Aerosol hygroscopicity and refractory black carbon (rBC) properties were characterised during wintertime at a suburban site in Paris, one of the biggest European cities. Hygroscopic growth factor (GF) frequency distributions, characterised by distinct modes of more-hygroscopic background aerosol and non- or slightly hygroscopic aerosol of local (or regional) origin, revealed an increase of the relative contribution of the local sources compared to the background aerosol with decreasing particle size. BC-containing particles in Paris were mainly originating from fresh traffic emissions, whereas biomass burning only gave a minor contribution. The mass size distribution of the rBC cores peaked on average at an rBC core mass equivalent diameter of D_MEV ~ 150 nm. The BC-containing particles were moderately coated (coating thickness Δ_coat ~ 33 nm on average for rBC cores with D_MEV = 180–280 nm) and an average mass absorption coefficient (MAC) of ~ 8.6 m² g⁻¹ at the wavelength λ = 880 nm was observed.

Different time periods were selected to investigate the properties of BC-containing particles as a function of source and air mass type. The traffic emissions were found to be non-hygroscopic (GF ≈ 1.0), and essentially all particles with a dry mobility diameter (D₀) larger than D₀ = 110 nm contained an rBC core. rBC from traffic emissions was further observed to be uncoated within experimental uncertainty (Δ_coat ~ 2 nm ± 10 nm), to have the smallest BC core sizes (maximum of the rBC core mass size distribution at D_MEV ~ 100 nm) and to have the smallest MAC (~ 7.3 m²g⁻¹ at λ = 880 nm).

The biomass burning aerosol was slightly more hygroscopic than the traffic emissions (with a distinct slightly-hygroscopic mode peaking at GF ≈ 1.1–1.2). Furthermore, only a minor fraction (≤ 10%) of the slightly-hygroscopic particles with 1.1 ≤ GF ≤ 1.2 (and D₀ = 265 nm) contained a detectable rBC core. The BC-containing particles from biomass burning were found to have a medium coating thickness as well as slightly larger mean rBC core sizes and MAC values compared to traffic emissions.

The aerosol observed under the influence of aged air masses and air masses from Eastern Continental Europe was dominated by a~more-hygroscopic mode peaking at GF ≈ 1.6. Most particles (95%), in the more-hygroscopic mode at D₀ = 265 nm, did not contain a detectable rBC core. A significant fraction of the BC-containing particles had a substantial coating with non-refractory aerosol components. MAC values of ~ 8.8 m²g⁻¹ and ~ 8.3 m²g⁻¹ at λ = 880 nm and mass mean rBC core diameters of 150 nm and 200 nm were observed for the aged and continental air mass types, respectively. The reason for the larger rBC core sizes compared to the fresh emissions – transp...

Soot particles are an important component of atmospheric aerosol and their interaction with water is important for their climate effects. The hygroscopicity of fresh and photochemically aged soot and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) from diesel passenger car emissions was studied under atmospherically relevant conditions in a smog chamber at sub-and supersaturation of water vapor. Fresh soot particles show no significant hygroscopic growth nor cloud condensation nucleus (CCN) activity. Ageing by condensation of SOA formed by photooxidation of the volatile organic carbon (VOC) emission leads to increased water uptake and CCN activity as well as to a compaction of the initially non-spherical soot particles when exposed to high relative humidity (RH). It is important to consider the latter effect for the interpretation of mobility based measurements. The vehicle with oxidation catalyst (EURO3) emits much fewer VOCs than the vehicle without after-treatment (EURO2). Consequently, more SOA is formed for the latter, resulting in more pronounced effects on particle hygroscopicity and CCN activity. Nevertheless, the aged soot particles did not reach the hygroscopicity of pure SOA particles formed from diesel VOC emissions, which are similarly hygroscopic (0.06 < κ H−TDMA < 0.12 and 0.09 < κ CCN < 0.14) as SOA from other precursor gases investigated in previous studies.

Six years of aerosol size distribution measurements between 20 and 600 nm diameters and total aerosol concentration above 10 nm from March 2008 to February 2014 at the high-alpine site Jungfraujoch are presented. The size distribution was found to be typically bimodal with mode diameters and widths relatively stable throughout the year and the observation period. New particle formation was observed on 14.5% of all days without a seasonal preference. Particles typically grew only into the Aitken mode and did not reach cloud condensation nucleus (CCN) sizes on the time scale of several days. Growth of preexisting particles in the Aitken mode, on average, contributed very few CCN. We concluded that the dominant fraction of CCN at Jungfraujoch originated in the boundary layer. A number of approaches were used to distinguish free tropospheric (FT) conditions and episodes with planetary boundary layer (PBL) influence. In the absence of PBL injections, the concentration of particles larger than 90 nm (N 90 , roughly corresponding to the CCN concentration) reached a value~40 cm À3 while PBL influence caused N 90 concentrations of several hundred or even 1000 cm À3 . Comparing three criteria for free tropospheric conditions, we found FT prevalence for 39% of the time with over 60% during winter and below 20% during summer. It is noteworthy that a simple criterion based on standard trace gas measurements appeared to outperform alternative approaches.

Abstract.The new portable ice nucleation chamber (PINC) developed by the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Sciences of ETH Zurich was operated during two measurement campaigns at the high alpine research station Jungfraujoch situated at 3580 m a.s.l, in March and June 2009. During this time of the year, a high probability of Saharan dust events (SDE) at the Jungfraujoch has been observed. We used an impactor with a cutoff size of 1 µm aerodynamic diameter and operated the system at −31 • C and relative humidities of 127 % and 91 % with respect to ice and water, respectively. Investigation of the ambient number concentration of ice nuclei (IN) in the deposition nucleation mode and during a SDE in the free troposphere is reported. The results discussed in this paper are the first continuous IN measurements over a period of several days at the Jungfraujoch. The average IN concentration found during the campaign in March was 8 particles per liter whereas during the campaign in June, the average number concentration was higher up to 14 particles per liter. Two SDEs were detected on 15 and 16 June 2009. Our measurements show that the SDEs had IN number concentration up to several hundreds per liter. We found the best correlation between the number concentration of the larger particle fraction measured by an optical particle counter and the IN number concentration during a Saharan dust event. This correlation factor is higher for particles larger than 0.5 µm meaning that a higher concentration of larger particles induced higher IN number concentration. No correlation could be found between the black carbon mass concentration and the variations in IN number concentration.

Abstract. The volcanic aerosol plume resulting from the Ey-