Articles | Volume 16, issue 24
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-15709-2016
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-15709-2016
Research article
 | 
20 Dec 2016
Research article |  | 20 Dec 2016

Long-term observations of cloud condensation nuclei in the Amazon rain forest – Part 1: Aerosol size distribution, hygroscopicity, and new model parametrizations for CCN prediction

Mira L. Pöhlker, Christopher Pöhlker, Florian Ditas, Thomas Klimach, Isabella Hrabe de Angelis, Alessandro Araújo, Joel Brito, Samara Carbone, Yafang Cheng, Xuguang Chi, Reiner Ditz, Sachin S. Gunthe, Jürgen Kesselmeier, Tobias Könemann, Jošt V. Lavrič, Scot T. Martin, Eugene Mikhailov, Daniel Moran-Zuloaga, Diana Rose, Jorge Saturno, Hang Su, Ryan Thalman, David Walter, Jian Wang, Stefan Wolff, Henrique M. J. Barbosa, Paulo Artaxo, Meinrat O. Andreae, and Ulrich Pöschl

Abstract. Size-resolved long-term measurements of atmospheric aerosol and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations and hygroscopicity were conducted at the remote Amazon Tall Tower Observatory (ATTO) in the central Amazon Basin over a 1-year period and full seasonal cycle (March 2014–February 2015). The measurements provide a climatology of CCN properties characteristic of a remote central Amazonian rain forest site.

The CCN measurements were continuously cycled through 10 levels of supersaturation (S  =  0.11 to 1.10 %) and span the aerosol particle size range from 20 to 245 nm. The mean critical diameters of CCN activation range from 43 nm at S  =  1.10 % to 172 nm at S  =  0.11 %. The particle hygroscopicity exhibits a pronounced size dependence with lower values for the Aitken mode (κAit  =  0.14 ± 0.03), higher values for the accumulation mode (κAcc  =  0.22 ± 0.05), and an overall mean value of κmean  =  0.17 ± 0.06, consistent with high fractions of organic aerosol.

The hygroscopicity parameter, κ, exhibits remarkably little temporal variability: no pronounced diurnal cycles, only weak seasonal trends, and few short-term variations during long-range transport events. In contrast, the CCN number concentrations exhibit a pronounced seasonal cycle, tracking the pollution-related seasonality in total aerosol concentration. We find that the variability in the CCN concentrations in the central Amazon is mostly driven by aerosol particle number concentration and size distribution, while variations in aerosol hygroscopicity and chemical composition matter only during a few episodes.

For modeling purposes, we compare different approaches of predicting CCN number concentration and present a novel parametrization, which allows accurate CCN predictions based on a small set of input data.

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Short summary
The paper presents a systematic characterization of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentration in the central Amazonian atmosphere. Our results show that the CCN population in this globally important ecosystem follows a pollution-related seasonal cycle, in which it mainly depends on changes in total aerosol size distribution and to a minor extent in the aerosol chemical composition. Our results allow an efficient modeling and prediction of the CCN population based on a novel approach.
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