Articles | Volume 21, issue 15
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-11723-2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-11723-2021
Research article
 | 
06 Aug 2021
Research article |  | 06 Aug 2021

Aitken mode particles as CCN in aerosol- and updraft-sensitive regimes of cloud droplet formation

Mira L. Pöhlker, Minghui Zhang, Ramon Campos Braga, Ovid O. Krüger, Ulrich Pöschl, and Barbara Ervens

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Cited articles

Andreae, M. O. and Rosenfeld, D.: Aerosol-cloud-precipitation interactions. Part 1: The nature and sources of cloud-active aerosols, Earth-Sci. Rev., 89, 13–41, 2008. a
Anttila, T. and Kerminen, V.-M.: On the contribution of Aitken mode particles to cloud droplet populations at continental background areas – a parametric sensitivity study, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 7, 4625–4637, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-7-4625-2007, 2007. a
Anttila, T., Brus, D., Jaatinen, A., Hyvärinen, A.-P., Kivekäs, N., Romakkaniemi, S., Komppula, M., and Lihavainen, H.: Relationships between particles, cloud condensation nuclei and cloud droplet activation during the third Pallas Cloud Experiment, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 12, 11435–11450, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-12-11435-2012, 2012. a
Birmili, W., Wiedensohler, A., Heintzenberg, J., and Lehmann, K.: Atmospheric particle number size distribution in central Europe: Statistical relations to air masses and meteorology, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 106, 32005–32018, https://doi.org/10.1029/2000JD000220, 2001. a
Campos Braga, R., Ervens, B., Rosenfeld, D., Andreae, M. O., Förster, J.-D., Fütterer, D., Hernández Pardo, L., Holanda, B. A., Jurkat, T., Krüger, O. O., Lauer, O., Machado, L. A. T., Pöhlker, C., Sauer, D., Voigt, C., Walser, A., Wendisch, M., Pöschl, U., and Pöhlker, M. L.: Cloud droplet number closure for tropical convective clouds during the ACRIDICON–CHUVA campaign, Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss. [preprint], https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2021-80, in review, 2021. a, b, c
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Short summary
Clouds cool our atmosphere. The role of small aerosol particles in affecting them represents one of the largest uncertainties in current estimates of climate change. Traditionally it is assumed that cloud droplets only form particles of diameters ~ 100 nm (accumulation mode). Previous studies suggest that this can also occur in smaller particles (Aitken mode). Our study provides a general framework to estimate under which aerosol and cloud conditions Aitken mode particles affect clouds.
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