Water activities, densities, and refractive indices over extended concentration ranges at 25øC are reported for solution droplets containing a single salt of either (NH4)2SO4, NHnHSO 4, (NHn)3H(SO4) 2, Na2SO 4, NaHSO 4, or NaNO3, which are common constituents of atmospheric aerosols. The extensive data reported here are obtained from experiments using the single-particle levitation technique recently developed for measuring the thermodynamic and optical properties of microdroplets. These data should find application in mathematical models predicting the dynamic behavior, visibility reduction, and radiative effects of atmospheric sulfate and nitrate aerosols. 18,801 18,802 TANG AND MUNKELWITZ: AQUEOUS SULFATES AND SODIUM NITRATE DROPLETS

Abstract. Sea salt particles are constantly produced from ocean surfaces by wave-wind interactions and removed by deposition and precipitation scavenging. These particles constitute the background aerosol for light scattering in the marine boundary layer. In this work, the thermodynamic and optical properties of sea salt aerosol particles generated from seawater samples are measured at 25øC as a function of relative humidity, using a single-particle levitation technique. Water activities, densities, and refractive indices of aqueous solution droplets containing a single salt NaCI, Na2SO 4, MgCI 2, or MgSO 4 are also reported as a function of concentration. The light-scattering properties of the sea salt aerosol are modeled by the external mixture of these four salt systems selected to approximate the sea salt composition. Good agreements are obtained. It follows that in either visibility reduction or radiative forcing calculations, both freshly produced and aged sea salt aerosols may be modeled by external mixtures of the appropriate inorganic salts, whose solution properties are now available in the literature.

The extensive thermodynamic and optical properties recently reported [Tang and Munkelwitz, 1994a] for sulfate and nitrate solution droplets are incorporated into a visibility model for computing light scattering by hygroscopic aerosols. The following aerosol systems are considered: NH4HSO4, (NH4)2SO4, (NH4)3H(SO4), NaHSO4, Na2SO4, NH4NO3, and NaNO3. In addition, H2SO4 and NaCl are included to represent freshly formed sulfate and background sea‐salt aerosols, respectively. Scattering coefficients, based on 1 μg dry salt per cubic meter of air, are calculated as a function of relative humidity for aerosols of various chemical compositions and lognormal size distributions. For a given size distribution the light scattered by aerosol particles per unit dry‐salt mass concentration is only weakly dependent on chemical constituents of the hygroscopic sulfate and nitrate aerosols. Sulfuric acid and sodium chloride aerosols, however, are exceptions and scatter light more efficiently than all other inorganic salt aerosols considered in this study. Both internal and external mixtures exhibit similar light‐scattering properties. Thus for common sulfate and nitrate aerosols, since the chemical effect is outweighed by the size effect, it follows that observed light scattering by the ambient aerosol can be approximated, within practical measurement uncertainties, by assuming the aerosol being an external mixture. This has a definite advantage for either visibility degradation or climatic impact modeling calculations, because relevant data are now available for external mixtures but only very scarce for internal mixtures.

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Abstract. Extensive water activity, density, and refractive index data at 25øC are reported for mixed-salt solutions, NaC1-KCI, NaC1-NaNO 3, NaCI-Na2SO 4, Na2SO4-NaNO 3, and (NH4)2SO 4-Na2SO 4. The data are obtained from hydration experiments using the single-particle levitation technique developed recently for measuring the thermodynamic and optical properties of microdroplets. These data, coveting the whole concentration range from dilute solutions to high supersaturations, provide an opportunity to explore the light-scattering properties of both internal and external mixtures of the chloride, sulfate, and nitrate aerosols of atmospheric importance. It is shown that for sulfate and nitrate aerosols as solution droplets, the light-scattering properties do not differ appreciably among all mixture types and compositions, as long as the dry-salt aerosols have the same particle-size distribution. However, for mixed-salt aerosols containing NaC1, the light-scattering properties do depend upon the composition and particle-size distribution, although not so much on the mixture type.