ACP Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics ACP 1680-7324 Copernicus GmbH Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/acp-11-3835-2011 Size-resolved and bulk activation properties of aerosols in the North China Plain Deng Z. Z. 1 Zhao C. S. 1 Ma N. 1 Liu P. F. 1 Ran L. 1 Xu W. Y. 1 Chen J. 1 Liang Z. 1 Liang S. 1 Huang M. Y. 1 2 Ma X. C. 2 Zhang Q. 2 Quan J. N. 2 Yan P. 3 Henning S. 4 Mildenberger K. 4 Sommerhage E. 4 Schäfer M. 4 Stratmann F. 4 Wiedensohler A. 4 Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China Beijing Weather Modification Office, Beijing Meteorological Bureau, Beijing, China Centre for Atmosphere Watch and Services, Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing, China Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research, Leipzig, Germany 27 04 2011 11 8 3835 3846 This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This article is available from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/11/3835/2011/acp-11-3835-2011.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/11/3835/2011/acp-11-3835-2011.pdf

Size-resolved and bulk activation properties of aerosols were measured at a regional/suburban site in the North China Plain (NCP), which is occasionally heavily polluted by anthropogenic aerosol particles and gases. A Cloud Condensation Nuclei (CCN) closure study is conducted with bulk CCN number concentration (<i>N</i><sub>CCN</sub>) and calculated CCN number concentration based on the aerosol number size distribution and size-resolved activation properties. <br><br> The observed CCN number concentration (<i>N</i><sub>CCN-obs</sub>) are higher than those observed in other locations than China, with average <i>N</i><sub>CCN-obs</sub> of roughly 2000, 3000, 6000, 10 000 and 13 000 cm<sup>−3</sup> at supersaturations of 0.056, 0.083, 0.17, 0.35 and 0.70%, respectively. An inferred critical dry diameter (<i>D</i><sub>m</sub>) is calculated based on the <i>N</i><sub>CCN-obs</sub> and aerosol number size distribution assuming homogeneous chemical composition. The inferred cut-off diameters are in the ranges of 190–280, 160–260, 95–180, 65–120 and 50–100 nm at supersaturations of 0.056, 0.083, 0.17, 0.35 and 0.7%, with their mean values 230.1, 198.4, 128.4, 86.4 and 69.2 nm, respectively. <br><br> Size-resolved activation measurements show that most of the 300 nm particles are activated at the investigated supersaturations, while almost no particles of 30 nm are activated even at the highest supersaturation of 0.72%. The activation ratio increases with increasing supersaturation and particle size. The slopes of the activation curves for ambient aerosols are not as steep as those observed in calibrations with ammonium sulfate suggesting that the observed aerosols is an external mixture of more hygroscopic and hydrophobic particles. <br><br> The calculated CCN number concentrations (<i>N</i><sub>CCN-calc</sub>) based on the size-resolved activation ratio and aerosol number size distribution correlate well with the <i>N</i><sub>CCN-obs</sub>, and show an average overestimation of 19%. Sensitivity studies of the CCN closure show that the <i>N</i><sub>CCN</sub> at each supersaturation is well predicted with the campaign average of size-resolved activation curves. These results indicate that the aerosol number size distribution is critical in the prediction of possible CCN. The CCN number concentration can be reliably estimated using time-averaged, size-resolved activation efficiencies without accounting for the temporal variations.

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