The distribution of sea-salt aerosol in the global troposphere

Murphy, Daniel M.; Froyd, Karl D.; Bian, Huisheng; Brock, Charles A.; Dibb, Jack E.; DiGangi, Joshua P.; Diskin, Glenn; Dollner, Maximillian; Kupc, Agnieszka; Scheuer, Eric M.; Schill, Gregory P.; Weinzierl, Bernadett; Williamson, Christina J.; Yu, Pengfei

doi:10.5194/acp-19-4093-2019

i

The distribution of sea-salt aerosol in the global troposphere

2019
By Murphy, Daniel M. ; Froyd, Karl D. ; Bian, Huisheng ; ...

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Journal Title:

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
Personal Author:

Murphy, Daniel M. ; Froyd, Karl D. ; Bian, Huisheng ; Brock, Charles A. ; Dibb, Jack E. ; DiGangi, Joshua P. ; Diskin, Glenn ; Dollner, Maximillian ; Kupc, Agnieszka ; Scheuer, Eric M. ; Schill, Gregory P. ; Weinzierl, Bernadett ; Williamson, Christina J. ; Yu, Pengfei
NOAA Program & Office:

OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research) ; CSL (Chemical Sciences Laboratory) ; ESRL (Earth System Research Laboratory) ; CIRES (Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences)
Description:

We present the first data on the concentration of sea-salt aerosol throughout most of the depth of the troposphere and over a wide range of latitudes, which were obtained during the Atmospheric Tomography (ATom) mission. Sea-salt concentrations in the upper troposphere are very small, usually less than 10 ng per standard m3 (about 10 parts per trillion by mass) and often less than 1 ng m−3. This puts stringent limits on the contribution of sea-salt aerosol to halogen and nitric acid chemistry in the upper troposphere. Within broad regions the concentration of sea-salt aerosol is roughly proportional to water vapor, supporting a dominant role for wet scavenging in removing sea-salt aerosol from the atmosphere. Concentrations of sea-salt aerosol in the winter upper troposphere are not as low as in the summer and the tropics. This is mostly a consequence of less wet scavenging in the drier, colder winter atmosphere. There is also a source of sea-salt aerosol over pack ice that is distinct from that over open water. With a well-studied and widely distributed source, sea-salt aerosol provides an excellent test of wet scavenging and vertical transport of aerosols in chemical transport models.
Keywords:

Sea salt aerosols
Source:

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 19, 4093–4104
DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-4093-2019
Document Type:

Journal Article
Rights Information:

CC BY
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Submitted
Main Document Checksum:

urn:sha-512:f1058bec6dab343eafcd3c82b1968bcc980c2aa23291046f6f15c93e730e79554db0feff259124f0b22e14ca894d6a05050e9b7f9b8741a520156b005e46ee83
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https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/24498/noaa_24498_DS1.pdf
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[PDF - 2.66 MB ]

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