A marine biogenic source of atmospherically relevant ice nucleating particles
Theo W Wilson1, Luis Ladino2, Peter Aaron Alpert3, Rosie Chance4, Stephen Andrews5, Mark N Breckels6, Ian M Brooks1, Jo Browse1, Susannah M Burrows7, Lucy Carpenter5, Ken S Carslaw1, Sina Hackenberg5, John A Huffman8, Jacqueline Hamilton9, Chris Judd1, Wendy Kilthau10, Ryan Mason11, Gordon McFiggans12, Lisa Ann Miller13, Juan J Nájera12, Elena A Polishchuk11, Stuart A Rae12, Corinne L Schiller14, Meng Si11, Jesus Vergara-Temprado1, Thomas Francis Whale1, Jenny P S Wong15, Oliver Wurl16, Jacqueline Yakobi-Hancock15, Jonathan Abbatt15, Josephine Y Aller10, Allan K Bertram11, Daniel Alexander Knopf10 and Benjamin John Murray17, (1)University of Leeds, School of Earth and Environment, Leeds, United Kingdom, (2)Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Centre of Atmospheric Sciences, Mexico City, Mexico, (3)Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, IRCELyon, CNRS, University Claude Bernard, Lyon, France, (4)University of York, York, United Kingdom, (5)University of York, Wolfson Atmospheric Chemistry Laboratories, Department of Chemistry, York, United Kingdom, (6)University of Essex, Department of Biological Sciences, Colchester, United Kingdom, (7)Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, United States, (8)Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Denver, CO, United States, (9)University of York, Department of Chemistry, York, United Kingdom, (10)Stony Brook University, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Stony Brook, NY, United States, (11)University of British Columbia, Chemistry, Vancouver, BC, Canada, (12)University of Manchester, School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, Manchester, United Kingdom, (13)Institute of Ocean Sciences, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Sidney, BC, Canada, (14)Environment Canada, Vancouver, BC, Canada, (15)University of Toronto, Department of Chemistry, Toronto, ON, Canada, (16)Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Center for Marine Sensors (ZfMarS), Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM), Wilhelmshaven, Germany, (17)University of Leeds, Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science, School of Earth and Environment, Leeds, United Kingdom
Abstract:
Ice particle formation in clouds can affect cloud lifetime, precipitation and radiative properties. Ice crystal nucleation in clouds is facilitated by the presence of ice nucleating particles (INPs). Sea spray aerosol is one of the dominant sources of atmospheric particles, but there are few observations of marine sources of INPs. The limited available evidence indicates that some marine aerosol particles act as INPs, but the origin of these particles is unclear. The sea surface microlayer is enriched in surface active organic material representative of that found in sub-micron sea-spray aerosol. We show that the sea surface microlayer is enriched in INPs that nucleate ice under conditions pertinent to both high-altitude ice clouds and low to mid-altitude mixed-phase clouds. The INPs pass through 0.2 µm pore filters, are heat sensitive and spectroscopic analysis of microlayer samples indicates the presence of material consistent with phytoplankton exudates. We propose that material associated with phytoplankton exudates is a candidate for the observed activity of the microlayer samples. We show that laboratory produced exudate from a ubiquitous marine diatom contains INPs despite its separation from diatom cells. Finally we use a parameterisation of our field data in combination with global model simulations of marine organic aerosol to estimate the atmospheric INP contribution from primary marine organic emissions. We validate the model against existing INP measurements in the remote oceans and find that biogenic marine INPs are dominant in remote marine environments, such as the Southern Ocean.
