Refined classification and characterization of atmospheric new particle formation events using air ions

Dada, Lubna; Chellapermal, Robert; Mazon, Stephany Buenrostro; Paasonen, Pauli; Lampilahti, Janne; Manninen, Hanna E.; Junninen, Heikki; Petäj̈ä, Tuukka; Kerminen, Veli‐Matti; Kulmala, Markku

doi:10.5194/acp-2018-631

Cited by 10 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 23 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The methods for analyzing NPF from atmospheric and chamber data differ because of differences in the dynamics and the spatial and temporal scales of NPF in the chamber as compared with the atmosphere 118 . In the atmosphere, particle formation often occurs over a large geographical area and particle concentrations can change because of processes other than nucleation, such as primary particle emissions and horizontal or vertical transport of particles [119][120][121][122] . In addition, the particle sinks are different.…”

Section: Applicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Formation and growth of sub-3-nm aerosol particles in experimental chambers

et al. 2020

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Atmospheric new particle formation (NPF), which is observed in many environments globally, is an important source of boundary-layer aerosol particles and cloud condensation nuclei, which affect both the climate and human health. To better understand the mechanisms behind NPF, chamber experiments can be used to simulate this phenomenon under wellcontrolled conditions. Recent advancements in instrumentation have made it possible to directly detect the first steps of NPF of molecular clusters (~1-2 nm in diameter) and to calculate quantities such as the formation and growth rates of these clusters. Whereas previous studies reported particle formation rates as the flux of particles across a specified particle diameter or calculated them from measurements of larger particle sizes, this protocol outlines methods to directly quantify particle dynamics for cluster sizes. Here, we describe the instrumentation and analysis methods needed to quantify particle dynamics during NPF of sub-3-nm aerosol particles in chamber experiments. The methods described in this protocol can be used to make results from different chamber experiments comparable. The experimental setup, collection and post-processing of the data, and thus completion of this protocol, take from months up to years, depending on the chamber facility, experimental plan and level of expertise. Use of this protocol requires engineering capabilities and expertise in data analysis.

show abstract

Section: Applicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Formation and growth of sub-3-nm aerosol particles in experimental chambers

et al. 2020

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This shows that new particle formation can likely increase the CS. Having higher CS on event days is opposite to what has been seen for example in Southern Finland (Dada et al, 2018) and the common assumption that higher condensation sink would prohibit NPF by acting as a sink to particle precursor vapours. Our results are nevertheless reasonable since at Baring Head the events occurred primarily over land whereas non-event days had primarily marine air.…”

Section: Factors Favouring Npf Event Occurrencementioning

confidence: 66%

“…To obtain further information about the events, we also performed event classification based on the method developed by Dada et al (2018) using NAIS data when it was available. This method is more quantitative than the method of Dal Maso et al ( 2005) and gives us information about the size range of the events as well as event start and end times.…”

Section: Event Classificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Even below 15 nm, the concentrations seemed to be somewhat underestimated. Because of this and because the typical particle concentrations at Baring Head are lower than at Hyytiälä, we modified the Dada et al (2018) algorithm parameters to take this into account. The algorithm has relative and absolute threshold values for both the ions and particles.…”

Section: Event Classificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A1) showed that all the Class I events and most of the Class II events were regional or transported events, which is in line with the fact that this class requires clear growth in nucleation mode. Two of the Dal Maso et al non-events were classified as ion bursts, which is reasonable as ion bursts appear in a size range smaller than that used for the Dal Maso We used the method by Dada et al (2018) also to define event start and end times (Appendix Fig. A2).…”

Section: Event Occurrence and Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

New particle formation in coastal New Zealand with a focus on open ocean air masses

Peltola

Trueblood

Gray

et al. 2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Even though oceans cover the majority of the Earth, most aerosol measurements are from continental sites. We measured aerosol particle number size distribution at Baring Head, in coastal New Zealand, over a total period of 10 months to study aerosol properties and new particle formation, with a special focus on aerosol formation in open ocean air masses. Particle concentrations were higher in land-influenced air compared to clean marine air in all size classes from sub-10 nm to cloud condensation nuclei sizes. When classifying the particle number size distributions with traditional methods designed for continental sites, new particle formation was observed at the station throughout the year with an average event frequency of 23 %. While most of these traditional event days had some land-influence, we also observed particle growth starting from nucleation mode during 16 % of the data in clean marine air and at least part of this growth was connected to nucleation in the marine boundary layer. Sub-10 nm particles accounted for 29 % of the total aerosol number concentration of particles larger than 1 nm in marine air during the spring. This shows that nucleation in marine air is frequent enough to influence the total particle concentration. Particle formation in land-influenced air was more intense and had on average higher growth rates than what was found for marine air. Particle formation and primary emissions increased particle number concentrations as a function of time spent over land during the first 1–2 days spent over land. After this, nucleation seems to start getting suppressed by the pre-existing particle population, but accumulation mode particle concentration keeps increasing, likely due to primary particle emissions. Further work showed that traditional NPF events were favoured by sunny conditions with low relative humidity and wind speeds. In marine air, formation of sub-10 nm particles was favoured by low temperatures, relative humidity, and wind speeds and could happen even during the night. Our future work will study the mechanisms responsible for particle formation at Baring Head with a focus on different chemical precursor species. This study sheds light on both new particle formation in open ocean air masses coming from the Southern Ocean and local aerosol properties in New Zealand.

show abstract

Measurement report: New particle formation characteristics at an urban and a mountain station in northern China

et al. 2021

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Atmospheric new particle formation (NPF) events have attracted increasing attention for their contribution to the global aerosol number budget and therefore their effects on climate, air quality and human health. NPF events are regarded as a regional phenomenon, occurring over a large area. Most observations of NPF events in Beijing and its vicinity were conducted in populated areas, whereas observations of NPF events on mountaintops with low anthropogenic emissions are still rare in China. The spatial variation of NPF event intensity has not been investigated in detail by incorporating both urban areas and mountain measurements in Beijing. Here, we provide NPF event characteristics in summer 2018 and 2019 at urban Beijing and a comparison of NPF event characteristics – NPF event frequency, formation rate and growth rate – by comparing an urban Beijing site and a background mountain site separated by ∼80 km from 14 June to 14 July 2019, as well as giving insights into the connection between both locations. During parallel measurements at urban Beijing and mountain background areas, although the median condensation sink during the first 2 h of the common NPF events was around 0.01 s−1 at both sites, there were notable differences in formation rates between the two locations (median of 5.42 cm−3 s−1 at the urban site and 1.13 cm−3 s−1 at the mountain site during the first 2 h of common NPF events). In addition, the growth rates in the 7–15 nm range for common NPF events at the urban site (median of 7.6 nm h−1) were slightly higher than those at the mountain site (median of 6.5 nm h−1). To understand whether the observed events were connected, we compared air mass trajectories as well as meteorological conditions at both stations. Favorable conditions for the occurrence of regional NPF events were largely affected by air mass transport. Overall, our results demonstrate a clear inhomogeneity of regional NPF within a distance of ∼100 km, possibly due to the discretely distributed emission sources.

show abstract

Refined classification and characterization of atmospheric new particle formation events using air ions

Cited by 10 publications

References 23 publications

Formation and growth of sub-3-nm aerosol particles in experimental chambers

Formation and growth of sub-3-nm aerosol particles in experimental chambers

New particle formation in coastal New Zealand with a focus on open ocean air masses

Measurement report: New particle formation characteristics at an urban and a mountain station in northern China

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About