Interactive comment on “Regional effect on urban atmospheric nucleation” by Imre Salma et al

Particle nucleation continues to be a major topic of research. Although nucleation in polluted atmospheres may play a less important role in atmospheric and climate science than it plays in the remote atmosphere, it can still have an important influence on particle size distributions and a major impact upon airborne concentrations of nanoparticles. This paper makes an interesting contribution by a careful analysis of nucleation events at two sites, one an urban site in Budapest and the other a rural site, K-puszta. The two sites are often connected by the wind trajectories, and the characteristics and relationship between nucleation events at the two sites are carefully intercompared. The work therefore allows an identification of conditions which favour nucleation at both sites simultaneously or at one site whilst not at the other. It therefore provides a useful contribution to the understanding of the determinants of the particle nucleation in a moderately polluted atmosphere. In this context it is worth noting that concentrations of sulphur dioxide and particulate matter in the measurement domain lie between those expected of remote rural locations and those occurring in the more polluted cities