Assessment of CCN based on size-resolved hygroscopicity data: Results from urban aerosol measurements in Nagoya, Japan
Abstract
To assess the number concentrations and the proportion of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and the CCN activation diameter (dact) of urban aerosols based on size-resolved hygroscopicity, the atmospheric observation was performed for 10 days at an urban site of Nagoya, Japan in September 2009. The hygroscopic growth factor (HGF) distributions of aerosol particles at 85% RH were measured using a hygroscopicity tandem differential mobility analyzer (HTDMA) system, which consists of two differential mobility analyzers (DMAs) and a condensation particle counter (CPC). The proportion of CCN in the aerosol particles exiting the first DMA of the HTDMA was measured using a CCN counter and a CPC. The number concentrations of CCN (NCCN), the ratio of NCCN to the number concentrations of condensation nuclei (NCN), and dact were predicted from the observed HTDMA data based on k-köhler theory, and they were compared with measured values. Here, measured NCCN is that obtained from the number-size distribution of aerosol particles and the size-resolved NCCN/NCN. The measured dact was obtained from a curve fit to a CCN efficiency spectrum. The dact was predicted using different two methods. Whereas one of the methods to predict dact is based on the mean hygroscopic growth factor (gmean) at each diameter, the other accounts for activation of aerosol particles at each HGF bin. The NCCN and NCCN/NCN were predicted using the latter method only. The predicted NCCN and the predicted NCCN/NCN were, respectively, on average 19% and 15% lower than the measured values. The predicted dact were on average 8% higher than the measured values by both of the methods.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2012
- Bibcode:
- 2012AGUFM.A53R0470K
- Keywords:
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- 0305 ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE / Aerosols and particles;
- 0345 ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE / Pollution: urban and regional;
- 3311 ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES / Clouds and aerosols