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Modgil et al. 2005
Modgil, M.S., Kumar, S., Tripathi, S.N. and Lovejoy, E.R. (2005). A parameterization of ion-induced nucleation of sulphuric acid and water for atmospheric conditions. Journal of Geophysical Research 110: doi: 10.1029/2004JD005475. issn: 0148-0227.

This paper describes a five-dimensional parameterization of ion-induced nucleation (IIN) that covers the complete range of conditions relevant to the lower atmosphere. The parameters are (1) temperature T (190--300 K), (2) relative humidity RH (0.05--0.95), (3) number concentration of H2SO4 (105--108 cm-3), (4) first-order loss of H2SO4 to particles (0.00009--0.0245 s-1), and (5) ion source rate (2--50 ion pairs cm-3 s-1). The parameterization is based on a steady state version of the kinetic aerosol model Sulphuric Acid and Water Nucleation (SAWNUC) that uses experimentally measured thermodynamics for the ion clusters. Parameterized formulas are obtained for the following variables: (1) particle nucleation rate (cm-3 s-1), (2) H2SO4 nucleation rate (cm-3 s-1), (3) number of H2SO4 molecules in average nucleating cluster, (4) number of H2O molecules in average nucleating cluster, and (5) radius (nanometers) of average nucleating cluster. The parameterization generally reproduces the modeled nucleation rate to within an order of magnitude over the whole range of conditions, except when the nucleation rate is very low (<10-6 cm-3 s-1), which corresponds to a rate of less than 0.1 particle d-1 cm-3. This parameterization speeds up IIN calculations by a factor of ~106, as compared to the original SAWNUC model.

BACKGROUND DATA FILES

Abstract

Keywords
Atmospheric Composition and Structure, Aerosols and particles (0345, 4801, 4906), Atmospheric Composition and Structure, Ion chemistry of the atmosphere (2419, 2427), Atmospheric Composition and Structure, Troposphere, composition and chemistry, ion-induced nucleation, parameterization, aerosol
Journal
Journal of Geophysical Research
http://www.agu.org/journals/jb/
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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