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Key factors influencing the relative humidity dependence of aerosol light scattering
NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Chemical Sciences Division, Boulder, Colorado, USA
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA
NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Chemical Sciences Division, Boulder, Colorado, USA
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA
NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Chemical Sciences Division, Boulder, Colorado, USA
We have measured the relative humidity dependence of aerosol light extinction (f σ(ep)(80%RH, Dry)) at 532 nm for non-absorbing surrogate atmospheric aerosols to determine the influence of particle size, composition (inorganic vs. organic), and mixing state (internal vs. external) on aerosol light scattering. We present results for mixtures of NaCl and (NH4)2SO4 with a few dicarboxylic acids. For atmospheric conditions the variability in the RH dependence of aerosol light scattering (f σ(sp)(RH, Dry)) is most sensitive to aerosol composition and size. The influence of the mixing state on f σ(sp)(RH, Dry) is small. These laboratory results imply that f σ(sp)(RH, Dry) can be reasonably estimated from the aerosol size distribution and composition (inorganic/organic) using the mass-weighted average of f σ(sp)(RH, Dry) for the individual components.
Received 7 October 2005; accepted 7 February 2006; published 24 March 2006.
Citation: (2006), Key factors influencing the relative humidity dependence of aerosol light scattering, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L06813, doi:10.1029/2005GL024898.
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