New particle formation in the marine atmosphere during seven cruise campaigns

Zhu, Yujiao; Li, Kai; Shen, Yanjie; Gao, Yang; Liu, Xiaohuan; Yu, Yang; Gao, Huiwang; Yao, Xiaohong

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-89-2019

Articles | Volume 19, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-89-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-89-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 19, issue 1

Research article

|

03 Jan 2019

Research article |

| 03 Jan 2019

New particle formation in the marine atmosphere during seven cruise campaigns

Yujiao Zhu, Kai Li, Yanjie Shen, Yang Gao, Xiaohuan Liu, Yang Yu, Huiwang Gao, and Xiaohong Yao

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Final revised paper (published on 03 Jan 2019)
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Preprint (discussion started on 30 Jul 2018)
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Interactive discussion

Status: closed

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

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RC1: 'Referee comment', Anonymous Referee #1, 15 Aug 2018
- AC1: 'response to anonymous referee 1', Xiaohong Yao, 05 Nov 2018
RC2: 'Review comments on acp-2018-699', Anonymous Referee #2, 16 Aug 2018
- AC2: 'response to anonymous referee 2', Xiaohong Yao, 05 Nov 2018

Peer-review completion

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

AR by Xiaohong Yao on behalf of the Authors (19 Nov 2018) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (20 Nov 2018) by Veli-Matti Kerminen

RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (02 Dec 2018)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

The authors have well addressed most of my concerns on the manuscript, though I would still like to ask for clarifications at some points. Firstly, the authors defined that NMINP referred to the net maximum increase in nucleation mode particles number concentration, and FR was calculated according to formula (1) in Text S2 where Ndp was the particle number concentration of nucleation mode particles. Please clarify what are the differences between NMINP and the integration of dNdp/dt over the time period of NPF. I am aware that FR is controlled by many factors but absolutely not the calculation formula. However, it can be expected that higher FR leads to larger enhancement of nucleation mode particles, except that the newly formed particles are removed in some pathways as described in the formula (1) in Text S2. In the cases that the FRs exceeded 8 cm-3 s-1, no correlation existed between NMINP and FRs, could the authors clarify what accounted for the removal of the newly formed particles? The essential influencing factors (FR= kNucOrg[H2SO4]m[NucOrg]n) cannot be used to explain the poor correlation, though which is widely-known to be true, because FR was not calculated according to this formula but based on the observed concentrations of nucleation mode particles.
It is very interesting that the authors describe sulfuric acid as the fuel and organics as the engine in NPF. However, I cannot agree the statement that NMINP was always determined by the consumed H2SO4 vapor for nucleation, unless the authors could provide solid evidences to prove that organics are always sufficient and has no/very low possibility to be the limiting factor in NPF. For example, in the cases that the concentrations of the condensable vapors of the organics are much lower than those of the sulfuric acid, could it possible that NMINP is determined by the organic vapors consumed?
Overall, these questions are worthy of further discussions before accepting this paper. I look forward to the responses from the authors for clearer clarifications.

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ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (03 Dec 2018) by Veli-Matti Kerminen

AR by Xiaohong Yao on behalf of the Authors (06 Dec 2018) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (07 Dec 2018) by Veli-Matti Kerminen

AR by Xiaohong Yao on behalf of the Authors (12 Dec 2018)

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Short summary

In this paper, we investigate new particle formation (NPF) events during seven cruises. NPF events were observed on 25 days and were most likely associated with the long-range transport of anthropogenic air pollutants. The relationship between the net generated amount of new particles and their apparent formation rate is established and explained in terms of the roles of different vapor precursors. The survival probability of new particles to CCN size is also discussed.