2015, Fomba, K.W., van Pinxteren, D., Müller, K., Iinuma, Y., Lee, T., Collett Jr., J.L., Herrmann, H.

Trace metal characterization of bulk and size-resolved aerosol and cloud water samples were performed during the Hill Cap Cloud Thuringia (HCCT) campaign. Cloud water was collected at the top of Mt. Schmücke while aerosol samples were collected at two stations upwind and downwind of Mt. Schmücke. Fourteen trace metals including Ti, V, Fe, Mn, Co, Zn, Ni, Cu, As, Sr, Rb, Pb, Cr, and Se were investigated during four full cloud events (FCEs) that fulfilled the conditions of a continuous air mass flow through the three stations. Aerosol particle trace metal concentrations were found to be lower than those observed in the same region during previous field experiments but were within a similar range to those observed in other rural regions in Europe. Fe and Zn were the most abundant elements with concentration ranges of 0.2–111.6 and 1.1–32.1 ng m−3, respectively. Fe, Mn, and Ti were mainly found in coarse mode aerosols while Zn, Pb, and As were mostly found in the fine mode. Correlation and enrichment factor analysis of trace metals revealed that trace metals such as Ti and Rb were mostly of crustal origin while trace metals such as Zn, Pb, As, Cr, Ni, V, and Cu were of anthropogenic origin. Trace metals such as Fe and Mn were of mixed origins including crustal and combustion sources. Trace metal cloud water concentration decreased from Ti, Mn, Cr, to Co with average concentrations of 9.18, 5.59, 5.54, and 0.46 μg L−1, respectively. A non-uniform distribution of soluble Fe, Cu, and Mn was observed across the cloud drop sizes. Soluble Fe and Cu were found mainly in cloud droplets with diameters between 16 and 22 μm, while Mn was found mostly in larger drops greater than 22 μm. Fe(III) was the main form of soluble Fe especially in the small and larger drops with concentrations ranging from 2.2 to 37.1 μg L−1. In contrast to other studies, Fe(II) was observed mainly in the evening hours, implying its presence was not directly related to photochemical processes. Aerosol–cloud interaction did not lead to a marked increase in soluble trace metal concentrations; rather it led to differences in the chemical composition of the aerosol due to preferential loss of aerosol particles through physical processes including cloud drop deposition to vegetative surfaces.

2015, Hande, L.B., Engler, C., Hoose, C., Tegen, I.

Dust aerosols are thought to be the main contributor to atmospheric ice nucleation. While there are case studies supporting this, a climatological sense of the importance of dust to atmospheric ice nucleating particle (INP) concentrations and its seasonal variability over Europe is lacking. Here, we use a mesoscale model to estimate Saharan dust concentrations over Europe in 2008. There are large differences in median dust concentrations between seasons, with the highest concentrations and highest variability in the lower to mid-troposphere. Laboratory-based ice nucleation parameterisations are applied to these simulated dust number concentrations to calculate the potential INP resulting from immersion freezing and deposition nucleation on these dust particles. The potential INP concentrations increase exponentially with height due to decreasing temperatures in the lower and mid-troposphere. When the ice-activated fraction increases sufficiently, INP concentrations follow the dust particle concentrations. The potential INP profiles exhibit similarly large differences between seasons, with the highest concentrations in spring (median potential immersion INP concentrations nearly 105 m−3, median potential deposition INP concentrations at 120% relative humidity with respect to ice over 105 m−3), about an order of magnitude larger than those in summer. Using these results, a best-fit function is provided to estimate the potential INPs for use in limited-area models, which is representative of the normal background INP concentrations over Europe. A statistical evaluation of the results against field and laboratory measurements indicates that the INP concentrations are in close agreement with observations.