AAAR 32nd Annual Conference
September 30 - October 4, 2013
Oregon Convention Center
Portland, Oregon, USA
Abstract View
Modeling the Impact of Surface Adsorption of Organic Gases on Aerosol Surface Tension and Cloud Droplet Formation
V. FAYE MCNEILL, Columbia University
Abstract Number: 580 Working Group: Aerosols, Clouds, and Climate
Abstract We recently showed experimentally that the adsorption of surface-active organic gases from the gas phase can depress aerosol surface tension, leading to enhanced cloud droplet formation (Sareen et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 2013). We have developed a general analytical approach for predicting aerosol surface tension based on gas-phase surfactant loadings, taking into account the effects of both bulk uptake and surface adsorption. These predictions allow calculation of the particle hygroscopicity and predictions of cloud droplet formation. This approach may be used alone or in conjunction with atmospheric chemistry models such as the McNeill Group model, GAMMA (McNeill et al., ES&T 2012). We will present results for atmospheric scenarios and highlight needs for additional experimental work.