Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics www.atmos-chem-phys.net 1680-7316 1680-7324 7 5 2007 10.5194/acp-7-1407-2007 http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/7/1407/2007/ http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/7/1407/2007/acp-7-1407-2007.html http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/7/1407/2007/acp-7-1407-2007.pdf 1407 1413 2007-02-28 Is aerosol formation in cirrus clouds possible? J. Kazil jan.kazil@noaa.gov E. R. Lovejoy E. J. Jensen D. R. Hanson NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, CO, USA NRC Research Associateship Programs, Washington, D.C., USA NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, USA Augsburg College, Minneapolis, MN, USA The recent observation of ultrafine aerosol particles in cirrus clouds has raised the question whether aerosol formation within cirrus clouds is possible, and if so, what mechanisms are involved. We have developed an aerosol parcel model of neutral and charged H₂SO₄/H₂O aerosol processes, including nucleation from the gas phase and loss onto cirrus ice particles. Laboratory thermodynamic data for sulfuric acid uptake and loss by small neutral and charged clusters are used, allowing for a reliable description of both neutral and charged nucleation down to the very low temperatures occurring in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. The model implements a first order scheme for resolving the aerosol size distribution within its geometric size sections, which efficiently suppresses numerical diffusion. We operate the model offline on trajectories generated with a detailed 1D cirrus model which describes ice crystal nucleation, deposition growth, vertical advection of ice crystals and water vapor, and ice crystal sedimentation. In this paper we explore the possibility of aerosol formation within non-convective cirrus clouds and draw conclusions for aerosol formation in anvil cirrus. 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