AAAR 35th Annual Conference October 17 - October 21, 2016 Oregon Convention Center Portland, Oregon, USA
Abstract View
Seasonal Variation in Remote Marine Aerosol and Cloud Condensation Nuclei Relevant for Cloud Formation
RICHARD MOORE, Ewan Crosbie, Luke Ziemba, Timothy A. Berkoff, Gao Chen, Chelsea Corr, Johnathan Hair, Chris Hostetler, Michael Shook, Kenneth Thornhill, Edward Winstead, Bruce Anderson, NAAMES Science Team, NASA Langley Research Center
Abstract Number: 615 Working Group: Aerosols, Clouds, and Climate
Abstract It is well known that increased ocean biological activity translates into increased concentrations of submicron organic aerosol that can be transported over large distances (e.g., O’Dowd et al., Nature, 2004); however, the impact of these organic aerosols on CCN and the sensitivity of clouds to these aerosols in the local remote marine atmosphere remain highly uncertain. Model simulations suggest that clouds in these remote oceanic regions are highly CCN-limited as compared to continental clouds that are close to aerosol emissions sources (Moore et al., Atmos. Chem. Phys., 2013). Thus, it might be expected that these clouds would be highly sensitive to presence of these biogenic aerosols.
We present airborne in situ measurements of aerosol and cloud microphysical properties and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) spectra carried out during November 2015 and May 2016 as part of the North Atlantic Aerosols and Marine Ecosystems Study (NAAMES). These field campaigns target the minimum and maximum of the annual North Atlantic phytoplankton bloom, respectively, and provide an excellent opportunity to examine the influence of biogenic aerosols on CCN and clouds in the absence of anthropogenic pollution. The cloud droplet sensitivity to aerosols in this region will be discussed.