New (secondary) particle formation in the coastal environment

Rapid particle nucleation events are being studied under a wide variety of environmental conditions and locations, including Mace Head (coastal), Hyytiala (forest) and open ocean on aircraft.

The recently funded European Union Environment and Climate Programme research proposal: New Particle Formation and Fate in the Coastal Environment: PARFORCE whose field activities are centred at Mace Head gives impetus to determining processes which control and promote new-particle nucleation in the marine boundary layer. Intense measurement campaigns took place in 1998 and 1999. Detail on PARFORCE can be found on the PARFORCE web site along with reprints of a Special Issue published in JGR-Atmospheres.

New particle formation in the forest environment

A sister project, BIOFOR, (Biogenic Aerosol Formation over the Boreal Forest) was conducted over the forest canopy in Southern Finland.

Natural production of new particles over Europe

As a combined development of both BIOFOR and PARFORCE, a 3-year EU project QUEST (Quantification of Aerosol Nucleation in the European Boundary Layer) is on-going, quantifying the source of natural nucleation mode aerosol particles into the atmospheric boundary layer.

Primary particle formation over the ocean

Enterprise Ireland has recently funded a 2-year programme to determine the flux of primary marine (sea-salt and organic) aerosol particles over the ocean. The project, entitles "Measurement and Parameterisation of Primary Marine Aerosol Source Functions" started in January 2002 and utilises the eddy-correlation technique from a 22 m tower at Mace Head.

The driving reasons behind this research can be summarised as followes: The greatest uncertainty in climate change prediction is associated with the role of aerosols in the Earth's radiation budget. Aerosols reflect incoming solar radiation directly and determine cloud reflectance, thereby influencing the radiative budget. There are, however, no reliable source-function parameterisations for primary marine aerosols and consequently, this aerosol source is not adequately included in climate models. Measurements of primary marine aerosol fluxes, using an eddy-covariance technique, are proposed in this work. These measurements will result in the development of a series of parameterisations for the generation of primary marine aerosol fluxes under different meteorological conditions. The end users will be climate modellers determining the effect of natural and anthropogenic aerosols in global climate forcing.

References:

O'Dowd, C.D. K. Hämeri, P. Aalto, and M. Kulmala, First experimental evidence of new particle formation from organic vapours over forests. Submitted to Nature, 2001. PDF

O'Dowd, C.D., J.L. Jimenez, J.H. Seinfeld, L. Pirjola, M. Kulmala, and T. Hoffmann, Marine particle formation controlled by biogenic iodine emissions, submitted to Nature, 2001.

Mäkelä, J.M., T. Hoffmann, C. Holzke, M. Väkevä, T. Suni, T. Mattila, P.P. Aalto, U. Tapper E.I. Kauppinen and C.D. O'Dowd, iogenic iodine emissions and identification of end-products in coastal ultrafine particles during nucleation bursts, J. Geophys. Res., in press, 2002 PDF

O'Dowd, C.D., K. Hämeri, J.M. Mäkelä, L. Pirjola, M. Kulmala, S.G. Jennings, H. Berresheim, H.-C. Hansson, G. de Leeuw, A. G. Allen, C. N. Hewitt, A. Jackson, Y. Viisanen, T. Hoffmann, A dedicated study of new particle formation and fate in the coastal environment (PARFORCE): Overview of objectives and initial achievements. J. Geophys. Res., in press, 2002. PDF

O'Dowd, C.D., K. Hämeri, J.M. Mäkelä, M. Väkeva, P.P. Aalto, G. de Leeuw, G.J. Kunz, E. Becker, H.-C. Hansson, A.G. Allen, R.M. Harrion, H. Berresheim, C. Kleefeld, M. Geever, S. G. Jennings and M. Kulmala, Coastal new particle formation: Environmental conditions and aerosol physico-chemical characteristics during nucleation bursts. in press J. Geophys. Res., 2002. PDF

O'Dowd, CD. On the spatial extent and evolution of coastal aerosol plumes. J. Geophys. Res., in press 2002. PDF

Kulmala, M., P. Korhonen, I. Napari, R. Jansson, H. Berresheim, and C.D. O'Dowd. Aerosol formation during PARFORCE: Ternary nucleation of H2SO4, NH3 and H2O. in press J. Geophys. Res., 2001.

Dal Maso, M., M. Kulmala, J. Mäkelä, P. Aalto, C.D. O'Dowd, Condensation and coagulation sinks and the formation of nucleation mode particles in coastal and boreal forest boundary layers. In press, J. Geophys. Res., 2001.
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Pirjola, L., C.D. O'Dowd and M. Kulmala, A model prediction of the yield of CCN from coastal nucleation events. In press J. Geophys. Res., 2002.

Berresheim, H., T. Elste, H.G. Tremmel, C.D. O'Dowd, A.G. Allen, H.-C. Hansson, K. Rosman, M. Dal Maso, J.M. Makela, and M. Kulmala. Gas-aerosol relationships of H2SO4, MSA and H: Observations in the coastal marine boundary layer at Mace Head, Ireland, in press J. Geophys. Res., 2001.

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O'Dowd, C.D., E. Becker, J.M. Makela, M. Kulmala, Aerosol physic-chemical characteristics over a boreal forest determined by volatility analysis, Boreal Environment Research, 4, 337-348, 2000

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Gras, J.L., Jennings, S.G., and Geever, M., (1996). CCN determination comparing counters with single drop counting and photometric detectors at Mace Head, Ireland. Idojaras, 100, 171-182.
 
Jennings, S.G., Geever, M., Mc Govern, F.M., Francis, J.,  Spain, T. G. and Donaghy, T. (1997). Microphysical and physico-chemical characterisation of atmospheric aerosol at Mace Head. Atmos. Environ., 31, 2795-2808.
 
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Jennings, S.G., Geever, M., and O'Connor, T.C. (1997). Coastal CCN measurements at Mace Head with enhanced concentrations in strong winds. Atmos. Res., 46, 243-252.