ACP Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics ACP 1680-7324 Copernicus GmbH Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/acp-6-2811-2006 New particle formation in air mass transported between two measurement sites in Northern Finland Komppula M. 1 Sihto S.-L. 2 Korhonen H. 1 Lihavainen H. 1 Kerminen V.-M. 1 Kulmala M. 2 Viisanen Y. 1 Finnish Meteorological Institute, Research and Development, P.O. Box 503, 00101 Helsinki, Finland University of Helsinki, Dept. Physical Sciences, P.O. Box 64, 00014 Univ. of Helsinki, Finland 10 07 2006 6 10 2811 2824 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/6/2811/2006/acp-6-2811-2006.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/6/2811/2006/acp-6-2811-2006.pdf

This study covers four years of aerosol number size distribution data from Pallas and Värriö sites 250 km apart from each other in Northern Finland and compares new particle formation events between these sites. In air masses of eastern origin almost all events were observed to start earlier at the eastern station Värriö, whereas in air masses of western origin most of the events were observed to start earlier at the western station Pallas. This demonstrates that particle formation in a certain air mass type depends not only on the diurnal variation of the parameters causing the phenomenon (such as photochemistry) but also on some properties carried by the air mass itself. The correlation in growth rates between the two sites was relatively good, which suggests that the amount of condensable vapour causing the growth must have been at about the same level in both sites. The condensation sink was frequently much higher at the downwind station. It seems that secondary particle formation related to biogenic sources dominate in many cases over the particle sinks during the air mass transport between the sites. Two cases of transport from Pallas to Värriö were further analysed with an aerosol dynamics model. The model was able to reproduce the observed nucleation events 250 km down-wind at Värriö but revealed some differences between the two cases. The simulated nucleation rates were in both cases similar but the organic concentration profiles that best reproduced the observations were different in the two cases indicating that divergent formation reactions may dominate under different conditions. The simulations also suggested that organic compounds were the main contributor to new particle growth, which offers a tentative hypothesis to the distinct features of new particles at the two sites: Air masses arriving from the Atlantic Ocean typically spent approximately only ten hours over land before arriving at Pallas, and thus the time for the organic vapours to accumulate in the air and to interact with the particles is relatively short. This can lead to low nucleation mode growth rates and even to suppression of detectable particle formation event due to efficient scavenging of newly formed clusters, as was observed in the case studies.

 References Adams, P. J. and Seinfeld, J. H.: Predicting global aerosol size distributions in general circulation models, J. Geophys. Res., 107(D19), 4370, doi:10.1029/2001JD001010, 2002. Ahonen, T., Aalto, P., Rannik, Ü., Kulmala, M., Nilsson, E. D., Palmroth, S., Ylitalo, H., and Hari, P.: Variations and vertical profiles of trace gas and aerosol concentrations and CO$_2$ exchange in eastern Lapland, Atmos. Environ. 31, 3351–3362, 1997. Birmili, W., Berresheim, H., Plass-Dalmer, C., Elste, T., Gilge, S., Wiedensholer, A., and Uhrner, U.: The Hohenpeissenberg aerosol formation experiment (HAFEX): a long term study including size-resolved aerosol, H$_2$SO$_4$, OH, and monoterpene measurements, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 3, 361–376, 2003. Boy, M., Kulmala, M., Ruuskanen, T. M., Pihlatie, M., Reissell, A., Aalto, P. P., Keronen, P., Dal Maso, M., Hellen, H., Hakola, H., Jansson, R., Hanke, M., and Arnold, F.: Sulphuric acid closure and contribution to nucleation mode particle growth, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 5, 863–878, 2005. Draxler, R. R. and Rolph, G. D.: HYSPLIT (HYbrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory) Model access via NOAA ARL READY Website (http://www.arl.noaa.gov/ready/hysplit4.html), NOAA Air Resources Laboratory, Silver Spring, MD, 2003. Grini, A., Korhonen, H., Lehtinen, K. E. J., Isaksen, I. S. A., and Kulmala, M.,: A combined photochemistry/aerosol dynamics model: Model development and a study of new particle formation, Boreal Env. Res., 10, 525–541, 2005. Hatakka, J., Aalto, T., Aaltonen, V., Aurela, M., Hakola, H., Komppula, M., Laurila, T., Lihavainen, H., Paatero, J., Salminen, K., and Viisanen, Y.: Overview of the atmospheric research activities and results at Pallas GAW station, Boreal Env. Res., 8(4), 365–384, 2003. Hari, P., Kulmala, M., Pohja, T., Lahti, T., Siivola, E., Palva, L., Aalto, P., Hämeri, K., Vesala, T., Luoma, S., and Pulliainen, E.: Air pollution in Eastern Lapland: Challenge for an Environmental Measurement Station, Silva Fennica, 28, 29–39, 1994. Jacobson, M. Z.: Global direct radiative forcing due to multicomponent anthropogenic and natural aerosols, J. Geophys. Res., 106, 1551–1568, 2001. Jokinen, V. and Mäkelä, J. M.: Closed-loop arrangement with critical orifice for DMA sheath/excess flow system, J. Aerosol Sci., 28, 643–648, 1997. Kaufman, Y. J., Tanre, D., and Boucher, O.: A satellite view of aerosols in the climate system, Nature, 419, 215–223, 2002. Kavouras, I., Mihalopoulos, N., and Stephanou, E. G.: Formation and gas/particle partitioning of monoterpene photo-oxidation products over forests, Geophys. Res. Lett., 26, 55–59, 1998. Kerminen, V.-M., Lihavainen, H., Komppula, M., Viisanen, Y., and Kulmala, M.: Direct observational evidence linking atmospheric aerosol formation and cloud droplet activation, Geophys. Res. Lett., 32, L14803, doi:10.1029/2005GL023130, 2005. Kesselmeier, J. and Staudt, M.: Biogenic volatile organic compounds (VOC): An overview on emission, physiology and ecology, J. Atm. Chem., 33, 23–87, 1999. Komppula, M., Lihavainen, H., Hatakka, J., Aalto, P. P., Kulmala, M., and Viisanen Y.: Observations of new particle formation and size distribution at two different heights and surroundings in subarctic area in Northern Finland, J. Geophys. Res., 108(D9), 4295, doi:10.1029/2002JD002939, 2003a. Komppula, M., Dal Maso, M., Lihavainen, H., Aalto, P. P., Kulmala, M., and Viisanen, Y.: Comparison of new particle formation events at two locations in northern Finland, Boreal Env. Res., 8(4), 395–404, 2003b. Komppula, M, Lihavainen, H., Kerminen, V.-M., Kulmala, M., and Viisanen, Y.: Measurements of cloud droplet activation of aerosol particles at a clean subarctic background site, J. Geophys. Res., 110, D06204, doi:10.1029/2004JD005200, 2005. Korhonen, H., Lehtinen, K. E. J., and Kulmala, M.: Multicomponent aerosol dynamics model UHMA: model development and validation, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 4, 757–771, 2004. Korhonen, H., Kerminen, V.-M., Lehtinen, K. E. J., and Kulmala, M.: CCN activation and cloud processing in sectional aerosol models with low size resolution, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 5, 2561–2570, 2005. Kourtchev, I., Ruuskanen, T., Maenhaut, W., Kulmala, M., and Claeys, M.: Observation of 2-methyltetrols and related photo-oxidation products of isoprene in boreal forest aerosols from Hyytiälä, Finland, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 5, 2761–2770, 2005. Kulmala, M., Toivonen, A., Mäkelä, J., and Laaksonen, A.: Analysis of the growth of nucleation mode particles observed in boreal forest, Tellus, Ser. B, 50, 449–462, 1998. Kulmala, M., Dal Maso, M., Mäkelä, J., Pirjola, L., Väkevä, M., Aalto, P., Miikkulainen, P., Hämeri, K., and O'Dowd, C. D.: On the formation, growth and composition of nucleation mode particles, Tellus, Ser. B, 53, 479–490, 2001. Kulmala, M., Vehkamäki, H., Petäjä, T., Dal Maso, M., Lauri, A., Kerminen, V.-M., Birmili, W., and McMurry, P. H.: Formation and growth rates of ultrafine atmospheric particles: A review of observations, J. Aerosol Sci., 35, 143–176, 2004a. Kulmala, M., Kerminen, V.-M., Anttila, T., Laaksonen, A., and O'Dowd C.D.: Organic aerosol formation via sulphate cluster activation, J. Geophys. Res., 109(D4), 4205, doi:10.1029/2003JD003961, 2004b. Lihavainen, H., Kerminen, V.-M., Komppula, M., Hatakka, J., Aaltonen, V., Kulmala, M., and Viisanen, Y.: Prodution of "potential" cloud condensation nuclei production associated with atmospheric new-particle formation in northern Finland, J. Geophys. Res., 108(D24), 4782, doi:10.1029/2003JD003887, 2003. Lohmann, U. and Feichter, J.: Global indirect aerosol effects: a review, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 5, 715–737, 2005. Mauldin, III R. L., Cantrell, C. A., Zondlo, M. A., Kosciuch, E., Ridley, B. A., Weber, R., and Eisele, F. E.: Measurements of OH, H$_2$SO$_4$, and MSA during tropospheric ozone production about the spring equinox (TOPSE), J. Geophys. Res., 108(D4), 8366, doi:10.1029/2002JD002295, 2003. Mäkelä, J. M., Aalto, P., Jokinen, V., Pohja, T., Nissinen, A., Palmroth, S., Markkanen, T., Seitsonen, K., Lihavainen, H., and Kulmala, M.: Observations of ultrafine aerosol particle formation and growth in boreal forest, Geophys. Res. Lett., 24, 1219–1222, 1997. Mäkelä, J., Dal Maso, M., Pirjola, L., Keronen, P., Laakso, L., Kulmala, M., and Laaksonen, A.: Characteristics of the atmospheric particle formation events observed at a boreal forest site in Southern Finland, Boreal Env. Res., 5, 299–313, 2000. Pirjola, L., Kulmala, M., Wilck, M., Bischoff, A., Stratmann, F., and Otto, E.: Effects of aerosol dynamics on the formation of sulphuric acid aerosols and cloud condensation nuclei, J. Aerosol Sci., 30, 1079–1094, 1999. Seinfeld, J. H. and Pandis, S. N.: Atmospheric chemistry and physics: From air pollution to climate change. John Wiley & Sons Inc, New York, 1998. Stohl, A., Wotawa, G., Seibert, P., and Kromp-Kolb, H.: Interpolation errors in wind fields as a function of spatial and temporal resolution and their impact on different types of kinematic trajectories, J. Appl. Meteor., 34, 2149–2165, 1995. Vehkamäki, H., Dal Maso, M., Hussein, T., Flanagan, R., Hyvärinen, A., Lauros, J., Merikanto, J., Mönkkönen, P., Pihlatie, M., Salminen, K., Sogacheva, L., Thum, T., Ruuskanen, T. M., Keronen, P., Aalto, P. P., Hari, P., Lehtinen, K. E. J., Rannik, Ü., and Kulmala, M.: Atmospheric particle formation events at Värriö measurement station in Finnish Lapland 1998–2002, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 4, 2015–2023, 2004. Weber, R. J., Marti, J. J., McMurry, P. H., Eisele, F. L., Tanner, D. J., and Jefferson, A.: Measurements of new particle formation and ultrafine particle growth rates at a clean continental site, J. Geophys. Res., 102(D4), 4375–4385, 1997. Winklmayr, W., Reischl, G. P., Linder, A. O., and Berner, A.: A new electromobility spectrometer for the measurement of aerosol size distribution in the size range 1 to 1000 nm, J. Aerosol Sci., 22, 289–296, 1991.