AAAR 31st Annual Conference
October 8-12, 2012
Hyatt Regency Minneapolis
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Abstract View
Parameterization for Nanoparticle Growth
SILJA HÄKKINEN, Hanna Manninen, Joonas Merikanto, Maija Kajos, Tuomo Nieminen, Markku Kulmala, Ilona Riipinen, University of Helsinki
Abstract Number: 118 Working Group: Aerosol Physics
Abstract We present a simple parameterization for atmospheric nanoparticle growth using extensive field data acquired from several measurement stations around Europe. The parameterization includes particle condensational growth by sulfuric acid, secondary organics from monoterpene oxidation and additional unknown condensing species. To capture the size dependency of condensation particle growth in three size classes (1.5 to 3 nm, 3 to 7 nm and 7 to 20 nm) was determined. The performance of the proposed parameterization was investigated using particle growth rates calculated from long-term particle number size distribution measurements over Europe. The longest time series of 7 years (2003 to 2009) was acquired from a boreal forest site in Hyytiälä, Finland. The long-term measurements made it possible to test how well the parameterization captures the seasonal pattern of particle growth relevant for climate and air quality studies. The results from the model-measurement comparison were encouraging and suggest that the proposed parameterization of nanoparticle growth can be further used to describe the growth process of freshly nucleated particles in large-scale atmospheric models.