Abstract. A new In-Cloud Aerosol Scavenging Experiment (In-CASE) has been conceived to
measure the collection efficiency (CE) of submicron aerosol particles by
cloud droplets. In this setup, droplets fall at their terminal velocity
through a 1 m high chamber in a laminar flow containing aerosol
particles. At the bottom of the In-CASE chamber, the droplet train is
separated from the aerosol particle flow – droplets are collected in an
impaction cup, whereas aerosol particles are deposited on a high-efficiency
particulate air (HEPA) filter. The collected droplets and the filter are
then analysed by fluorescence spectrometry since the aerosol particles are
atomised from a sodium fluorescein salt solution
(C20H10Na2O5). In-CASE fully controls all the parameters
which affect the CE – the droplets and aerosol particles size distributions
are monodispersed, the electric charges of droplets and aerosol particles
are controlled, and the relative humidity is indirectly set via the
chamber's temperature. This novel In-CASE setup is presented here as well as
the first measurements obtained to study the impact of relative humidity on
CE. For this purpose, droplets and particles are electrically neutralised. A
droplet radius of 49.6±1.3 µm has been considered for six
particle dry radii between 50 and 250 nm and three relative humidity levels
of 71.1±1.3 %, 82.4±1.4 % and 93.5±0.9 %. These new
CE measurements have been compared to theoretical models from literature
which adequately describe the relative humidity influence on the measured
CE.
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