Observation-based constraints on modeled aerosol surface area: implications for heterogeneous chemistry

Bergin, Rachel A.; Harkey, Monica; Hoffman, Alicia; Moore, Richard H.; Anderson, Bruce; Beyersdorf, Andreas; Ziemba, Luke; Thornhill, Lee; Winstead, Edward; Holloway, Tracey; Bertram, Timothy H.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-15449-2022

Articles | Volume 22, issue 23

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-15449-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-15449-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 22, issue 23

Research article

|

07 Dec 2022

Research article |

| 07 Dec 2022

Observation-based constraints on modeled aerosol surface area: implications for heterogeneous chemistry

Rachel A. Bergin, Monica Harkey, Alicia Hoffman, Richard H. Moore, Bruce Anderson, Andreas Beyersdorf, Luke Ziemba, Lee Thornhill, Edward Winstead, Tracey Holloway, and Timothy H. Bertram

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-15449-2022-supplement

Data sets

Observation-Based Constraints on Modeled Aerosol Surface Area: Implications for Heterogeneous Chemistry Rachel A. Bergin, Monica Harkey, Alicia Hoffmann, Richard H. Moore, Bruce Anderson, Andreas Beyersdorf, Luke Ziemba, Lee Thornhill, Edward Winstead, Tracey Holloway, and Timothy H. Bertram https://minds.wisconsin.edu/handle/1793/83241

DISCOVER-AQ P-3B Aircraft in-situ Trace Gas Measurements NASA/LARC/SD/ASDC https://doi.org/10.5067/AIRCRAFT/DISCOVER-AQ/AEROSOL-TRACEGAS

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Short summary

Correctly predicting aerosol surface area concentrations is important for determining the rate of heterogeneous reactions in chemical transport models. Here, we compare aircraft measurements of aerosol surface area with a regional model. In polluted air masses, we show that the model underpredicts aerosol surface area by a factor of 2. Despite this disagreement, the representation of heterogeneous chemistry still dominates the overall uncertainty in the loss rate of molecules such as N₂O₅.