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Fan et al. 2005
Fan, S., Moxim, W.J. and Levy, H. (2005). Implications of droplet nucleation to mineral dust aerosol deposition and transport. Geophysical Research Letters 32: doi: 10.1029/2005GL022833. issn: 0094-8276.

Calculations from a microphysics model are shown which indicate the factors that control droplet nucleation scavenging of hydrophilic mineral dust particles over a large range of conditions including the size, chemical composition, and number density of particles in both cumulus and stratus clouds. We focus specifically on the activation threshold radius (ATR) for droplet nucleation which determines the particles that are activated and those available for further transport and subsequent iron deposition to the remote ocean. Results suggest: the ATR is typically found in the range of clay-sized particles (radius = .1 to 1. ¿m), a spectrum over which the amount of dust removed declines ~60% both in surface area and particle number; nucleation of silt-sized particles (1.--10. ¿m) occurs under most conditions; larger fractions of mineral aerosols are removed in cumulus clouds than in stratus; and while acid coating of dust particles in polluted environments acts to decrease the ATR, the effect is reduced by competition with soluble aerosols. Regional mineral dust environments exhibit potentially diverse aerosol wet removal impacts. The ATR representative of the tropical Atlantic ocean basin (80% to <10%.

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Abstract

Keywords
Atmospheric Composition and Structure, Aerosols and particles (0345, 4801, 4906), Atmospheric Composition and Structure, Geochemical cycles, Atmospheric Composition and Structure, Pollution, urban and regional (0305, 0478, 4251), Atmospheric Composition and Structure, Troposphere, constituent transport and chemistry, Atmospheric Processes, Clouds and aerosols
Journal
Geophysical Research Letters
http://www.agu.org/journals/gl/
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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