Secondary Organic Aerosol Formation Regulates Cloud Condensation Nuclei in the Global Remote Troposphere

Abstract Formation of secondary organic aerosols (SOA) through the atmospheric oxidation of organic vapors has potential to enable particle growth to cloud condensation nuclei (CCN)‐relevant sizes. In this work, we constrain a global aerosol model by using aircraft measurements to reveal the global...

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Main Authors: Mingxu Liu, Hitoshi Matsui
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2022-09-01
Series:Geophysical Research Letters
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL100543
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author Mingxu Liu
Hitoshi Matsui
author_facet Mingxu Liu
Hitoshi Matsui
author_sort Mingxu Liu
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Formation of secondary organic aerosols (SOA) through the atmospheric oxidation of organic vapors has potential to enable particle growth to cloud condensation nuclei (CCN)‐relevant sizes. In this work, we constrain a global aerosol model by using aircraft measurements to reveal the global importance of SOA formation in CCN production. Our improved model, with explicit size‐resolved aerosol microphysics and parametrizations of semivolatile organic oxidation products, presents a state‐of‐the‐art performance in simulating both particle number concentrations and organic aerosol concentrations dominated (80–95%) by SOA in the remote atmosphere, which have been challenges in previous modeling studies. The SOA formation in concert with aerosol nucleation contributes to more than 50% of CCN concentrations in those pristine environments featuring low background aerosol concentrations. We estimate that the SOA‐derived CCN alters the magnitude of cloud radiative forcing by ∼0.1 W m−2. Our findings underscore the necessity for aerosol‐climate models to represent controls on CCN concentrations by SOA production.
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spelling doaj-art-b07df131b59f48e69c2bd896c60c346f2025-08-20T02:10:44ZengWileyGeophysical Research Letters0094-82761944-80072022-09-014918n/an/a10.1029/2022GL100543Secondary Organic Aerosol Formation Regulates Cloud Condensation Nuclei in the Global Remote TroposphereMingxu Liu0Hitoshi Matsui1Graduate School of Environmental Studies Nagoya University Nagoya JapanGraduate School of Environmental Studies Nagoya University Nagoya JapanAbstract Formation of secondary organic aerosols (SOA) through the atmospheric oxidation of organic vapors has potential to enable particle growth to cloud condensation nuclei (CCN)‐relevant sizes. In this work, we constrain a global aerosol model by using aircraft measurements to reveal the global importance of SOA formation in CCN production. Our improved model, with explicit size‐resolved aerosol microphysics and parametrizations of semivolatile organic oxidation products, presents a state‐of‐the‐art performance in simulating both particle number concentrations and organic aerosol concentrations dominated (80–95%) by SOA in the remote atmosphere, which have been challenges in previous modeling studies. The SOA formation in concert with aerosol nucleation contributes to more than 50% of CCN concentrations in those pristine environments featuring low background aerosol concentrations. We estimate that the SOA‐derived CCN alters the magnitude of cloud radiative forcing by ∼0.1 W m−2. Our findings underscore the necessity for aerosol‐climate models to represent controls on CCN concentrations by SOA production.https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL100543secondary organicscloud condensation nucleiglobal climate modeltroposphere
spellingShingle Mingxu Liu
Hitoshi Matsui
Secondary Organic Aerosol Formation Regulates Cloud Condensation Nuclei in the Global Remote Troposphere
Geophysical Research Letters
secondary organics
cloud condensation nuclei
global climate model
troposphere
title Secondary Organic Aerosol Formation Regulates Cloud Condensation Nuclei in the Global Remote Troposphere
title_full Secondary Organic Aerosol Formation Regulates Cloud Condensation Nuclei in the Global Remote Troposphere
title_fullStr Secondary Organic Aerosol Formation Regulates Cloud Condensation Nuclei in the Global Remote Troposphere
title_full_unstemmed Secondary Organic Aerosol Formation Regulates Cloud Condensation Nuclei in the Global Remote Troposphere
title_short Secondary Organic Aerosol Formation Regulates Cloud Condensation Nuclei in the Global Remote Troposphere
title_sort secondary organic aerosol formation regulates cloud condensation nuclei in the global remote troposphere
topic secondary organics
cloud condensation nuclei
global climate model
troposphere
url https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL100543
work_keys_str_mv AT mingxuliu secondaryorganicaerosolformationregulatescloudcondensationnucleiintheglobalremotetroposphere
AT hitoshimatsui secondaryorganicaerosolformationregulatescloudcondensationnucleiintheglobalremotetroposphere