentrations (PNC), particularly PN10-25, from different cities. PNCs follow a TR > UB > Suburban (SUB) order. PNC and Black Carbon (BC) progressively increase from Northern Europe to Southern Europe and from Western to Eastern Europe. At the UB sites, typical traffic rush hour PNC peaks are evident, many also showing midday-morning PNC peaks anti-correlated with BC. These peaks result from increased PN10-25, suggesting significant PNC contributions from nucleation, fumigation and shipping. Site types to be identified by daily and seasonal PNC and BC patterns are: (i) PNC mainly driven by traffic emissions, with marked correlations with BC on different time scales; (ii) marked midday/morning PNC peaks and a seasonal anti-correlation with PNC/BC; (iii) both traffic peaks and midday peaks without marked seasonal patterns. Groups (ii) and (iii) included cities with high insolation. PNC, especially PN25-800, was positively correlated with BC, NO2, CO and PM for several sites. The variable correlation of PNSD with different urban pollutants demonstrates that these do not reflect the variability of UFP in urban environments. Specific monitoring of PNSD is needed if nanoparticles and their associated health impacts are to be assessed. Implementation of the CEN-ACTRIS recommendations for PNSD measurements would provide comparable measurements, and measurements of <10 nm PNC are needed for full evaluation of the health effects of this size fraction.