Ice Formation Potential of Laboratory Generated Biogenic and Anthropogenic-Biogenic SOA Particles

Abstract:

Secondary organic aerosol (SOA) is ubiquitous in the atmosphere and may play an important role in cloud glaciation processes. We investigated several laboratory generated SOA particles systems for their initial water uptake and ice formation propensity as a function of temperature, T, relative humidity with respect to water, RH, relative humidity with respect to ice, RH_ice, and for different humidification rates, c_RHice. This includes pure SOA particles formed from α-pinene, isoprene, and longifolene volatile organic compound precursors with and without the presence of sulfate seed particles as well as oxidized soot and soot-coated α-pinene and naphthalene SOA with varying O/C ratios and coating thicknesses. Micro-spectroscopic chemical imaging using scanning transmission X‐ray microscopy with near edge X‐ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy (STXM/NEXAFS) is used to characterize SOA, SOA-sulfate, SOA-soot particles generated in the Boston College potential aerosol mass (PAM) flow reactor in relation to their ice nucleation behavior. Water uptake is consistently observed on SOA particles at RH=75% and 95% for 262 and 228 K, respectively, followed by homogeneous ice nucleation applying atmospherically relevant c_RHice=1 % min^-1. When c_RHice=25 % min^-1, ice nucleation is delayed by about 30-40% RH_ice and cannot be explained by homogeneous ice nucleation. This implies diffusion limitation of water into these potentially glassy or semi-solid organic particles resulting in non-equilibrium between ambient RH and particle water activity. These data will aid in our understanding of the role of organic particle phase states in response to changes in T and RH which is crucial information for prediction of atmospheric ice nucleation.