Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics www.atmos-chem-phys.net 1680-7316 1680-7324 6 12 2006 10.5194/acp-6-4519-2006 http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/6/4519/2006/ http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/6/4519/2006/acp-6-4519-2006.html http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/6/4519/2006/acp-6-4519-2006.pdf 4519 4527 2006-10-06 Calibration of LACIS as a CCN detector and its use in measuring activation and hygroscopic growth of atmospheric aerosol particles H. Wex wex@tropos.de A. Kiselev M. Ziese F. Stratmann Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research, Permoser Str. 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany A calibration for LACIS (Leipzig Aerosol Cloud Interaction Simulator) for its use as a CCN (cloud condensation nuclei) detector has been developed. For this purpose, sodium chloride and ammonium sulfate particles of known sizes were generated and their grown sizes were detected at the LACIS outlet. From these signals, the effective critical super-saturation was derived as a function of the LACIS wall temperature. 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