Organic aerosol particles play a key role in climate by serving as nuclei for clouds and precipitation. Their sources and composition are highly variable, and their phase state ranges from liquid to solid under atmospheric conditions, affecting the pathway of activation to cloud droplets and ice crystals. Due to slow diffusion of water in the particle phase, organic particles may deviate in pha...

Isoprene is the most abundant non-methane biogenic volatile organic compound (BVOC), but the processes governing secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation from isoprene oxidation are only beginning to become understood and selective quantification of the atmospheric particulate burden remains difficult. Organic aerosol above a tropical rainforest located in Danum Valley, Borneo, Malaysia, a hig...

Low bulk diffusivity inside viscous semisolid atmospheric secondary organic aerosol (SOA) can prolong equilibration time scale, but its broader impacts on aerosol growth and size distribution dynamics are poorly understood. Here, we present quantitative insights into the effects of bulk diffusivity on the growth and evaporation kinetics of SOA formed under dry conditions from photooxidation of ...

This work describes a process-oriented, microphysical-chemical model to simulate the formation and evolution of aerosols and ice crystals under the conditions prevailing in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. The model can be run as a box model or along atmospheric trajectories, and considers mixing, gas phase chemistry 5 of aerosol precursors, binary homogeneous aerosol nucleation, h...

Aerosol absorption is an important factor in the formation of non-selective radiation extinction in the visible wavelength range, and plays a great role in solving many radiative and climatic problems. The principal absorbing substance in atmospheric aerosol is soot (crystal carbon), which strongly affects the atmospheric transparency, albedo of clouds, and snow cover. The non-selective absorpt...

Isoprene is a significant source of atmospheric organic aerosol; however, the oxidation pathways that lead to secondary organic aerosol (SOA) have remained elusive. Here, we identify the role of two key reactive intermediates, epoxydiols of isoprene (IEPOX = beta-IEPOX + delta-IEPOX) and methacryloylperoxynitrate (MPAN), which are formed during isoprene oxidation under low- and high-NO(x) condi...

Weekly cycles of meteorological parameters have been found in many regions around the world; however, the phase and magnitude of these cycles vary greatly from regions and seasons. Based on the NCEP/DOE reanalysis data and the daily surface station observation data from 1980 to 2009 in Beijing and surrounding areas, the weekend effect of aerosol concentration, precipitation and several other me...

Aerosol optical depth (AOD) is a widely used aerosol optical parameter in atmospheric physics. To obtain this parameter precisely, many institutions plan to launch satellites with multi-angle measurement sensors, but one important step in aerosol retrieval, the estimation of surface reflectance, is still a pressing issue. This paper presents an AOD retrieval method based on the multi-angle inte...

[1] A module for predicting the dynamic evolution of the gas phase species and the aerosol size and composition distribution during formation of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) is presented. The module is based on the inorganic gas-aerosol equilibrium model Simulating the Composition of Atmospheric Particles at Equilibrium 2 (SCAPE2) and updated versions of the lumped Caltech Atmospheric Chemis...

[1] We exploit quantitative metrics to investigate the information content in retrievals of atmospheric aerosol parameters (with a focus on single-scattering albedo), contained in multi-angle and multi-spectral measurements with sufficient dynamical range in the sunglint region. The simulations are performed for two classes of maritime aerosols with optical and microphysical properties compiled...