280 research outputs found

    Cold spray deposition of metallic-UHTC composites

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    The potential role of methanesulfonic acid (MSA) in aerosol formation and growth and the associated radiative forcings

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    Atmospheric marine aerosol particles impact Earth's albedo and climate. These particles can be primary or secondary and come from a variety of sources, including sea salt, dissolved organic matter, volatile organic compounds, and sulfur-containing compounds. Dimethylsulfide (DMS) marine emissions contribute greatly to the global biogenic sulfur budget, and its oxidation products can contribute to aerosol mass, specifically as sulfuric acid and methanesulfonic acid (MSA). Further, sulfuric acid is a known nucleating compound, and MSA may be able to participate in nucleation when bases are available. As DMS emissions, and thus MSA and sulfuric acid from DMS oxidation, may have changed since pre-industrial times and may change in a warming climate, it is important to characterize and constrain the climate impacts of both species. Currently, global models that simulate aerosol size distributions include contributions of sulfate and sulfuric acid from DMS oxidation, but to our knowledge, global models typically neglect the impact of MSA on size distributions. In this study, we use the GEOS-Chem-TOMAS (GC-TOMAS) global aerosol microphysics model to determine the impact on aerosol size distributions and subsequent aerosol radiative effects from including MSA in the size-resolved portion of the model. The effective equilibrium vapor pressure of MSA is currently uncertain, and we use the Extended Aerosol Inorganics Model (E-AIM) to build a parameterization for GC-TOMAS of MSA's effective volatility as a function of temperature, relative humidity, and available gas-phase bases, allowing MSA to condense as an ideally nonvolatile or semivolatile species or too volatile to condense. We also present two limiting cases for MSA's volatility, assuming that MSA is always ideally nonvolatile (irreversible condensation) or that MSA is always ideally semivolatile (quasi-equilibrium condensation but still irreversible condensation). We further present simulations in which MSA participates in binary and ternary nucleation with the same efficacy as sulfuric acid whenever MSA is treated as ideally nonvolatile. When using the volatility parameterization described above (both with and without nucleation), including MSA in the model changes the global annual averages at 900&thinsp;hPa of submicron aerosol mass by 1.2&thinsp;%, N3 (number concentration of particles greater than 3&thinsp;nm in diameter) by −3.9&thinsp;% (non-nucleating) or 112.5&thinsp;% (nucleating), N80 by 0.8&thinsp;% (non-nucleating) or 2.1&thinsp;% (nucleating), the cloud-albedo aerosol indirect effect (AIE) by −8.6&thinsp;mW&thinsp;m−2 (non-nucleating) or −26&thinsp;mW&thinsp;m−2 (nucleating), and the direct radiative effect (DRE) by −15&thinsp;mW&thinsp;m−2 (non-nucleating) or −14&thinsp;mW&thinsp;m−2 (nucleating). The sulfate and sulfuric acid from DMS oxidation produces 4–6 times more submicron mass than MSA does, leading to an ∼10 times stronger cooling effect in the DRE. But the changes in N80 are comparable between the contributions from MSA and from DMS-derived sulfate/sulfuric acid, leading to comparable changes in the cloud-albedo AIE. Model–measurement comparisons with the Heintzenberg et al. (2000) dataset over the Southern Ocean indicate that the default model has a missing source or sources of ultrafine particles: the cases in which MSA participates in nucleation (thus increasing ultrafine number) most closely match the Heintzenberg distributions, but we cannot conclude nucleation from MSA is the correct reason for improvement. Model–measurement comparisons with particle-phase MSA observed with a customized Aerodyne high-resolution time-of-flight aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS) from the ATom campaign show that cases with the MSA volatility parameterizations (both with and without nucleation) tend to fit the measurements the best (as this is the first use of MSA measurements from ATom, we provide a detailed description of these measurements and their calibration). However, no one model sensitivity case shows the best model–measurement agreement for both Heintzenberg and the ATom campaigns. As there are uncertainties in both MSA's behavior (nucleation and condensation) and the DMS emissions inventory, further studies on both fronts are needed to better constrain MSA's past, current, and future impacts upon the global aerosol size distribution and radiative forcing.</p

    Convective transport and scavenging of peroxides by thunderstorms observed over the central U.S. during DC3

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    One of the objectives of the Deep Convective Clouds and Chemistry (DC3) field experiment was to determine the scavenging of soluble trace gases by thunderstorms. We present an analysis of scavenging of hydrogen peroxide (H_2O_2) and methyl hydrogen peroxide (CH_3OOH) from six DC3 cases that occurred in Oklahoma and northeast Colorado. Estimates of H_2O_2 scavenging efficiencies are comparable to previous studies ranging from 79 to 97% with relative uncertainties of 5–25%. CH_3OOH scavenging efficiencies ranged from 12 to 84% with relative uncertainties of 18–558%. The wide range of CH_3OOH scavenging efficiencies is surprising, as previous studies suggested that CH_3OOH scavenging efficiencies would be <10%. Cloud chemistry model simulations of one DC3 storm produced CH_3OOH scavenging efficiencies of 26–61% depending on the ice retention factor of CH_3OOH during cloud drop freezing, suggesting ice physics impacts CH_3OOH scavenging. The highest CH_3OOH scavenging efficiencies occurred in two severe thunderstorms, but there is no obvious correlation between the CH_3OOH scavenging efficiency and the storm thermodynamic environment. We found a moderate correlation between the estimated entrainment rates and CH_3OOH scavenging efficiencies. Changes in gas-phase chemistry due to lightning production of nitric oxide and aqueous-phase chemistry have little effect on CH_3OOH scavenging efficiencies. To determine why CH_3OOH can be substantially removed from storms, future studies should examine effects of entrainment rate, retention of CH_3OOH in frozen cloud particles during drop freezing, and lightning-NO_x production

    Do Aphid Colonies Amplify their Emission of Alarm Pheromone?

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    When aphids are attacked by natural enemies, they emit alarm pheromone to alert conspecifics. For most aphids tested, (E)-β-farnesene (EBF) is the main, or only, constituent of the alarm pheromone. In response to alarm pheromone, alerted aphids drop off the plant, walk away, or attempt to elude predators. However, under natural conditions, EBF concentration might be low due to the low amounts emitted, to rapid air movement, or to oxidative degradation. To ensure that conspecifics are warned, aphids might conceivably amplify the alarm signal by emitting EBF in response to EBF emitted by other aphids. To examine whether such amplification occurs, we synthesized deuterated EBF (DEBF), which allowed us to differentiate between applied and aphid-derived chemical. Colonies of Acyrthosiphon pisum were treated with DEBF, and headspace volatiles were collected and analyzed for evidence of aphid-derived EBF. No aphid-derived EBF was detected, suggesting that amplification of the alarm signal does not occur. We discuss the disadvantages of alarm signal reinforcement
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