Papers:Xing and Fu 2014

Abstract | Organic aerosols (OA) are important components of aerosols. They affect the hygroscopicity of aerosols and exert direct and indirect radiative forcing on global and regional climate. We used the kappa-Köhler theory and a simulation of the aerosol mass concentrations in China for the year 2006 to calculate the number concentration of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) in China and evaluate the contribution of OA. The number concentrations of CCN in China show a west-to-east gradient, due to the stronger anthropogenic emissions in eastern China. Assuming that all aerosol chemical components are externally mixed, the number concentrations of CCN are 0.9-1.2×1e3 cm-3 seasonally, and OA contributes 30% to the annual mean. Assuming that OA components are internally mixed, while inorganic aerosols are externally mixed, the number concentrations of CCN are 0.9-1.1×1e3 cm-3, and OA contributes 28% to the annual mean. Though the differernce of annual average contribution of OA to CCN number is small when OA is external and internal mixed, there is large different spatially in summer and winter due to more secondary OA in summer and more primary OA in winter. Our results show that OA are important sources of CCN in China.

Publication | Xing, L., and T.-M. Fu* (2014), Contributions of organic aerosols to cloud condensation nuclei numbers in China, submitted to Acta Scientiarum Naturalium Universitatis Pekinensis. In press. (In Chinese)