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    Infrequent new particle formation over the remote boreal forest of Siberia
    (Amsterdam [u.a.] : Elsevier Science, 2018) Wiedensohler, A.; Ma, N.; Birmili, W.; Heintzenberg, J.; Ditas, F.; Andreae, M.O.; Panov, A.
    Aerosol particle number size distributions (PNSD) were investigated to verify, if extremely low-volatility organic vapors (ELVOC) from natural sources alone could induce new particle formation and growth events over the remote boreal forest region of Siberia, hundreds of kilometers away from significant anthropogenic sources. We re-evaluated observations determined at a height of 300 m of the remote observatory ZOTTO (Zotino Tall Tower Observatory, http://www.zottoproject.org). We found that new particle formation events occurred only on 11 days in a 3-year period, suggesting that homogeneous nucleation with a subsequent condensational growth could not be the major process, maintaining the particle number concentration in the planetary boundary layer of the remote boreal forest area of Siberia. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd
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    Variability of black carbon mass concentrations, sub-micrometer particle number concentrations and size distributions: results of the German Ultrafine Aerosol Network ranging from city street to High Alpine locations
    (Amsterdam [u.a.] : Elsevier Science, 2018) Sun, J.; Birmili, W.; Hermann, M.; Tuch, T.; Weinhold, K.; Spindler, G.; Schladitz, A.; Bastian, S.; Löschau, G.; Cyrys, J.; Gu, J.; Flentje, H.; Briel, B.; Asbac, C.; Kaminski, H.; Ries, L.; Sohme, R.; Gerwig, H.; Wirtz, K.; Meinhardt, F.; Schwerin, A.; Bath, O.; Ma, N.; Wiedensohler, A.
    This work reports the first statistical analysis of multi-annual data on tropospheric aerosols from the German Ultrafine Aerosol Network (GUAN). Compared to other networks worldwide, GUAN with 17 measurement locations has the most sites equipped with particle number size distribution (PNSD) and equivalent black carbon (eBC) instruments and the most site categories in Germany ranging from city street/roadside to High Alpine. As we know, the variations of eBC and particle number concentration (PNC) are influenced by several factors such as source, transformation, transport and deposition. The dominant controlling factor for different pollutant parameters might be varied, leading to the different spatio-temporal variations among the measured parameters. Currently, a study of spatio-temporal variations of PNSD and eBC considering the influences of both site categories and spatial scale is still missing. Based on the multi-site dataset of GUAN, the goal of this study is to investigate how pollutant parameters may interfere with spatial characteristics and site categories. © 2019 The Authors
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    The evolution of cloud and aerosol microphysics at the summit of Mt. Tai, China
    (Katlenburg-Lindau : EGU, 2020) Li, Jiarong; Zhu, Chao; Chen, Hui; Zhao, Defeng; Xue, Likun; Wang, Xinfeng; Li, Hongyong; Liu, Pengfei; Liu, Junfeng; Zhang, Chenglong; Mu, Yujing; Zhang, Wenjin; Zhang, Luming; Herrmann, Hartmut; Li, Kai; Liu, Min; Chen, Jianmin
    The influence of aerosols, both natural and anthropogenic, remains a major area of uncertainty when predicting the properties and the behaviours of clouds and their influence on climate. In an attempt to better understand the microphysical properties of cloud droplets, the simultaneous variations in aerosol microphysics and their potential interactions during cloud life cycles in the North China Plain, an intensive observation took place from 17 June to 30 July 2018 at the summit of Mt. Tai. Cloud microphysical parameters were monitored simultaneously with number concentrations of cloud condensation nuclei (NCCN) at different supersaturations, PM2:5 mass concentrations, particle size distributions and meteorological parameters. Number concentrations of cloud droplets (NC), liquid water content (LWC) and effective radius of cloud droplets (reff) show large variations among 40 cloud events observed during the campaign. The low values of reff and LWC observed at Mt. Tai are comparable with urban fog. Clouds on clean days are more susceptible to the change in concentrations of particle number (NP), while clouds formed on polluted days might be more sensitive to meteorological parameters, such as updraft velocity and cloud base height. Through studying the size distributions of aerosol particles and cloud droplets, we find that particles larger than 150 nm play important roles in forming cloud droplets with the size of 5-10 μm. In general, LWC consistently varies with reff. As NC increases, reff changes from a trimodal distribution to a unimodal distribution and shifts to smaller size mode. By assuming a constant cloud thickness and ignoring any lifetime effects, increase in NC and decrease in reff would increase cloud albedo, which may induce a cooling effect on the local climate system. Our results contribute valuable information to enhance the understanding of cloud and aerosol properties, along with their potential interactions on the North China plain. © Author(s) 2020.