Original Research Papers
Influence of water uptake on the aerosol particle light scattering coefficients of the Central European aerosol
Authors:
- Paul ZiegerEmail Paul Zieger
- Rahel Fierz-Schmidhauser
- Laurent Poulain
- Thomas Müller
- Wolfram Birmili
- Gerald Spindler
- Alfred Wiedensohler
- Urs Baltensperger
- Ernest Weingartner
Abstract
The influence of aerosol water uptake on the aerosol particle light scattering was examined at the regional continental research site Melpitz, Germany. The scattering enhancement factorf(RH), defined as the aerosol particle scattering coefficient at a certain relative humidity (RH) divided by its dry value, was measured using a humidified nephelometer. The chemical composition and other microphysical properties were measured in parallel.f(RH) showed a strong variation, e.g. with values between 1.2 and 3.6 at RH=85% and λ=550 nm. The chemical composition was found to be the main factor determining the magnitude off(RH), since the magnitude off(RH) clearly correlated with the inorganic mass fraction measured by an aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS). Hysteresis within the recorded humidograms was observed and explained by long-range transported sea salt. A closure study using Mie theory showed the consistency of the measured parameters.
- Year: 2014
- Volume: 66 Issue: 1
- Page/Article: 22716
- DOI: 10.3402/tellusb.v66.22716
- Submitted on 29 Aug 2013
- Accepted on 14 Feb 2014
- Published on 1 Jan 2014
- Peer Reviewed