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Water uptake by biomass burning aerosol at sub- and supersaturated conditions: closure studies and implications for the role of organics

U. Dusek,G. Frank,A. Massling,K. Zeromskiene,Y. Iinuma,O. Schmid,G. Helas,T. Hennig,A. Wiedensohler,M. Andreae

Published 2010 in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics

ABSTRACT

We investigate the CCN activity of freshly emitted biomass burning particles and their hygroscopic growth at a relative humidity (RH) of 85 %. The particles were produced in the Mainz combustion laboratory by controlled burning of various wood types. The water uptake at sub- and super- saturations is parameterized by the hygroscopicity parame- ter, (c.f. Petters and Kreidenweis, 2007). For the wood burns, is low, generally around 0.06. The main emphasis of this study is a comparison of derived from measure- ments at sub- and supersaturated conditions ( G and CCN), in order to see whether the water uptake at 85 % RH can predict the CCN properties of the biomass burning particles. Differences in G and CCN can arise through solution non- idealities, the presence of slightly soluble or surface active compounds, or non-spherical particle shape. We find that G and CCN agree within experimental uncertainties (of around 30 %) for particle sizes of 100 and 150 nm; only for 50 nm particles is CCN larger than G by a factor of 2. The magni- tude of this difference and its dependence on particle size is consistent with the presence of surface active organic com- pounds. These compounds mainly facilitate the CCN acti- vation of small particles, which form the most concentrated

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