On the edge of habitability and the extremes of liquidity

Hansen-Goos, Hendrik; Thomson, Erik S.; Wettlaufer, J. S.

doi:10.1016/j.pss.2013.04.010

Cited by 21 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 76 publications

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“…In the case of degassing at room temperature the halite behaves like the pure NaCl taking some less water. This very small amount of water is due to the formation of predeliquescence layers on the crystal surfaces as reported by Bruzewicz et al (2011) and Hansen-Goos et al (2014). Layer heights of some nm were calculated by Hansen-Goos in accordance with our findings taking into account the surface area estimated for the crystals in halite or the pure NaCl.…”

Section: Water Sorption Properties Of the Materials At Equilibriumsupporting

confidence: 90%

Provision of water by halite deliquescence forNostoc communebiofilms under Mars relevant surface conditions

Jänchen

Feyh

Szewzyk

et al. 2015

International Journal of Astrobiology

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Motivated by findings of new mineral related water sources for organisms under extremely dry conditions on Earth we studied in an interdisciplinary approach the water sorption behaviour of halite, soil component and terrestrial Nostoc commune biofilm under Mars relevant environmental conditions. Physicochemical methods served for the determination of water sorption equilibrium data and survival of heterotrophic bacteria in biofilm samples with different water contents was assured by recultivation. Deliquescence of halite provides liquid water at temperatures <273 K and may serve as water source on Mars during the morning stabilized by the CO 2 atmosphere for a few hours. The protecting biofilm of N. commune is rather hygroscopic and tends to store water at lower humidity values. Survival tests showed that a large proportion of the Alphaproteobacteria dominated microbiota associated to N. commune is very desiccation tolerant and water uptake from saturated NaCl solutions (either by direct uptake of brine or adsorption of humidity) did not enhance recultivability in long-time desiccated samples. Still, a minor part can grow under highly saline conditions. However, the salinity level, although unfavourable for the host organism, might be for parts of the heterotrophic microbiota no serious hindrance for growing in salty Mars-like environments.

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Section: Water Sorption Properties Of the Materials At Equilibriumsupporting

confidence: 90%

Provision of water by halite deliquescence forNostoc communebiofilms under Mars relevant surface conditions

Jänchen

Feyh

Szewzyk

et al. 2015

International Journal of Astrobiology

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“…The size distribution at RH w ≈ 70% in the iced chamber shows a minor reduction of smaller particles accompanied by a slight enhancement of larger particles. Although this trend could indicate water uptake below the DRH (Wise et al, 2008;Alshawa et al, 2009;Bruzewicz et al, 2011;Hansen-Goos et al, 2014;Hsiao et al, 2016), it could also result from experimental uncertainties. The different wall conditions (iced versus uniced) and possible salt impurities may also lead to slight changes.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A continuous flow diffusion chamber study of sea salt particles acting as cloud nuclei: deliquescence and ice nucleation

Kong¹,

Wolf²,

Roesch³

et al. 2018

Tellus B: Chemical and Physical Meteorology

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Phase changes of sea salt particles alter their physical and chemical properties, which is significant for Earth's chemistry and energy budget. In this study, a continuous flow diffusion chamber is used to investigate deliquescence, homogeneous and heterogeneous ice nucleation between 242 K and 215 K, of four salts: pure NaCl, pure MgCl 2 , synthetic sea water salt, and salt distilled from sampled sea water. Anhydrous particles, aqueous droplets and ice particles were discriminated using a polarisation-sensitive optical particle counter coupled with a machine learning analysis technique. The measured onset deliquescence relative humidities agree with previous studies, where sea water salts deliquescence at lower humidities than pure NaCl. Deliquesced salt droplets homogenously freeze when the relative humidity reaches a sufficiently high value at temperatures below 233 K. From 224 K and below, deposition nucleation freezing on a fraction of NaCl particles was observed at humidities lower than the deliquescence relative humidity. At these low temperatures, otherwise unactivated salt particles deliquesced at the expected deliquescence point, followed by homogeneous freezing at temperatures as low as 215 K. Thus, the observed sea salt particles exhibit a triad of temperature-dependent behaviours. First, they act as cloud condensation particles (CCNs) > 233 K, second they can be homogeneous freezing nuclei (HFNs) < 233 K and finally they act as ice nucleating particles (INPs) for heterogeneous nucleation <224 K.

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“…(10) to a sodium chloride particle of a representative atmospheric diameter 0.8 µm in the accumulation mode (Lewis and Schwartz, 2004;Lohmann et al, 2016). The growth factor is assumed such that the particle will lead to a solvated brine droplet of radius 1.36 µm, and for consistency with previous work we choose a temperature of 20 • C and a saturated concentration of [NaCl] sat = 5.4 mol L −1 (Haynes, 2012), which is also used to calculate the Debye length. The value for surface charge q s = 0.12 C m −2 is taken from Kobayashi et al (2014), while the HG14 value A h = −1.5 × 10 −20 is used, and the expression for the water activity of a NaCl solution is taken from Tang et al (1997).…”

Section: Applying Refined Köhler Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Standard values 0.12 (Kobayashi et al, 2014) −1.5 × 10 −20 (HG14) 5400 (Haynes, 2012) 3 nm (b) 0.3 −7.5 × 10 −20 8800 4 nm (a) 0.3 −9 × 10 −20 8270 4 nm (b) 0.3 −4 × 10 −20 8000 5 nm (a) 0.1 −9 × 10 −20 7050 5 nm (b) 0.4 −2.5 × 10 −20 7620 7.5 nm (a) 0.6 −9 × 10 −20 6700 7.5 nm (b) 0.002 −3 × 10 −20 7020 10 nm (b) 0.01 −15 × 10 −20 6500 15 nm (a) 2.7 × 10 −6 −5 × 10 −20 6300 15 nm (b) 0.02 −4 × 10 −20 6300 20 nm (b) 0.3 −5.5 × 10 −20 6000 25 nm (a) 0. Figure 3.…”

Section: Applying Refined Köhler Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

A thermodynamic description for the hygroscopic growth of atmospheric aerosol particles

Castarède

Thomson

2018

Atmos. Chem. Phys.

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The phase state of atmospheric particulate is important to atmospheric processes, and aerosol radiative forcing remains a large uncertainty in climate predictions. That said, precise atmospheric phase behavior is difficult to quantify and observations have shown that "precondensation" of water below predicted saturation values can occur. We propose a revised approach to understanding the transition from solid soluble particles to liquid droplets, typically described as cloud condensation nucleation -a process that is traditionally captured by Köhler theory, which describes a modified equilibrium saturation vapor pressure due to (i) mixing entropy (Raoult's law) and (ii) droplet geometry (Kelvin effect). Given that observations of precondensation are not predicted by Köhler theory, we devise a more complete model that includes interfacial forces giving rise to predeliquescence, i.e., the formation of a brine layer wetting a salt particle at relative humidities well below the deliquescence point.

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On the edge of habitability and the extremes of liquidity

Cited by 21 publications

References 76 publications

Provision of water by halite deliquescence forNostoc communebiofilms under Mars relevant surface conditions

Provision of water by halite deliquescence forNostoc communebiofilms under Mars relevant surface conditions

A continuous flow diffusion chamber study of sea salt particles acting as cloud nuclei: deliquescence and ice nucleation

A thermodynamic description for the hygroscopic growth of atmospheric aerosol particles

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