Stratocumulus clouds over the Southern Ocean have fewer droplets and are more likely to exist in the predominately supercooled phase than clouds at similar temperatures over northern oceans. One ...likely reason is that this region has few continental and anthropogenic sources of cloud‐nucleating particles that can form droplets and ice. In this work, we present an overview of aerosol particle types over the Southern Ocean, including new measurements made below, in and above clouds in this region. These measurements and others indicate that biogenic sulfur‐based particles >0.1 μm diameter contribute the majority of cloud condensation nuclei number concentrations in summer. Ice nucleating particles tend to have more organic components, likely from sea‐spray. Both types of cloud nucleating particles may increase in a warming climate likely to have less sea ice, more phytoplankton activity, and stronger winds over the Southern Ocean near Antarctica. Taken together, clouds over the Southern Ocean may become more reflective and partially counter the region's expected albedo decrease due to diminishing sea ice. However, detailed modeling studies are needed to test this hypothesis due to the complexity of ocean‐cloud‐climate feedbacks in the region.
Plain Language Summary
Clouds over the Southern Ocean tend to have less droplets and ice crystals than similar clouds over northern oceans due to fewer sources of cloud‐nucleating aerosol particles in the region. In this work, we present an overview of aerosol particle types over the Southern Ocean, including new measurements made below, in and above clouds. These measurements indicate that while sea‐spray‐derived salts do provide cloud nuclei, the majority of aerosol particles that influence summertime clouds in this region are biogenic—that is, derived from ocean microorganisms, with the ocean region near Antarctica being a large summertime source. These cloud‐nucleating particles may increase in a warming climate likely to have less sea ice and more phytoplankton activity near Antarctica. These additional particles could make low clouds reflect more light and offset a portion of the warming expected due to diminishing sea ice in a future climate.
Key Points
Biogenic sulfate dominates the number concentration of 0.1–0.5 microns diameter particles and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) over the summertime Southern Ocean
Biogenic organics are a key component of ice nucleating particles over the Southern Ocean
As Antarctic climate changes, increased biological activity could partially offset warming effects of sea‐ice loss via influences on CCN
The United States Embassy in Beijing, China publicly released a record of mass concentrations of particulate matter 2.5 µm and smaller in aerodynamic diameter (PM2.5), from April 2008 to the present, ...measured with a beta attenuation monitor (BAM). We compare these measurements with observations of particulate matter recorded at the Beijing Institute of Atmospheric Physics and observations of visibility recorded at the Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA) to assess their value as a record of air quality in the greater Beijing metropolitan area. We find that the PM2.5 observations correlate well with the other observations of particulate matter (PM) over the period 1 January–1 February 2013 using a tapered element oscillating microbalance and an aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS), and they exhibit a clear inverse correlation with visibility measured at BCIA. Using inverse visibility as a proxy of radiation extinction, we determine a dry mass extinction efficiency and a dependence of radiation extinction on relative humidity, which is consistent with other studies of polluted urban environments. We deduce a strong degree of homogeneity of particulate pollution across the Beijing metropolitan region and conclude that the U.S. Embassy measurements are a reliable sample of this particulate pollution during periods of photochemical smog. The U.S. Embassy observations of PM2.5 appear to remain consistent throughout the available record and can serve as a useful dataset for studying future trends in particulate matter as China implements ambitious measures to improve air quality in the region.
Key Points
Observations of PM2.5 from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing are representative of the greater Beijing metropolitan region during pollution events
Slopes of inverse visibility vs PM2.5 in Beijing increase with RH reflecting hygroscopic growth consistent with studies in Guangzhou, China
Observations of PM2.5 from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing represent a valuable resource for assessing trends in aerosol loading
The exhalation of aerosols during musical performances or rehearsals posed a risk of airborne virus transmission in the COVID‐19 pandemic. Previous research studied aerosol plumes by only focusing on ...one risk factor, either the source strength or convective transport capability. Furthermore, the source strength was characterized by the aerosol concentration and ignored the airflow rate needed for risk analysis in actual musical performances. This study characterizes aerosol plumes that account for both the source strength and convective transport capability by conducting experiments with 18 human subjects. The source strength was characterized by the source aerosol emission rate, defined as the source aerosol concentration multiplied by the source airflow rate (brass 383 particle/s, singing 408 particle/s, and woodwind 480 particle/s). The convective transport capability was characterized by the plume influence distance, defined as the sum of the horizontal jet length and horizontal instrument length (brass 0.6 m, singing 0.6 m and woodwind 0.8 m). Results indicate that woodwind instruments produced the highest risk with approximately 20% higher source aerosol emission rates and 30% higher plume influence distances compared with the average of the same risk indicators for singing and brass instruments. Interestingly, the clarinet performance produced moderate source aerosol concentrations at the instrument’s bell, but had the highest source aerosol emission rates due to high source airflow rates. Flute performance generated plumes with the lowest source aerosol emission rates but the highest plume influence distances due to the highest source airflow rate. Notably, these comprehensive results show that the source airflow is a critical component of the risk of airborne disease transmission. The effectiveness of masking and bell covering in reducing aerosol transmission is due to the mitigation of both source aerosol concentrations and plume influence distances. This study also found a musician who generated approximately five times more source aerosol concentrations than those of the other musicians who played the same instrument. Despite voice and brass instruments producing measurably lower average risk, it is possible to have an individual musician produce aerosol plumes with high source strength, resulting in enhanced transmission risk; however, our sample size was too small to make generalizable conclusions regarding the broad musician population.
Trace gases, submicron particle size distributions, and bulk filterable halogen content were measured on Ross Island, Antarctica, in austral spring 2007. During several surface level, partial ozone ...depletion events, enhanced submicron particle concentrations, and changes in filterable halogens were observed. These events were characterized by ozone depletions of 5–15 ppbv for durations between 6 and 48 h and associated with threefold‐to‐fourfold increases in submicron particle mass (PM1.0) over backgrounds of approximately 100 ng m−3. Peak particle number densities were centered on a mode at 500–600 nm in diameter, which is consistent with wintertime sea‐salt aerosol size distributions. Filterable chloride also increased during these events, consistent with aerosol being of oceanic origin. Ozone depletion and particle enhancement events were accompanied by increasing temperatures and winds, suggesting that halogen‐containing aerosol is generated from windblown snow and brine from the snow pack or sea ice near the ice edge.
Key Points
There is a correlation between aerosols and ozone depletion
This correlation is primarily in the submicron aerosol
These aerosols appear to be of oceanic origin
The bulk microphysical properties and number distribution functions (N(D)) of supercooled liquid water (SLW) and ice inside and between ubiquitous generating cells (GCs) observed over the Southern ...Ocean (SO) during the Southern Ocean Clouds Radiation Aerosol Transport Experimental Study (SOCRATES) measured by in situ cloud probes onboard the NCAR/NSF G‐V aircraft are compared. SLW was detected inside all GCs with an average liquid water content of 0.31 ± 0.19 g m−3, 11% larger than values between GCs. The N(D) of droplets (maximum dimension D < 50 μm) inside and between GCs had only slight differences. For ice particles, on the other hand, the mean concentration (median mass diameter) with D > 200 μm inside GCs was 2.0 ± 3.3 L−1 (323 ± 263 μm), 65% (37%) larger than values outside GCs. As D increases, the percentage differences became larger (up to ~500%). The more and larger ice particles inside GCs suggest the GC updrafts provide a favorable environment for particle growth by deposition and riming and that mixing processes are less efficient at redistributing larger particles. The horizontal scale of observed GCs ranged from 200 to 600 m with a mean of 395 ± 162 m, smaller than GC widths observed in previous studies. This study expands knowledge of the microphysical properties and processes acting in GCs over a wider range of conditions than previously available.
Key Points
Supercooled liquid water was detected in all generating cells (GCs) characterized by small horizontal widths over the Southern Ocean
The liquid water content and number concentration of droplets inside GCs were slightly larger than values between the GCs
The ice particle sizes, number concentrations, and dispersions inside GCs were larger than those between GCs
THE O₂/N₂ RATIO AND CO₂ AIRBORNE SOUTHERN OCEAN STUDY Stephens, Britton B.; Long, Matthew C.; Keeling, Ralph F. ...
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society,
02/2018, Letnik:
99, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The Southern Ocean plays a critical role in the global climate system by mediating atmosphere–ocean partitioning of heat and carbon dioxide. However, Earth system models are demonstrably deficient in ...the Southern Ocean, leading to large uncertainties in future air–sea CO₂ flux projections under climate warming and incomplete interpretations of natural variability on interannual to geologic time scales. Here, we describe a recent aircraft observational campaign, the O₂/N₂ Ratio and CO₂ Airborne Southern Ocean (ORCAS) study, which collected measurements over the Southern Ocean during January and February 2016. The primary research objective of the ORCAS campaign was to improve observational constraints on the seasonal exchange of atmospheric carbon dioxide and oxygen with the Southern Ocean. The campaign also included measurements of anthropogenic and marine biogenic reactive gases; high-resolution, hyperspectral ocean color imaging of the ocean surface; and microphysical data relevant for understanding and modeling cloud processes. In each of these components of the ORCAS project, the campaign has significantly expanded the amount of observational data available for this remote region. Ongoing research based on these observations will contribute to advancing our understanding of this climatically important system across a range of topics including carbon cycling, atmospheric chemistry and transport, and cloud physics. This article presents an overview of the scientific and methodological aspects of the ORCAS project and highlights early findings.
Supercooled liquid clouds are ubiquitous over the Southern Ocean (SO), even to temperatures below −20°C, and comprise a large fraction of the marine boundary layer (MBL) clouds. Earth system models ...and reanalysis products have struggled to reproduce the observed cloud phase distribution and occurrence of cloud ice in the region. Recent simulations found the microphysical representation of ice nucleation and growth has a large impact on these properties, however, measurements of SO ice nucleating particles (INPs) to validate simulations are sparse. This study presents measurements of INPs from simultaneous aircraft and ship campaigns conducted over the SO in austral summer 2018, which include the first in situ observations in and above cloud in the region. Our results confirm recent observations that INP concentrations are uniformly lower than measurements made in the late 1960s. While INP concentrations below and above cloud are similar, higher ice nucleation efficiency above cloud supports model simulations that the dominant INP composition varies with height. Model parameterizations based solely on aerosol properties capture the mean relationship between INP concentration and temperature but not the observed variability, which is likely related to the only modest correlations observed between INPs and environmental or aerosol metrics. Including wind speed in addition to activation temperature in a marine INP parameterization reduces bias but does not explain the large range of observed INP concentrations. Direct and indirect inference of marine INP size suggests MBL INPs, at least during Austral summer, are dominated by particles with diameters smaller than 500 nm.
Plain Language Summary
Although Antarctica is remote, the continent and the Southern Ocean (SO) that surrounds it play a fundamental role in shaping regional and global climate. The clouds in this region are unique, with less ice and more liquid water present at low temperatures than in other areas. This is likely related to very low concentrations of rare aerosol particles called ice nucleating particles (INPs), which cause liquid water droplets in clouds to freeze. Largely due to a lack of observations, SO clouds are poorly represented in global models, and the interactions between aerosol particles and clouds are one of the largest remaining uncertainties. This study presents results of INP measurements from several recent field campaigns over the SO, including the first observations within and above clouds in the region. Our results suggest different types of particles are present below and above clouds, which have varying ability to nucleate ice. They also highlight the need for additional measurements of INP composition and size, which are key variables needed to improve model simulations.
Key Points
First vertically resolved measurements of ice nucleating particles (INPs) over the Southern Ocean, including in‐cloud observations
Correlation between normalized INP concentrations and wind speed suggests marine active site density is variable
Higher ice nucleation efficiency observed above cloud, consistent with an increasing influence of mineral dust with height
Wildfires in the western United States are large sources of particulate matter, and the area burned by wildfires is predicted to increase in the future. Some particles released from wildfires can ...affect cloud formation by serving as ice‐nucleating particles (INPs). INPs have numerous impacts on cloud radiative properties and precipitation development. Wildfires are potentially important sources of INPs, as indicated from previous measurements, but their abundance in the free troposphere has not been quantified. The Western Wildfire Experiment for Cloud Chemistry, Aerosol Absorption, and Nitrogen campaign sampled free tropospheric immersion‐freezing INPs from smoke plumes near their source and downwind, along with widespread aged smoke. The results indicate an enhancement of INPs in smoke plumes relative to out‐of‐plume background air, but the magnitude of enhancement was both temperature and fire dependent. The majority of INPs were inferred to be predominately organic in composition with some contribution from biological sources at modest super cooling, and contributions from minerals at deeper super cooling. A fire involving primarily sagebrush shrub land and aspen forest fuels had the highest INP concentrations measured in the campaign, which is partially attributed to the INP characteristics of lofted, uncombusted plant material. Electron microscopy analysis of INPs also indicated tar balls present in this fire. Parameterization of the plume INP data on a per‐unit‐aerosol surface area basis confirmed that smoke is not an efficient source of INPs. Nevertheless, the high numbers of particles released from, and ubiquity of western US wildfires in summertime, regionally elevate INP concentrations in the free troposphere.
Key Points
Wildfires are sources of ice‐nucleating particles (INPs) to the free troposphere
INP compositions from sampled wildfires were dominated by organics
Contributions of tar ball composition INPs evidenced a secondary formation mechanism
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