Articles | Volume 23, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-251-2023
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-251-2023
ACP Letters
 | Highlight paper
 | 
13 Jan 2023
ACP Letters | Highlight paper |  | 13 Jan 2023

Strong particle production and condensational growth in the upper troposphere sustained by biogenic VOCs from the canopy of the Amazon Basin

Yunfan Liu, Hang Su, Siwen Wang, Chao Wei, Wei Tao, Mira L. Pöhlker, Christopher Pöhlker, Bruna A. Holanda, Ovid O. Krüger, Thorsten Hoffmann, Manfred Wendisch, Paulo Artaxo, Ulrich Pöschl, Meinrat O. Andreae, and Yafang Cheng

Related authors

Volume uptake of carbonyls during diffusional ice crystal growth
Jackson Seymore, Miklós Szakáll, Alexander Theis, Subir K. Mitra, Christine Borchers, and Thorsten Hoffmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 18249–18265, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-18249-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-18249-2025, 2025
Short summary
Biases in estimated vegetation indices from observations under cloudy conditions
Kevin Wolf, Evelyn Jäkel, André Ehrlich, Michael Schäfer, Hannes Feilhauer, Andreas Huth, and Manfred Wendisch
Biogeosciences, 22, 7797–7817, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-7797-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-7797-2025, 2025
Short summary
Measurement report: Number size distribution of sub-40 nm particles in the Amazon rainforest
Jianqiang Zhu, Guo Li, Uwe Kuhn, Bruno Backes Meller, Christopher Pöhlker, Paulo Artaxo, Ulrich Pöschl, Yafang Cheng, and Hang Su
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 17667–17684, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-17667-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-17667-2025, 2025
Short summary
Development and use of a lightweight sampling system for height-selective UAV-based measurements of organic aerosol particles
Christine Borchers, Lasse Moormann, Bastien Geil, Niklas Karbach, David Wasserzier, and Thorsten Hoffmann
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 7231–7242, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-7231-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-7231-2025, 2025
Short summary
Global fields of daily accumulation-mode particle number concentrations using in situ observations, reanalysis data, and machine learning
Aino Ovaska, Elio Rauth, Daniel Holmberg, Paulo Artaxo, John Backman, Benjamin Bergmans, Don Collins, Marco Aurélio Franco, Shahzad Gani, Roy M. Harrison, Rakesh K. Hooda, Tareq Hussein, Antti-Pekka Hyvärinen, Kerneels Jaars, Adam Kristensson, Markku Kulmala, Lauri Laakso, Ari Laaksonen, Nikolaos Mihalopoulos, Colin O'Dowd, Jakub Ondracek, Tuukka Petäjä, Kristina Plauškaitė, Mira Pöhlker, Ximeng Qi, Peter Tunved, Ville Vakkari, Alfred Wiedensohler, Kai Puolamäki, Tuomo Nieminen, Veli-Matti Kerminen, Victoria A. Sinclair, and Pauli Paasonen
Aerosol Research, 3, 589–618, https://doi.org/10.5194/ar-3-589-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/ar-3-589-2025, 2025
Short summary

Cited articles

Andreae, M. O.: Emission of trace gases and aerosols from biomass burning – an updated assessment, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 8523–8546, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-8523-2019, 2019. 
Andreae, M. O. and Andreae, T. W.: The cycle of biogenic sulfur compounds over the Amazon Basin: 1. Dry season, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 93, 1487–1497, https://doi.org/10.1029/JD093iD02p01487, 1988. 
Archer-Nicholls, S., Lowe, D., Utembe, S., Allan, J., Zaveri, R. A., Fast, J. D., Hodnebrog, Ø., Denier van der Gon, H., and McFiggans, G.: Gaseous chemistry and aerosol mechanism developments for version 3.5.1 of the online regional model, WRF-Chem, Geosci. Model Dev., 7, 2557–2579, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-7-2557-2014, 2014. 
Download
Executive editor
Traditionally, the interactions between aerosols, clouds, weather and climate has focused on sulphate aerosols. However, in the last 20 years it has become apparent that secondary organic aerosols are also highly abundant in the troposphere. These could represent a major coupling in the earth system between the biosphere and the atmosphere, and thus climate because forests are known to emit large quantities of biogenic VOCs that are known to produce secondary organic aerosols. However selectively studying their influence on the free troposphere is difficult as it requires in situ measurements aboard scientific aircraft. This study observes the role of biogenic secondary organic aerosols on the abundance of cloud condensation nuclei in the upper troposphere above the Amazon, and compares it with a state-of-the-art predictive model. This further supports the importance of these processes in earth system models and gives confidence that the current level of understanding will produce accurate predictions.
Short summary
The origins of the abundant cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) in the upper troposphere (UT) of the Amazon remain unclear. With model developments of new secondary organic aerosol schemes and constrained by observation, we show that strong aerosol nucleation and condensation in the UT is triggered by biogenic organics, and organic condensation is key for UT CCN production. This UT CCN-producing mechanism may prevail over broader vegetation canopies and deserves emphasis in aerosol–climate feedback.
Share
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint