Validation of a Size-resolved Parameterization of Primary Organic Carbon in Fresh Marine Aerosols for Use in Air-Sea Exchange Simulations
Abstract
Marine aerosol production by bursting bubbles at the ocean surface is the largest source of aerosol mass in the atmosphere. The size-resolved organic and inorganic composition of marine aerosols has significant impacts on atmospheric chemistry, aerosol and cloud microphysics and radiative transfer. Recent estimates suggest that the global production flux of particulate organic matter (POM) associated with nascent marine aerosol may exceed the total production flux of particulate POM from secondary pathways involving gas-phase precursors. Observed size-resolved fluxes of marine-derived POM taken in the N. Atlantic Ocean, while limited, suggest that Langmuir-type sorption processes may be the limiting factor controlling the association of marine organic material with bubble plume surface area, and consequently, the size-resolved POM mass and number fluxes. A similar set of observations - including seawater temperature, salinity, and chlorophyll a (chl-a) concentrations - were made during a spring 2010 cruise of the R/V Atlantis in the eastern North Pacific Ocean. Chlorophyll a concentrations - as a proxy for marine OM - ranged from ~3 to 30 μg L-1 which exceeds that of the N. Atlantic studies by up to an order of magnitude. Significant relationships between chl-a, particle number production and particulate OM enrichments were observed. These data provide an excellent opportunity to validate and refine a previously formulated size-resolved inorganic/organic marine aerosol source function using in situ seawater composition and state constraints. This formulation will serve as the basis for atmospheric chemistry and climate simulations, and further our understanding of aerosol production and air-sea exchange processes.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2011
- Bibcode:
- 2011AGUFM.A21A0025L
- Keywords:
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- 0305 ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE / Aerosols and particles;
- 0312 ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE / Air/sea constituent fluxes;
- 4271 OCEANOGRAPHY: GENERAL / Physical and chemical properties of seawater