Wintertime new particle formation and its contribution to cloud condensation nuclei in the Northeastern United States

Yu, Fangqun; Luo, Gan; Nair, Arshad Arjunan; Schwab, James J.; Sherman, James P.; Zhang, Yanda

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-2591-2020

Articles | Volume 20, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-2591-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-2591-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 20, issue 4

Research article

|

03 Mar 2020

Research article |

| 03 Mar 2020

Wintertime new particle formation and its contribution to cloud condensation nuclei in the Northeastern United States

Fangqun Yu, Gan Luo, Arshad Arjunan Nair, James J. Schwab, James P. Sherman, and Yanda Zhang

Data sets

Ammonia Monitoring Network (AMoN) data National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NRSP3) http://nadp.slh.wisc.edu/data/AMoN/

Model code and software

NCAR Command Language (Version 6.6.2) UCAR/NCAR/CISL/TDD https://doi.org/10.5065/D6WD3XH5

Short summary

Particle number concentration (PNC) is a key parameter important for the health and climate impacts of atmospheric aerosols. We show that, even during wintertime, regional nucleation occurs and contributes significantly to number concentrations of ultrafine particles and cloud condensation nuclei. Due to low biogenic emissions, wintertime regional nucleation is solely controlled by inorganic species, and ternary ion-mediated nucleation is able to capture the observed variations in PNC.