Atmospheric black carbon can exhibit enhanced light absorption at high relative humidity

Abstract. Some estimates suggest atmospheric soot (a.k.a. black carbon, BC) warms Earth's climate by roughly 50% the magnitude of increased carbon dioxide. However, one uncertainty in the climate-forcing estimate for BC is the degree to which sunlight absorption is influenced by particle mixing state. Here we show that hygroscopic growth of atmospheric aerosol particles sampled at Houston, TX leads to an enhancement in both light scattering and absorption. Measurements suggest light absorption increases roughly three-four fold at high ambient humidity for coated soot particles. However, when the fraction of coated BC particles was reduced, the absorption enhancement was also reduced, suggesting coatings are crucial for the effect to occur. In addition, the extent to which MAC was increased at high humidity varied considerably over time, even for BC that consistently presented as being coated. This suggests the chemical composition of the coating and/or source of BC may also be an important parameter to constrain MAC enhancement at high humidity. Nonetheless, the results are largely consistent with previous laboratory and model results predicting absorption enhancement. We conclude that the enhanced absorption increases the warming effect of soot aerosol aloft, and global climate models should include parameterizations for RH effects to accurately describe absorptive heating by BC.