[1] A size-segregated multicomponent aerosol algorithm, the Canadian Aerosol Module (CAM), was developed for use with climate and air quality models. It includes major aerosol processes in the atmosphere: generation, hygroscopic growth, coagulation, nucleation, condensation, dry deposition/sedimentation, below-cloud scavenging, aerosol activation, a cloud module with explicit microphysical processes to treat aerosol-cloud interactions and chemical transformation of sulphur species in clear air and in clouds. The numerical solution was optimized to efficiently solve the complicated size-segregated multicomponent aerosol system and make it feasible to be included in global and regional models. An internal mixture is assumed for all types of aerosols except for soil dust and black carbon which are assumed to be externally mixed close to sources. To test the algorithm, emissions to the atmosphere of anthropogenic and natural aerosols are simulated for two aerosol types: sea salt and sulphate. A comparison was made of two numerical solutions of the aerosol algorithm: process splitting and ordinary differential equation (ODE) solver. It was found that the process-splitting method used for this model is within 15% of the more accurate ODE solution for the total sulphate mass concentration and <1% accurate for sea-salt concentration. Furthermore, it is computationally more than 100 times faster. The sensitivity of the simulated size distributions to the number of size bins was also investigated. The diffusional behavior of each individual process was quantitatively characterized by the difference in the mode radius and standard deviation of a lognormal curve fit of distributions between the approximate solution and the 96-bin reference solution. Both the number and mass size distributions were adequately predicted by a sectional model of 12 bins in many situations in the atmosphere where the sink for condensable matter on existing aerosol surface area is high enough that nucleation of new particles is negligible. Total mass concentration was adequately simulated using lower size resolution of 8 bins. However, to properly resolve nucleation mode size distributions and minimize the numerical diffusion, a sectional model of 18 size bins or greater is needed. The number of size bins is more important in resolving the nucleation mode peaks than in reducing the diffusional behavior of aerosol processes. Application of CAM in a study of the global cycling of sea-salt mass accompanies this paper [Gong et al., 2002].
Physical ModelThe fate of sea-salt aerosols, once they are injected into the atmosphere from the ocean source, is governed by a series of physical processes such as transport, coagulation, dry and wet removal, and chemical transformation. Transport of aerosols is 3805
Abstract. We report measurements of rapidly photolyzable chlorine (Clp; e.g., C12 and HOC1) and bromine (Brp; e.g., Br2 and HOBO in the high Arctic using a newly developed photoactive halogen detector (PHD). Ground level ambient air was sampled daily from mid-February through mid-April in the Canadian Arctic at Alert, Northwest Territories (82.5øN, 62.3øW), as part of the Polar Sunrise Experiment (PSE) 1995. Concentrations of "total photolyzable chlorine" varied from <9 to 100 pptv as C12 and that of "total photolyzable bromine" from <4 to 38 pptv as Br2. High concentration episodes of chlorine were observed only prior to sunrise (March 21), while high concentration episodes of bromine were measured throughout the study. The high concentrations of photolyzable chlorine and bromine prior to sunrise suggest a "dark" production mechanism that we assume yields C12 and Br2. An inverse correlation of bromine with ozone is clearly present in one major ozone depletion episode at the end of March. A trajectory analysis, taken with the differences in measured levels of photolyzable chlorine and bromine after sunrise, imply different production mechanisms for these two types of species. A steady state analysis of the data for one ozone depletion episode suggests a [Br]/[C1] ratio in the range 100-300. The high concentrations of photolyzable bromine after sunrise imply the existence of a precursor other than aerosol bromide.
However, in that study the analytical sensitivity was not available to determine the isotopic composition of individual weekly aerosol samples during summer when aerosol concen-11,619
The comparison of large‐scale sulphate aerosol models study (COSAM) compared the performance of atmospheric models with each other and observations. It involved: (i) design of a standard model experiment for the world wide web, (ii) 10 model simulations of the cycles of sulphur and 222Rn/210Pb conforming to the experimental design, (iii) assemblage of the best available observations of atmospheric SO=4, SO2 and MSA and (iv) a workshop in Halifax, Canada to analyze model performance and future model development needs. The analysis presented in this paper and two companion papers by Roelofs, and Lohmann and co‐workers examines the variance between models and observations, discusses the sources of that variance and suggests ways to improve models. Variations between models in the export of SOx from Europe or North America are not sufficient to explain an order of magnitude variation in spatial distributions of SOx downwind in the northern hemisphere. On average, models predicted surface level seasonal mean SO=4 aerosol mixing ratios better (most within 20%) than SO2 mixing ratios (over‐prediction by factors of 2 or more). Results suggest that vertical mixing from the planetary boundary layer into the free troposphere in source regions is a major source of uncertainty in predicting the global distribution of SO=4 aerosols in climate models today. For improvement, it is essential that globally coordinated research efforts continue to address emissions of all atmospheric species that affect the distribution and optical properties of ambient aerosols in models and that a global network of observations be established that will ultimately produce a world aerosol chemistry climatology.
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