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We have explored the direct and indirect radiative effects on climate of organic particles likely to have been present on early Earth by measuring their hygroscopicity and cloud nucleating ability. The early Earth analog aerosol particles were generated via ultraviolet photolysis of an early Earth analog gas mixture, which was designed to mimic possible atmospheric conditions before the rise of...

[1] Size-resolved cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) spectra and aerosol chemical composition were characterized at an urban supersite in Pasadena, California, from 15 May to 4 June 2010, during the CalNex campaign. The derived hygroscopicity (kCCN) of CCNactive particles with diameter between 97 and 165 nm ranged from 0.05 to 0.4. Diurnal variation showed a slight decrease of kCCN from 8:00 to 16...

Atmospheric aerosol particles are able to act as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and are therefore important for the climate and the hydrological cycle, but their properties are not fully understood. Total CCN number concentrations at 10 different supersaturations in the range of SS = 0.12–1.18% were measured in May 2008 at the remote high alpine research station, Jungfraujoch, Switzerland (358...

The influence of the properties of fine particles on the formation of clouds and precipitation in the tropical atmosphere is of primary importance to their impacts on radiative forcing and the hydrological cycle. Measurements of aerosol number size distribution, hygroscopicity in both suband supersaturated regimes and composition were taken between March and July 2008 in the tropical rainforest...

Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. The MIT Faculty has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters. [1] We have studied ice formation at temperatures relevant to homogeneous and heterogeneous ice nucleation, as well...

Organic carbon (OC) accounts for a large fraction of particulate matter. Since many atmospheric organic compounds have different optical properties, it is difficult to determine the optical properties of OC accurately. In particular, hygroscopicity and light absorption of OC are important factors in understanding the aerosol optical properties. In this study, the sensitivity of organic carbon (...

Introduction Conclusions References