Four North Atlantic Aerosol and Marine Ecosystems Study (NAAMES) field campaigns from winter 2015 through spring 2018 sampled an extensive set of oceanographic and atmospheric parameters during the annual phytoplankton bloom cycle. This unique dataset provides four seasons of open-ocean observations of wind speed, sea surface temperature (SST), seawater particle attenuation at 660 nm (cp,660, a measure of ocean particulate organic carbon), bacterial production rates, and sea-spray aerosol size distributions and number concentrations (NSSA). The NAAMES measurements show moderate to strong correlations (0.56 < R < 0.70) between NSSA and local wind speeds in the marine boundary layer on hourly timescales, but this relationship weakens in the campaign averages that represent each season, in part because of the reduction in range of wind speed by multiday averaging. NSSA correlates weakly with seawater cp,660 (R = 0.36, P << 0.01), but the correlation with cp,660, is improved (R = 0.51, P < 0.05) for periods of low wind speeds. In addition, NAAMES measurements provide observational dependence of SSA mode diameter (dm) on SST, with dm increasing to larger sizes at higher SST (R = 0.60, P << 0.01) on hourly timescales. These results imply that climate models using bimodal SSA parameterizations to wind speed rather than a single SSA mode that varies with SST may overestimate SSA number concentrations (hence cloud condensation nuclei) by a factor of 4 to 7 and may underestimate SSA scattering (hence direct radiative effects) by a factor of 2 to 5, in addition to overpredicting variability in SSA scattering from wind speed by a factor of 5.

Stratocumulus clouds over the Southern Ocean have fewer droplets and are more likely to exist in the predominately supercooled phase than clouds at similar temperatures over northern oceans. One likely reason is that this region has few continental and anthropogenic sources of cloud-nucleating particles that can form droplets and ice. In this work, we present an overview of aerosol particle types over the Southern Ocean, including new measurements made below, in and above clouds in this region. These measurements and others indicate that biogenic sulfur-based particles >0.1 μm diameter contribute the majority of cloud condensation nuclei number concentrations in summer. Ice nucleating particles tend to have more organic components, likely from sea-spray. Both types of cloud nucleating particles may increase in a warming climate likely to have less sea ice, more phytoplankton activity, and stronger winds over the Southern Ocean near Antarctica. Taken together, clouds over the Southern Ocean may become more reflective and partially counter the region's expected albedo decrease due to diminishing sea ice. However, detailed modeling studies are needed to test this hypothesis due to the complexity of oceancloud-climate feedbacks in the region. Plain Language Summary Clouds over the Southern Ocean tend to have less droplets and ice crystals than similar clouds over northern oceans due to fewer sources of cloud-nucleating aerosol particles in the region. In this work, we present an overview of aerosol particle types over the Southern Ocean, including new measurements made below, in and above clouds. These measurements indicate that while sea-spray-derived salts do provide cloud nuclei, the majority of aerosol particles that influence summertime clouds in this region are biogenic-that is, derived from ocean microorganisms, with the ocean region near Antarctica being a large summertime source. These cloud-nucleating particles may increase in a warming climate likely to have less sea ice and more phytoplankton activity near Antarctica. These additional particles could make low clouds reflect more light and offset a portion of the warming expected due to diminishing sea ice in a future climate. TWOHY ET AL.

Sea spray aerosol (SSA) consists of both sea salt and organic components. These aerosols affect Earth's climate by scattering solar radiation and by altering cloud properties. Here we present observations of SSA particles generated at sea using an over‐the‐side bubbling system (Sea Sweep) and an onboard plunging wave mesocosm (Marine Aerosol Reference Tank—MART) during five cruises in the North Atlantic. The cruises were timed to sample different stages of the North Atlantic plankton bloom and included transects from the oligotrophic Sargasso Sea to the biologically productive western subarctic. The results show that the North Atlantic plankton bloom has little effect on the emission flux, organic fraction, or cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) activity of SSA, and therefore, plankton ecosystems do not need to be included in modeling aerosol indirect effects of primary SSA in global climate models or in chemical transport models.