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

Related authors

Particle deliquescence in a turbulent humidity field
Dennis Niedermeier, Rasmus Hoffmann, Silvio Schmalfuss, Wiebke Frey, Fabian Senf, Olaf Hellmuth, Mira Pöhlker, and Frank Stratmann
Aerosol Research, 3, 219–230, https://doi.org/10.5194/ar-3-219-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/ar-3-219-2025, 2025
Short summary
External particle mixing influences hygroscopicity in a sub-urban area
Shravan Deshmukh, Laurent Poulain, Birgit Wehner, Silvia Henning, Jean-Eudes Petit, Pauline Fombelle, Olivier Favez, Hartmut Herrmann, and Mira Pöhlker
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 741–758, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-741-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-741-2025, 2025
Short summary
Microphysical properties of refractory black carbon aerosols for different air masses at a central European background site
Yifan Yang, Thomas Müller, Laurent Poulain, Samira Atabakhsh, Bruna A. Holanda, Jens Voigtländer, Shubhi Arora, and Mira L. Pöhlker
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3539,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3539, 2024
Short summary
Downward and upward revisions of Chinese emissions of black carbon and CO in bottom-up inventories are still required: an integrated analysis of WRF/CMAQ model and EMeRGe observations in East Asia in spring 2018
Phuc Thi Minh Ha, Yugo Kanaya, Kazuyo Yamaji, Syuichi Itahashi, Satoru Chatani, Takashi Sekiya, Maria Dolores Andrés Hernández, John Philip Burrows, Hans Schlager, Michael Lichtenstern, Mira Poehlker, and Bruna Holanda
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2064,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2064, 2024
Short summary
How rainfall events modify trace gas mixing ratios in central Amazonia
Luiz A. T. Machado, Jürgen Kesselmeier, Santiago Botía, Hella van Asperen, Meinrat O. Andreae, Alessandro C. de Araújo, Paulo Artaxo, Achim Edtbauer, Rosaria R. Ferreira, Marco A. Franco, Hartwig Harder, Sam P. Jones, Cléo Q. Dias-Júnior, Guido G. Haytzmann, Carlos A. Quesada, Shujiro Komiya, Jost Lavric, Jos Lelieveld, Ingeborg Levin, Anke Nölscher, Eva Pfannerstill, Mira L. Pöhlker, Ulrich Pöschl, Akima Ringsdorf, Luciana Rizzo, Ana M. Yáñez-Serrano, Susan Trumbore, Wanda I. D. Valenti, Jordi Vila-Guerau de Arellano, David Walter, Jonathan Williams, Stefan Wolff, and Christopher Pöhlker
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 8893–8910, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8893-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8893-2024, 2024
Short summary

Related subject area

Subject: Clouds and Precipitation | Research Activity: Atmospheric Modelling and Data Analysis | Altitude Range: Troposphere | Science Focus: Physics (physical properties and processes)
Influence of temperature and humidity on contrail formation regions in the general circulation model EMAC: a spring case study
Patrick Peter, Sigrun Matthes, Christine Frömming, Patrick Jöckel, Luca Bugliaro, Andreas Giez, Martina Krämer, and Volker Grewe
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 5911–5934, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5911-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5911-2025, 2025
Short summary
On the impact of thunder on cloud ice crystals and droplets
Konstantinos Kourtidis, Stavros Stathopoulos, and Vassilis Amiridis
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 5935–5946, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5935-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5935-2025, 2025
Short summary
Counteracting influences of gravitational settling modulate aerosol impacts on cloud-base-lowering fog characteristics
Nathan H. Pope and Adele L. Igel
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 5433–5444, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5433-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5433-2025, 2025
Short summary
The critical number and size of precipitation embryos to accelerate warm rain initiation
Jung-Sub Lim, Yign Noh, Hyunho Lee, and Fabian Hoffmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 5313–5329, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5313-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5313-2025, 2025
Short summary
Impact on the stratocumulus-to-cumulus transition of the interaction of cloud microphysics and macrophysics with large-scale circulation
Je-Yun Chun, Robert Wood, Peter N. Blossey, and Sarah J. Doherty
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 5251–5271, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5251-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5251-2025, 2025
Short summary

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
Download
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.
Share
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint