In situ detection of electrified aerosols in the upper troposphere and stratosphere

Abstract

Abstract. Electrified aerosols have been observed in the lower troposphere and in the mesosphere, but have never been detected in the stratosphere and upper troposphere. We present measurements of aerosols obtained during a balloon flight to an altitude of ∼ 24 km. The measurements were performed with an improved version of the Stratospheric and Tropospheric Aerosol Counter (STAC) aerosol counter dedicated to the search for charged aerosols. It is found that most of the aerosols are charged in the upper troposphere for altitudes below 10 km and in the stratosphere for altitudes above 20 km. Conversely, the aerosols seem to be uncharged between 10 km and 20 km. Model calculations are used to quantify the electrification of the aerosols with a stratospheric aerosol-ion model. The percentages of charged aerosols obtained with model calculations are in excellent agreement with the observations below 10 km and above 20 km. However, the model cannot reproduce the absence of electrification found in the lower stratosphere, as the processes leading to neutralisation in this altitude range are unknown. The presence of sporadic transient layers of electrified aerosol in the upper troposphere and in the stratosphere could have significant implications for sprite formation.

The Role of the Dipole Interaction of Molecules with Charged Particles in the Polar Stratosphere

“…Figs. 4d and 4e show the altitude profiles of aerosol concentrations, including charged aerosols, as well as the proportion of the charged aerosols at different altitudes [40]. These figures show that the largest number of charged particles is observed on the upper and lower aerosol boundaries.…”

“…Renard et al [40] were the first who performed the direct measurements of charged aerosols in the polar stratosphere. Figs.…”

“…Our analysis of the polar experiments [35,36,40,41,46,[62][63][64][65] show that air descend inside the polar vortex results in involving ozone and some other compounds into altitudinal range with the enhances concentration of the charge particles, on which the ozone and other compounds destruction takes place. It is important to emphasize that together with the ozone destruction the chlorine-containing species: HCl and ClONO 2 are also undergone to destruction.…”

Surface charge accumulation of particles containing radionuclides in open air

“…Eqs. (6)e(8), without radioactivity terms, can be valid in predicting electrification phenomena of aerosols in the upper troposphere and stratosphere (Renard et al, 2013). In this study, the ion-particle attachment coefficient in the charge balance equation was estimated according to Harrison and Carslaw (2003).…”

“…(6), the first two terms on the RHS represent the charge accumulation rate by the self-charging mechanism and the remaining terms account for the charge accumulation rate by the diffusion-charging mechanism. The ionparticle attachment, ioneion recombination, ionization, and electron emission can influence the ion concentration (Clement and Harrison, 1992;Renard et al, 2013), through the following equations:…”