ACP Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics ACP Atmos. Chem. Phys. 1680-7324 Copernicus Publications Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/acp-12-2289-2012 A numerical comparison of different methods for determining the particle formation rate Vuollekoski H. 1 Sihto S.-L. 1 Kerminen V.-M. 1 2 Kulmala M. 1 3 Lehtinen K. E. J. 4 5 Department of Physics, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 48, 00014 Helsinki, Finland Finnish Meteorological Institute, 00560 Helsinki, Finland Department of Applied Environmental Science, Stockholm University, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden Department of Physics and Mathematics, University of Eastern Finland, 70211 Kuopio, Finland Finnish Meteorological Institute, 70211 Kuopio, Finland 01 03 2012 12 5 2289 2295 Copyright: © 2012 H. Vuollekoski et al. 2012 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This article is available from https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/12/2289/2012/acp-12-2289-2012.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/12/2289/2012/acp-12-2289-2012.pdf

Different methods of determining formation rates of 3 nm particles are compared, basing on analysis of simulated data, but the results are valid for analyses of experimental particle size distribution data as well, at least within the accuracy of the applied model. The study shows that the method of determining formation rates indirectly from measured number concentration data of 3–6 nm particles is generally in good agreement with the theoretical calculation with a systematic error of 0–20%. While this accuracy is often enough, a simple modification to the approximative equation for the formation rate is recommended. A brief study on real atmospheric data implied that in some cases the accuracy gain may be significant.

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