Fundamental physics suggests that giant sea-salt aerosol particles (sea salt or sea spray, dry radius > 0.5 μm, also called Giant Cloud Condensation Nuclei, GCCN) should grow rapidly when carried into warm marine clouds. Yet prior studies have yielded results that range from "GCCN are the fastest way to form raindrops" to "GCCN are, at most, only important in a few limited situations".

Solving this conundrum requires a very broad approach. This session solicits contributions to studies of large/giant sea salt aerosol particles. For example, measurements of giant sea-salt nuclei, observations across scales, in-situ and remote sensing approaches, assessments of the role of GCCN in clouds, studies of the sizes and concentrations of GCCN important for precipitation initiation, closure and parameterization studies, assessment of GCCN vs. other precipitation initiation mechanisms, GCCN treatment in Eulerian models, and results from including sea salt GCCN in LES, weather and climate models.