A Link between the Ice Nucleation Activity of Sea Spray Aerosol and the Biogeochemistry of Seawater

Wolf, Martin J.; Goodell, Megan; Dong, Eric; Dove, Lilian A.; Zhang, Cuiqi; Franco, Lesly J.; Shen, Chuanyang; Rutkowski, Emma; Narducci, Domenic; Mullen, Susan; Babbin, Andrew R.; Cziczo, D. J.

doi:10.5194/acp-2020-416

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 61 publications

(109 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Data used to generate this articles's figures are included in the Supplement and a Harvard Dataverse dataset under the name: "A Link between the Ice Nucleation Activity and the Biogeochemistry of Seawater". The DOI of this dataset is: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/QEJJMF (Wolf, 2020). Further data inquires can be directed to the corresponding author (Daniel Cziczo, djcziczo@purdue.edu).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A link between the ice nucleation activity and the biogeochemistry of seawater

et al. 2020

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Emissions of ice-nucleating particles (INPs) from sea spray can impact climate and precipitation by changing cloud formation, precipitation, and albedo. However, the relationship between seawater biogeochemistry and the ice nucleation activity of sea spray aerosols remains unclarified. Here, we demonstrate a link between the biological productivity in seawater and the ice nucleation activity of sea spray aerosol under conditions relevant to cirrus and mixed-phase cloud formation. We show for the first time that aerosol particles generated from both subsurface and microlayer seawater from the highly productive eastern tropical North Pacific Ocean are effective INPs in the deposition and immersion freezing modes. Seawater particles of composition similar to subsurface waters of highly productive regions may therefore be an unrealized source of effective INPs. In contrast, the subsurface water from the less productive Florida Straits produced less effective immersion mode INPs and ineffective depositional mode INPs. These results indicate that the regional biogeochemistry of seawater can strongly affect the ice nucleation activity of sea spray aerosol.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A link between the ice nucleation activity and the biogeochemistry of seawater

et al. 2020

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…We observed up to an order of magnitude higher K(T ) values (and up to a 10 K difference for the same K(T )) than those reported in Irish et al (2019b), which might have been influenced by the difference in the cooling rate. The temperature at which 50 % of the droplets are frozen has been shown to decrease with increased cooling rate in Wright and Petters (2013) and Herbert et al (2014); also, this dependence was shown to be rather small. Nevertheless, a shift of 10 K for a factor of 10 change in cooling rate is unlikely.…”

Section: Temperature Regime Above 248 K (Bulk Samples)mentioning

confidence: 96%

The ice-nucleating activity of Arctic sea surface microlayer samples and marine algal cultures

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. In recent years, sea spray as well as the biological material it contains has received increased attention as a source of ice-nucleating particles (INPs). Such INPs may play a role in remote marine regions, where other sources of INPs are scarce or absent. In the Arctic, these INPs can influence water–ice partitioning in low-level clouds and thereby the cloud lifetime, with consequences for the surface energy budget, sea ice formation and melt, and climate. Marine aerosol is of a diverse nature, so identifying sources of INPs is challenging. One fraction of marine bioaerosol (phytoplankton and their exudates) has been a particular focus of marine INP research. In our study we attempt to address three main questions. Firstly, we compare the ice-nucleating ability of two common phytoplankton species with Arctic seawater microlayer samples using the same instrumentation to see if these phytoplankton species produce ice-nucleating material with sufficient activity to account for the ice nucleation observed in Arctic microlayer samples. We present the first measurements of the ice-nucleating ability of two predominant phytoplankton species: Melosira arctica, a common Arctic diatom species, and Skeletonema marinoi, a ubiquitous diatom species across oceans worldwide. To determine the potential effect of nutrient conditions and characteristics of the algal culture, such as the amount of organic carbon associated with algal cells, on the ice nucleation activity, Skeletonema marinoi was grown under different nutrient regimes. From comparison of the ice nucleation data of the algal cultures to those obtained from a range of sea surface microlayer (SML) samples obtained during three different field expeditions to the Arctic (ACCACIA, NETCARE, and ASCOS), we found that they were not as ice active as the investigated microlayer samples, although these diatoms do produce ice-nucleating material. Secondly, to improve our understanding of local Arctic marine sources as atmospheric INPs we applied two aerosolization techniques to analyse the ice-nucleating ability of aerosolized microlayer and algal samples. The aerosols were generated either by direct nebulization of the undiluted bulk solutions or by the addition of the samples to a sea spray simulation chamber filled with artificial seawater. The latter method generates aerosol particles using a plunging jet to mimic the process of oceanic wave breaking. We observed that the aerosols produced using this approach can be ice active, indicating that the ice-nucleating material in seawater can indeed transfer to the aerosol phase. Thirdly, we attempted to measure ice nucleation activity across the entire temperature range relevant for mixed-phase clouds using a suite of ice nucleation measurement techniques – an expansion cloud chamber, a continuous-flow diffusion chamber, and a cold stage. In order to compare the measurements made using the different instruments, we have normalized the data in relation to the mass of salt present in the nascent sea spray aerosol. At temperatures above 248 K some of the SML samples were very effective at nucleating ice, but there was substantial variability between the different samples. In contrast, there was much less variability between samples below 248 K. We discuss our results in the context of aerosol–cloud interactions in the Arctic with a focus on furthering our understanding of which INP types may be important in the Arctic atmosphere.

show abstract

“…However, relating the composition of SSA to organic matter in the water column is a challenge given the molecular diversity of dissolved organic material (DOM) is an estimated 10 12 -10 15 compounds (Hedges, 2002). During a phytoplankton bloom, the composition of organic matter in the water column will depend on community composition of the phytoplankton and associated bacterioplankton, their relative abundances, production, and physiological strategy as they respond to the dynamic physical and chemical environment (Williams, 1995;Carlson et al, 1998;Kujawinski, 2011;Thornton, 2014). Consequently, the molecular diversity of marine aerosols is affected by the composition and productivity of microorganisms in the water (Cochran et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Analyzing SML samples rather than directly collected SSA is a clear caveat in this study. However, previous studies have also relied on SML samples (Rasmussen et al, 2017;Irish et al, 2019;Christiansen et al, 2020;Ickes et al, 2020;Wolf et al, 2020) and even on surface water samples (Mason et al, 2016;Irish et al, 2017;Wilbourn et al, 2020) to understand the warm and ice cloud nucleating behavior of materials contained in aerosol. Christiansen et al (2020) observed that the CCN activity of SML samples collected in the North Atlantic and Arctic Ocean was the same as artificial seawater containing only salt, within experimental error.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Role of Sea Surface Microlayer Properties in Cloud Formation

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

To date, the relative contribution of primary marine organic matter to the subset of atmospheric particles that nucleate cloud droplets is highly uncertain. Here, cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) measurements were conducted on aerosolized sea surface microlayer (SML) samples collected from the North Atlantic Ocean during the NASA North Atlantic Aerosols and Marine Ecosystems Study (NAAMES), κ values were predicted for three representative high molecular weight (HMW) organic components of marine aerosol: 6-glucose, humic acid, and ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RuBisCO). The predicted κ values for pure organic aerosols varied by only ±0.01 across all of the organics chosen. For the desalted SML samples, calculations assuming an organic composition of entirely RuBisCO provided the closest predicted κ values for the desalted SML samples with a mean κ value of 0.53 ± 0.10. These results indicate that it is the sea salt in the SML which drives the cloud formation potential of marine aerosols. While the presence of organic material from the ocean surface waters may increase aerosol mass due to enrichment processes, cloud formation potential of mixed organic/salt primary marine aerosols will be slightly weakened or unchanged compared to sea spray aerosol.

show abstract

A Link between the Ice Nucleation Activity of Sea Spray Aerosol and the Biogeochemistry of Seawater

Cited by 4 publications

References 61 publications

A link between the ice nucleation activity and the biogeochemistry of seawater

A link between the ice nucleation activity and the biogeochemistry of seawater

The ice-nucleating activity of Arctic sea surface microlayer samples and marine algal cultures

Role of Sea Surface Microlayer Properties in Cloud Formation

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About