Cloud condensation nuclei closure during the International Consortium for Atmospheric Research on Transport and Transformation 2004 campaign: Effects of size-resolved composition

Measurements of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN), aerosol size distribution and chemical composition were obtained at the UNH-AIRMAP Thompson Farms site, during the ICARTT 2004 campaign. This work focuses on the analysis of a week of measurements, during which semiurban and continental air were sampled. Predictions of CCN concentrations were carried out using "simple" Köhler theory; the predictions are subsequently compared with CCN measurements at 0.2%, 0.3%, 0.37%, 0.5% and 0.6% supersaturation. Using size-averaged chemical composition, CCN are substantially overpredicted (by 35.8 ± 28.5%). Introducing size-dependent chemical composition substantially improved closure (average error 17.4 ± 27.0%). CCN closure is worse during periods of changing wind direction, suggesting that the introduction of aerosol mixing state into CCN predictions may sometimes be required. Finally, knowledge of the soluble salt fraction is sufficient for description of CCN activity. Copyright 2007 by the American Geophysical Union.

Hygroscopicity and composition of California CCN during summer 2010

Athanasios Nenes

We present an overview and analysis of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) sampled in California by a NOAA WP-3D aircraft during the 2010 CalNex project. Four distinct geographical regions are characterized, including the Los Angeles basin, the San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys, and the eastern Pacific Ocean west of southern California. Median size distributions in the Central Valley were unimodal (Dg ∼ 25nm) with a larger fraction of organic species and smaller fraction of nitrate species in the Sacramento Valley aerosol than in the San Joaquin Valley aerosol. Size distributions in the Los Angeles basin and marine outflow were bimodal (geometric mean diameter, Dg ∼ 30, 90-100nm) with similar organic fractions and some replacement of nitrate with sulfate in the marine outflow. Both fine particle and CCN concentrations were found to decrease rapidly above the planetary boundary layer (∼2 km altitude), with CCN concentrations in the boundary layer ranging from ∼102-104cm-3 STP, while fine particle concentrations (0.004-1 m diameters) ranged from ∼103-10 5 cm-3 STP. The CCN-active number fraction varied between 0-100% in the Los Angeles Basin and Marine Outflow, but was substantially lower (0-40%) in the San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys. Values of the hygroscopicity parameter, , inferred from the CCN measurements varied from 0.1-0.25, with the highest values in the marine outflow and the lowest values in the Sacramento Valley. The values agreed well with the predictions based on size-resolved aerosol composition, but were overpredicted by almost twofold when size-averaged composition was used. CCN closure was assessed for simplified compositional and mixing state assumptions, and it was found that assuming the aerosol to be internally mixed overpredicted CCN concentrations by 30-75% for all air mass types except within the Sacramento Valley, where good closure (overprediction < 10%) was achieved by assuming insoluble organics. Assuming an externally-mixed aerosol fraction or incorporating size-resolved composition data improved closure in the other three regions, consistent with the bimodal nature of the aerosol size distribution. © 2012 by the American Geophysical Union.

Blackwell Publishing Ltd2012

Incorporating an advanced aerosol activation parameterization into WRF-CAM5: Model evaluation and parameterization intercomparison

Athanasios Nenes, Xiuwei Zhang, Yi Zhang

Aerosol activation into cloud droplets is an important process that governs aerosol indirect effects. The advanced treatment of aerosol activation by Fountoukis and Nenes (2005) and its recent updates, collectively called the FN series, have been incorporated into a newly developed regional coupled climate-air quality model based on the Weather Research and Forecasting model with the physics package of the Community Atmosphere Model version 5 (WRF-CAM5) to simulate aerosol-cloud interactions in both resolved and convective clouds. The model is applied to East Asia for two full years of 2005 and 2010. A comprehensive model evaluation is performed for model predictions of meteorological, radiative, and cloud variables, chemical concentrations, and column mass abundances against satellite data and surface observations from air quality monitoring sites across East Asia. The model performs overall well for major meteorological variables including near-surface temperature, specific humidity, wind speed, precipitation, cloud fraction, precipitable water, downward shortwave and longwave radiation, and column mass abundances of CO, SO2, NO2, HCHO, and O3 in terms of both magnitudes and spatial distributions. Larger biases exist in the predictions of surface concentrations of CO and NOx at all sites and SO2, O3, PM2.5, and PM10 concentrations at some sites, aerosol optical depth, cloud condensation nuclei over ocean, cloud droplet number concentration (CDNC), cloud liquid and ice water path, and cloud optical thickness. Compared with the default Abdul-Razzack Ghan (2000) parameterization, simulations with the FN series produce ~107-113% higher CDNC, with half of the difference attributable to the higher aerosol activation fraction by the FN series and the remaining half due to feedbacks in subsequent cloud microphysical processes. With the higher CDNC, the FN series are more skillful in simulating cloud water path, cloud optical thickness, downward shortwave radiation, shortwave cloud forcing, and precipitation. The model evaluation identifies several areas of improvements including emissions and their vertical allocation as well as model formulations such as aerosol formation, cloud droplet nucleation, and ice nucleation. © 2015. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.

Wiley-Blackwell2015

Incorporating an advanced aerosol activation parameterization into WRF-CAM5: Model evaluation and parameterization intercomparison

Athanasios Nenes, Xiuwei Zhang, Yi Zhang

Wiley-Blackwell2015

Hygroscopicity and composition of California CCN during summer 2010

Athanasios Nenes

Blackwell Publishing Ltd2012