Formation Process of Particles and Cloud Condensation Nuclei Over the Amazon Rainforest: The Role of Local and Remote New‐Particle Formation

Abstract

Understanding the formation processes of particles and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) in pristine environments is a major challenge in assessing the anthropogenic impacts on climate change. Using a state‐of‐the‐art model that systematically simulates the new‐particle formation (NPF) from condensable vapors and multi‐scale transport of chemical species, we find that NPF contributes ∼90% of the particle number and ∼80% of the CCN at 0.5% supersaturation (CCN0.5%) in the pristine Amazon boundary layer during the wet season. The corresponding contributions are only ∼30% and ∼20% during the dry season because of prevalent biomass burning. In both seasons, ∼50% of the NPF‐induced particles and ∼85% of the NPF‐induced CCN0.5% in the boundary layer originate from the long‐range transport of new particles formed hundreds to thousands of kilometers away. Moreover, about 50%–65% of the NPF‐induced particles and 35%–50% of the NPF‐induced CCN0.5% originate from the downward transport of new particles formed aloft.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Nov 17, 2022
Source ID
10.1029/2022gl100940

Entities

People

  • Bin Zhao
  • Brian Gaudet
  • Jerome D Fast
  • Jian Wang
  • Jiwen Fan
  • John Shilling
  • Manish Shrivastava
  • Neil M. Donahue
  • Rahul A Zaveri
  • Yang Gao
  • Ying Liu
  • Zeqi Li
  • shuxiao wang

Organizations

  • Carnegie Mellon University
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China
  • National Science Foundation
  • Office of Science
  • Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
  • Tsinghua University
  • Washington University in St. Louis

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Atmospheric Remote Sensing.
  • Atmospheric Science/Meteorology
  • Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Modeling, Data Assimilation, and Flux Boundary Layers