FIGAERO

Biogenic Aerosols - Effects on Clouds and Climate: FIGAERO-ToF-CIMS Instrument in Hyytiala with AMF-2

1 April 2014 - 1 June 2014

Lead Scientist: Joel Thornton

Observatory: AMF , TMP

The ultimate goal of this work was to connect field and laboratory observations of organic aerosol chemical and physical properties during the nascent growth stage to the diurnal and vertical distributions of aerosol abundance measured over the boreal forest by the ARM Mobile Facility 2 (AMF-2) during the Biogenic Aerosols – Effects on Clouds and Climate field campaign. The collaborators were Tuukka Petäjä and Mikael Ehn at the University of Helsinki. The project produced three outcomes: 1) molecular composition of the dominant condensing organic vapors during new particle formation events in the boreal forest which can be used with AMF-2 Aerosol Observing System measurements of cloud nuclei concentrations and hygroscopicity to develop robust parameterizations connecting biogenic emissions to climate relevant aerosol properties, 2) evaporation timescales of the organic aerosol components which are critical for assessing the fate of newly formed particle mass upon dilution, mixing and transport from source regions to cloud level, and 3) use of a 1-D column model to connect vertically varying biogenic emissions, oxidation rates, and aerosol formation and mixing to the vertically resolved measurements of aerosol loading provided by the AMF-2.