Towards a concentration closure of sub-6 nm aerosol particles and sub-3 nm atmospheric clusters

Markku Kulmala, Dominik Stolzenburg (Corresponding author), Lubna Dada, Runlong Cai, Jenni Kontkanen, Chao Yan, Juha Kangasluoma, Lauri R. Ahonen, Loic Gonzalez-Carracedo, Juha Sulo, Santeri Tuovinen, Chenjuan Deng, Yiran Li, Katrianne Lehtipalo, Kari E. J. Lehtinen, Tuukka Petäjä, Paul M. Winkler, Jingkun Jiang, Veli-Matti Kerminen

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Abstract

Atmospheric clusters play a key role in atmospheric new particle formation and they are a sensitive indicator for atmospheric chemistry. Both the formation and loss of atmospheric clusters include a complex set of interlinked physical and chemical processes, and therefore their dynamics is highly non-linear. Here we derive a set of simple equations to estimate the atmospheric cluster concentrations in size ranges of 1.5-2 nm and 2-3 nm as well as 3-6 nm aerosol particles. We compared the estimated concentrations with measured ones both in a boreal forest site (the SMEAR II station in Hyytia center dot la center dot, Finland) and in an urban site (the AHL/BUCT station in Beijing, China). We made this comparison first for 3-6 nm particles, since in this size range observations are more reliable than at smaller sizes, and then repeated it for the 2-3 nm size range. Finally, we estimated cluster concentrations in the 1.5-2 nm size range. Our main finding is that the present observations are able to detect a major fraction of existing atmospheric clusters.
Original languageEnglish
Article number105878
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of Aerosol Science
Volume159
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2022

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

  • 103037 Environmental physics
  • 103039 Aerosol physics
  • 105206 Meteorology
  • 105208 Atmospheric chemistry

Keywords

  • New particle formation
  • Atmospheric clusters
  • Particle number concentrations
  • Urban environment
  • Boreal forest
  • Sub-10 nm
  • NEUTRAL CLUSTERS
  • SIZE MAGNIFIER
  • BOREAL FOREST
  • SULFURIC-ACID
  • NUCLEATION
  • ION
  • SPECTROMETER
  • MOBILITY
  • CHEMISTRY
  • STATION

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