AAAR 33rd Annual Conference
October 20 - October 24, 2014
Rosen Shingle Creek
Orlando, Florida, USA
Abstract View
Atmospheric Nanoparticle Growth: From Nano- to Global Scale
ILONA RIIPINEN, Jan Julin, Taina Yli-Juuti, Silja Häkkinen, Lars Ahlm, Juan-Camillo Acosta Navarro, Ivica Crljenica, Katrianne Lehtipalo, Stephen D'Andrea, Jeffrey Pierce, Stockholm University
Abstract Number: 498 Working Group: Advances in the Physics and Chemistry of New Particle Formation and Growth
Abstract The way that condensable material is distributed to the atmospheric aerosol size distribution is among the key factors defining the properties and impacts of atmospheric particulate matter. Specifically, the number concentrations of ultrafine particles and CCN are largely governed by whether the secondary compounds can grow newly-formed clusters and particles to larger sizes or whether they condense primarily to the larger (> 100 nm) fraction of the atmospheric aerosol population. Knowledge on 1) the identities of the condensing molecules; 2) their thermodynamic (e.g. volatility) and kinetic (e.g. accommodation coefficients) properties is needed develop mechanistic models describing the nanoparticle growth process. Using detailed mechanistic growth models together with observational data from laboratory and field has enabled us to constrain the processes and molecules responsible for the growth of atmospheric nanoparticles – as well as related them to total formed the secondary aerosol mass. In this presentation I review our recent findings about the volatility of atmospheric nanoparticles and the thermodynamic and kinetic properties of the molecules growing these particles to climatically relevant sizes – covering both secondary organics as well as systems containing sufuric acid, ammonia and amines. Furthermore, I discuss the options of simplifying the growth process in atmospheric large-scale models in a physically and chemically consistent manner.