Articles | Volume 25, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-881-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-881-2025
Research article
 | 
22 Jan 2025
Research article |  | 22 Jan 2025

The surface tension and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) activation of sea spray aerosol particles

Judith Kleinheins, Nadia Shardt, Ulrike Lohmann, and Claudia Marcolli

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Cited articles

Aumann, E., Hildemann, L., and Tabazadeh, A.: Measuring and modeling the composition and temperature-dependence of surface tension for organic solutions, Atmos. Environ., 44, 329–337, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2009.10.033, 2010. a
Bain, A., Ghosh, K., Prisle, N. L., and Bzdek, B. R.: Surface-Area-to-Volume Ratio Determines Surface Tensions in Microscopic, Surfactant-Containing Droplets, ACS Central Science, 9, 2076–2083, https://doi.org/10.1021/acscentsci.3c00998, 2023. a, b, c, d, e, f, g
Bain, A., Prisle, N. L., and Bzdek, B. R.: Model-Measurement Comparisons for Surfactant-Containing Aerosol Droplets, ACS Earth Space Chem., 8, 2244–2255, https://doi.org/10.1021/acsearthspacechem.4c00199, 2024. a
Bates, T. S., Quinn, P. K., Coffman, D. J., Johnson, J. E., Upchurch, L., Saliba, G., Lewis, S., Graff, J., Russell, L. M., and Behrenfeld, M. J.: Variability in Marine Plankton Ecosystems Are Not Observed in Freshly Emitted Sea Spray Aerosol Over the North Atlantic Ocean, Geophys. Res. Lett., 47, e2019GL085938, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL085938, 2020. a, b, c
Bertram, T. H., Cochran, R. E., Grassian, V. H., and Stone, E. A.: Sea spray aerosol chemical composition: elemental and molecular mimics for laboratory studies of heterogeneous and multiphase reactions, Chem. Soc. Rev., 47, 2374–2400, https://doi.org/10.1039/C7CS00008A, 2018. a, b, c, d, e, f, g
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Short summary
We model the cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) activation of sea spray aerosol particles with classical Köhler theory and with a new model approach that takes surface tension lowering into account. We categorize organic compounds into weak, intermediate, and strong surfactants, and we outline for which composition surface tension lowering is important. The results suggest that surface tension lowering allows sea spray aerosol particles in the Aitken mode to be a source of CCN in marine updraughts.
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