A13B-0315
The Global Distribution of Atmospheric Ice Nucleating Particles
Monday, 14 December 2015
Poster Hall (Moscone South)
Jesus Vergara Temprado1, Theodore W Wilson2, Susannah M Burrows3, Benjamin John Murray4 and Ken S Carslaw4, (1)University of Leeds, Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science (ICAS), Leeds, United Kingdom, (2)University of Leeds, School of Earth and Environment, Leeds, United Kingdom, (3)Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, United States, (4)University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom
Abstract:
Ice nucleating particles (INP) affect the amount of ice in clouds, changing many of their properties. However, the relevance of different aerosol species towards causing atmospheric ice nucleation in different contexts is not well-understood. In this presentation, I will show the simulated spatial and seasonal distributions of ice nucleating particles from K-feldspar (the ice-active component of desert dust), marine organics (from sea spray) and black carbon (from combustion). The global distribution of these materials is simulated using two global aerosol model (GLOMAP-mode and EMAC). The contribution of each aerosol species to the INP distribution is calculated using parameterizations of their ice nucleating ability developed from laboratory studies of the materials involved, founding good agreement with INP observations. We found that K-feldspar dominates the atmospheric distribution of ice nucleating particles; however, marine organic INPs and black carbon are important regionally in some seasons. This study advances our understanding of which aerosol species have to be included in order to adequately describe the global and regional distribution of INPs in models.
