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Journal ArticleDOI

Size Matters More Than Chemistry for Cloud-Nucleating Ability of Aerosol Particles

TLDR
Size-resolved cloud condensation nuclei spectra measured for various aerosol types at a non-urban site in Germany showed that CCN concentrations are mainly determined by the aerosol number size distribution.
Abstract
Size-resolved cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) spectra measured for various aerosol types at a non-urban site in Germany showed that CCN concentrations are mainly determined by the aerosol number size distribution. Distinct variations of CCN activation with particle chemical composition were observed but played a secondary role. When the temporal variation of chemical effects on CCN activation is neglected, variation in the size distribution alone explains 84 to 96% of the variation in CCN concentrations. Understanding that particles' ability to act as CCN is largely controlled by aerosol size rather than composition greatly facilitates the treatment of aerosol effects on cloud physics in regional and global models.

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Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI

Bounding the role of black carbon in the climate system: A scientific assessment

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provided an assessment of black-carbon climate forcing that is comprehensive in its inclusion of all known and relevant processes and that is quantitative in providing best estimates and uncertainties of the main forcing terms: direct solar absorption; influence on liquid, mixed phase, and ice clouds; and deposition on snow and ice.
Journal ArticleDOI

A single parameter representation of hygroscopic growth and cloud condensation nucleus activity

TL;DR: In this paper, a method to describe the relationship between particle dry diameter and cloud condensation activity using a single hygroscopicity parameter is presented. But this method is limited to single and multi-component particles with varying amounts of inorganic, organic and surface active compounds.
Journal ArticleDOI

Flood or drought: How do aerosols affect precipitation?

TL;DR: A conceptual model is proposed that explains this apparent dichotomy of pristine tropical clouds with low CCN concentrations rain out too quickly to mature into long-lived clouds and heavily polluted clouds evaporate much of their water before precipitation can occur.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI

Organic aerosol and global climate modelling: a review

TL;DR: In this article, the authors reviewed existing knowledge with regard to organic aerosol (OA) of importance for global climate modelling and defined critical gaps needed to reduce the involved uncertainties, and synthesized the information to provide a continuous analysis of the flow from the emitted material to the atmosphere up to the point of the climate impact of the produced organic aerosols.
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Global indirect aerosol effects: a review

TL;DR: In this article, the effects of aerosols on the climate system are discussed and different approaches how the climatic implications of these effects can be estimated globally as well as improvements that are needed in global climate models in order to better represent indirect aerosol effects are discussed.
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Development of an Aerosol Mass Spectrometer for Size and Composition Analysis of Submicron Particles

TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe an aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS) which has been developed in response to these aerosol sampling needs and demonstrate quantitative mea surement capability for a laboratory-generated pure component NH4 NO3 aerosol.
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Cloud albedo enhancement by surface-active organic solutes in growing droplets

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors report measurements on vacuum-evaporated samples of cloud water from the Po Valley, Italy, that show a large decrease in surface tension, by up to about one-third relative to pure water, for realistic concentrations of organic solutes expected to exist in growing droplets.
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Strong present-day aerosol cooling implies a hot future

TL;DR: Strong aerosol cooling in the past and present would imply that future global warming may proceed at or even above the upper extreme of the range projected by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.