INTRODUCTIONThe concentration of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) can significantly affect cloud microphysical processes, and in turn, several aspects of weather and climate. The aerosol-cloud interactions and its impact on climate is the least understood and therefore is a subject of intense research in recent years. For more details pertaining to the effects of aerosols on climate and on cloud processes and precipitation, one can look into the excellent reviews by (Lohmann and Feichter 2005;Rosenfeld et al. 2008).Aerosols, by acting as CCN, can perturb clouds. Their effect on earth radiative balance is the largest source of uncertainty in anthropogenic climate change (Houghton et al. 2001). A strong positive correlation exists between cloud droplet number concentration and CCN concentration, implying an increase in CCN number results in increased droplet concentration that increases reflectivity leading to climate cooling . This has been confirmed by both modeling results and field observations in marine and continental environments . Therefore, simultaneous in-situ measurements of cloud condensation nuclei and aerosol properties are crucial for establishing a quantitative relationship between cloud microphysics and the microphysical (size) and chemical properties of aerosol (Rissman et al. 2006). Amongst several outstanding issues, the most important is the creation of seasonal 3-D maps of the global distribution of CCN, which is most relevant to warm cloud formation. Considerable efforts have been made in recent years to construct a global CCN climatology, e.g., Southern Ocean (Hudson et al. 1998