Microphysical explanation of the RH‐dependent water affinity of biogenic organic aerosol and its importance for climate

Rastak, N.; Pajunoja, A.; Acosta Navarro, J. C.; Ma, J.; Song, M.; Partridge, D. G.; Kirkevåg, A.; Leong, Y.; Hu, W. W.; Taylor, N. F.; Lambe, A.; Cerully, K.; Bougiatioti, A.; Liu, P.; Krejci, R.; Petäjä, T.; Percival, C.; Davidovits, P.; Worsnop, D. R.; Ekman, A. M. L.; Nenes, A.; Martin, S.; Jimenez, J. L.; Collins, D. R.; Topping, D.O.; Bertram, A. K.; Zuend, A.; Virtanen, A.; Riipinen, I.

doi:10.1002/2017GL073056

i

Microphysical explanation of the RH‐dependent water affinity of biogenic organic aerosol and its importance for climate

2017
By Rastak, N. ; Pajunoja, A. ; Acosta Navarro, J. C. ; ...

Details

Journal Title:

Geophysical Research Letters
Personal Author:

Rastak, N. ; Pajunoja, A. ; Acosta Navarro, J. C. ; Ma, J. ; Song, M. ; Partridge, D. G. ; Kirkevåg, A. ; Leong, Y. ; Hu, W. W. ; Taylor, N. F. ; Lambe, A. ; Cerully, K. ; Bougiatioti, A. ; Liu, P. ; Krejci, R. ; Petäjä, T. ; Percival, C. ; Davidovits, P. ; Worsnop, D. R. ; Ekman, A. M. L. ; Nenes, A. ; Martin, S. ; Jimenez, J. L. ; Collins, D. R. ; Topping, D.O. ; Bertram, A. K. ; Zuend, A. ; Virtanen, A. ; Riipinen, I.
NOAA Program & Office:

OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research) ; CPO (Climate Program Office) ; CIRES (Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences)
Description:

A large fraction of atmospheric organic aerosol (OA) originates from natural emissions that are oxidized in the atmosphere to form secondary organic aerosol (SOA). Isoprene (IP) and monoterpenes (MT) are the most important precursors of SOA originating from forests. The climate impacts from OA are currently estimated through parameterizations of water uptake that drastically simplify the complexity of OA. We combine laboratory experiments, thermodynamic modeling, field observations, and climate modeling to (1) explain the molecular mechanisms behind RH‐dependent SOA water‐uptake with solubility and phase separation; (2) show that laboratory data on IP‐ and MT‐SOA hygroscopicity are representative of ambient data with corresponding OA source profiles; and (3) demonstrate the sensitivity of the modeled aerosol climate effect to assumed OA water affinity. We conclude that the commonly used single‐parameter hygroscopicity framework can introduce significant error when quantifying the climate effects of organic aerosol. The results highlight the need for better constraints on the overall global OA mass loadings and its molecular composition, including currently underexplored anthropogenic and marine OA sources.
Keywords:

Aerosols Climatology
Source:

Geophysical Research Letter 44(10): 5167-5177, 2017
DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL073056
Pubmed Central ID:

PMC28781391
Document Type:

Journal Article
Funding:

Grant no. 538NA10OAR4310102
Rights Information:

CC BY
Compliance:

PMC
Main Document Checksum:

urn:sha256:74df4367db8f6580a1a0ae9b028b3ce4222346b3681331baeada4b0a94e84e1c
Download URL:

https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/28618/noaa_28618_DS1.pdf
File Type:

[PDF - 712.99 KB ]

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