Simulation of the size-composition distribution of atmospheric nanoparticles over Europe

Patoulias, David; Fountoukis, Christos; Riipinen, Ilona; Asmi, Ari; Kulmala, Markku; Pandis, Spyros N.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-13639-2018

Articles | Volume 18, issue 18

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-13639-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-13639-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 18, issue 18

Research article

|

27 Sep 2018

Research article |

| 27 Sep 2018

Simulation of the size-composition distribution of atmospheric nanoparticles over Europe

David Patoulias, Christos Fountoukis, Ilona Riipinen, Ari Asmi, Markku Kulmala, and Spyros N. Pandis

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Final revised paper (published on 27 Sep 2018)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 26 Mar 2018)
Supplement to the preprint

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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RC1: 'Evaluation of Patoulias et al., “The size distribution of atmospheric nanoparticles over Europe”', Anonymous Referee #1, 22 Apr 2018
- AC1: 'Response to Referee #1', Spyros Pandis, 02 Jul 2018
RC2: 'Review of the manuscript titled “The size-composition distribution of atmospheric nanoparticles over Europe”', Anonymous Referee #2, 30 Apr 2018
- AC2: 'Response to Referee #2', Spyros Pandis, 02 Jul 2018

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Spyros Pandis on behalf of the Authors (28 Jul 2018) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (08 Aug 2018) by Maria Kanakidou

RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (13 Aug 2018)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

I apologize for my mistake in interpretation 5 of June to 8 of July, 2012 as a 4 day period when it of course should be 34 days. It is good that you clearly write out now that it is 34 days in the manuscript to avoid this mistake. Considering my mistake I do understand the relevance in comparing the general trends in the modelled and observed particle number concentrations at the individual stations.

I think that you very well have considered my comments and suggestions for improvements and that the manuscript now is easy to follow and suitable for publication in ACP. I have only one minor comment (See below):

In the conclusions on line 523-526 you write: “The condensation of organics decreased the predicted N10 concentration across Europe. The condensation of organics both grew ultrafine particles and increased the probability of collision of fresh particles with large particles (coagulation sink). This change dominated over the faster growth of the fresh particles to larger sizes in many, but not all, locations.”
I think you should also point out to the reader hear that by including ELVOC and LVOC the SOA mass will increase, the CS will increase and the growth of <10 nm in diameter particles will increase. This will most likely at least to some extent influence the predicted N10 concentration across Europe. Related to this you could refer to e.g. Jokinen et al., PNAS 2015 which investigated the effect on the number of CCN when including more ELVOC SOA on the expense of SVOC SOA. According to this study, the effect of including ELVOC SOA formation for the number of CCN was relatively moderate. The reason for this may very well be as you mention what the increasing CS and coagulation sink to large extent cancel out the effect of increasing GR for the number of CCN and N10.

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ED: Publish subject to technical corrections (28 Aug 2018) by Maria Kanakidou

AR by Spyros Pandis on behalf of the Authors (02 Sep 2018) Manuscript

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Short summary

PMCAMx-UF, a 3-D chemical transport model focusing on the simulation of ultrafine particles, has been extended with the addition of the volatility basis set (VBS) approach for the simulation of organic aerosol. The model was applied in Europe and its predictions were evaluated against field observations collected during the PEGASOS 2012 campaign. The condensation of organics led to an increase (50–120 %) in the larger particles but the total number concentration decreased by 10–30 %.