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

Related authors

On the evolution of sub- and super-saturated water uptake of secondary organic aerosol in chamber experiments from mixed precursors
Yu Wang, Aristeidis Voliotis, Dawei Hu, Yunqi Shao, Mao Du, Ying Chen, Judith Kleinheins, Claudia Marcolli, M. Rami Alfarra, and Gordon McFiggans
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 4149–4166, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-4149-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-4149-2022, 2022
Short summary

Related subject area

Subject: Aerosols | Research Activity: Atmospheric Modelling and Data Analysis | Altitude Range: Troposphere | Science Focus: Chemistry (chemical composition and reactions)
Exploring the processes controlling secondary inorganic aerosol: evaluating the global GEOS-Chem simulation using a suite of aircraft campaigns
Olivia G. Norman, Colette L. Heald, Solomon Bililign, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Hugh Coe, Marc N. Fiddler, Jaime R. Green, Jose L. Jimenez, Katharina Kaiser, Jin Liao, Ann M. Middlebrook, Benjamin A. Nault, John B. Nowak, Johannes Schneider, and André Welti
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 771–795, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-771-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-771-2025, 2025
Short summary
Influence of land cover change on atmospheric organic gases, aerosols, and radiative effects
Ryan Vella, Matthew Forrest, Andrea Pozzer, Alexandra P. Tsimpidi, Thomas Hickler, Jos Lelieveld, and Holger Tost
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 243–262, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-243-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-243-2025, 2025
Short summary
Quantifying the impacts of marine aerosols over the southeast Atlantic Ocean using a chemical transport model: implications for aerosol–cloud interactions
Mashiat Hossain, Rebecca M. Garland, and Hannah M. Horowitz
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 14123–14143, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-14123-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-14123-2024, 2024
Short summary
Quantifying the impact of global nitrate aerosol on tropospheric composition fields and its production from lightning NOx
Ashok K. Luhar, Anthony C. Jones, and Jonathan M. Wilkinson
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 14005–14028, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-14005-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-14005-2024, 2024
Short summary
Rapid oxidation of phenolic compounds by O3 and HO: effects of the air–water interface and mineral dust in tropospheric chemical processes
Yanru Huo, Mingxue Li, Xueyu Wang, Jianfei Sun, Yuxin Zhou, Yuhui Ma, and Maoxia He
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 12409–12423, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12409-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12409-2024, 2024
Short summary

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
Download
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.
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint