The legacy of Finnish-Estonian air ion and aerosol workshops

Atmospheric air ions, clusters and aerosol particles participate in a variety of atmospheric processes and considerably affect e.g. global climate and human health. When measured, air ions as well as atmospheric clusters and particles have been observed to be present practically always and everywhere. In this overview, we present a brief summary of the main achievements and legacy of the series of workshops organized mainly by the University of Helsinki and the University of Tartu. The legacy covers the development and standardization of new instruments, such as ion spectrometers, mass spectrometers and aerosol particle counters, as well as work toward theoretical understanding of new-particle formation and evolution of atmospheric clusters. One important legacy is the establishment of the SMEAR-Estonia station at Jarvselja.Peer reviewe

An improved parameterization for sulfuric acid-water nucleation rates for tropospheric and stratospheric conditions

In this paper we present parameterized equations for calculation of sulfuric acid-water critical nucleus compositions, critical cluster radii and homogeneous nucleation rates for tropospheric and stratospheric conditions. The parameterizations are based on a classical nucleation model. We used an improved model for the hydrate formation relying on ab initio calculations of small sulfuric acid clusters and on experimental data for vapor pressures and equilibrium constants for hydrate formation. The most rigorous nucleation kinetics and the thermodynamically consistent version of the classical binary homogeneous nucleation theory were used. The parameterized nucleation rates are compared with experimental ones, and at room temperature and relative humidities above 30% they are within experimental error. At lower temperatures and lower humidities the agreement is somewhat poorer. Overall, the values of nucleation rates are increased compared to a previous parameterization and are within an order of magnitude compared with theoretical values for all conditions studied. The parameterized equations will reduce the computing time by a factor 1/500 compared to nonparameterized nucleation rate calculations and therefore are in particular useful for large- scale models. The parameterized formulas are valid at temperatures between 230.15 K and 305.15 K, relative humidities between 0.01% and 100%, and sulfuric acid concentrations from 10(4) to 10(11) cm(-3). They can be used to extrapolate the classical results down to 190 K. The parametrization is limited to cases where nucleation rates are between 10(-7) and 10(10) cm(-3) s(-1), and the critical cluster contains at least four molecules

Effect of cruise altitude and alternative aviation fuels on radiative forcing

The radiative forcing caused by the emissions of jet aircraft is calculated using data from an aircraft performance model. Data from the performance model is needed to calculate the emissions of the aircraft. The sensitivity function and lifetime of the emitted gasses and particles are used to calculate the integrated radiative forcing of the flight of an aircraft. Analysis of a single flight using different fuels and with different cruising altitudes revealed that contrails and aviation induced cirrus cause the largest integrated radiative forcing. This leads to lowest integrated radiative forcing for a cruise altitude of 6 km for both Jet A-1 and Hydrotreated Renewable Jet fuel (HRJ). If contrails and cirrus are omitted the best cruise altitude from the calculated set for Jet A-1 is 11 km while for HRJ 6 km still leads to the lowest integrated radiative forcing.Aerodynamics, Wind Energy & PropulsionAerospace Engineerin

Concentrations and fluxes of aerosol particles during the LAPBIAT measurement campaign at Värriö field station

International audienceThe LAPBIAT measurement campaign took place in the Värriö SMEAR I measurement station located in Eastern Lapland in the spring of 2003 between 26 April and 11 May. In this paper we describe the measurement campaign, concentrations and fluxes of aerosol particles, air ions and trace gases, paying special attention to an aerosol particle formation event broken by a air mass change from a clean Arctic air mass with new particle formation to polluted one approaching from industrial areas of Kola Peninsula, Russia, lacking new particle formation. Aerosol particle number flux measurements show strong downward fluxes during that time. Concentrations of coarse aerosol particles were high for 1?2 days before the nucleation event (i.e. 28?29 April), very low immediately before and during the observed aerosol particle formation event (30 April) and increased moderately from the moment of sudden break of the event. In general particle deposition measurements based on snow samples show the same changes. Measurements of the mobility distribution of air ions showed elevated concentrations of intermediate air ions during the particle formation event. We estimated the growth rates in the nucleation mode size range. For particles <10 nm, the growth rate increases with size on 30 April. Dispersion modelling made with model SILAM support the conclusion that the nucleation event was interrupted by an outbreak of sulphate-rich air mass in the evening of 30 April that originated from the industry at Kola Peninsula, Russia. The results of this campaign highlight the need for detailed research in atmospheric transport of air constituents for understanding the aerosol dynamics

Analytische Instrumente im Institut fuer Radiochemie

Copy held by FIZ Karlsruhe; available from UB/TIB Hannover / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman