Articles | Volume 24, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2423-2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2423-2024
Research article
 | 
26 Feb 2024
Research article |  | 26 Feb 2024

Elucidating the mechanisms of atmospheric new particle formation in the highly polluted Po Valley, Italy

Jing Cai, Juha Sulo, Yifang Gu, Sebastian Holm, Runlong Cai, Steven Thomas, Almuth Neuberger, Fredrik Mattsson, Marco Paglione, Stefano Decesari, Matteo Rinaldi, Rujing Yin, Diego Aliaga, Wei Huang, Yuanyuan Li, Yvette Gramlich, Giancarlo Ciarelli, Lauriane Quéléver, Nina Sarnela, Katrianne Lehtipalo, Nora Zannoni, Cheng Wu, Wei Nie, Juha Kangasluoma, Claudia Mohr, Markku Kulmala, Qiaozhi Zha, Dominik Stolzenburg, and Federico Bianchi

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Cited articles

Alfaouri, D., Passananti, M., Zanca, T., Ahonen, L., Kangasluoma, J., Kubečka, J., Myllys, N., and Vehkamäki, H.: A study on the fragmentation of sulfuric acid and dimethylamine clusters inside an atmospheric pressure interface time-of-flight mass spectrometer, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 11–19, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-11-2022, 2022. 
Brean, J., Beddows, D. C. S., Shi, Z., Temime-Roussel, B., Marchand, N., Querol, X., Alastuey, A., Minguillón, M. C., and Harrison, R. M.: Molecular insights into new particle formation in Barcelona, Spain, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 10029–10045, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-10029-2020, 2020. 
Cai, J., Daellenbach, K. R., Wu, C., Zheng, Y., Zheng, F., Du, W., Haslett, S. L., Chen, Q., Kulmala, M., and Mohr, C.: Characterization of offline analysis of particulate matter with FIGAERO-CIMS, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 1147–1165, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1147-2023, 2023. 
Cai, J., Wu, C., Wang, J., Du, W., Zheng, F., Hakala, S., Fan, X., Chu, B., Yao, L., Feng, Z., Liu, Y., Sun, Y., Zheng, J., Yan, C., Bianchi, F., Kulmala, M., Mohr, C., and Daellenbach, K. R.: Influence of organic aerosol molecular composition on particle absorptive properties in autumn Beijing, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 1251–1269, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-1251-2022, 2022. 
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Short summary
By combining field measurements, simulations and recent chamber experiments, we investigate new particle formation (NPF) and growth in the Po Valley, where both haze and frequent NPF occur. Our results show that sulfuric acid, ammonia and amines are the dominant NPF precursors there. A high NPF rate and a lower condensation sink lead to a greater survival probability for newly formed particles, highlighting the importance of gas-to-particle conversion for aerosol concentrations.
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