Rainfall drives atmospheric ice-nucleating particles in the coastal climate of southern Norway

Abstract

Ice-nucleating particles (INPs) active at modest supercooling (e.g. -8 °C; INP-8/ can transform clouds from liquid to mixed phase, even at very small number concentrations (<10m-3/. Over the course of 15 months, we found very similar patterns in weekly concentrations of INP-8 in PM10 (medianD1.7m-3, maximumD10.1m-3/ and weekly amounts of rainfall (medianD28 mm, maximum D153 mm) at Birkenes, southern Norway. Most INP-8 were probably aerosolised locally by the impact of raindrops on plant, litter and soil surfaces. Major snowfall and heavy rain onto snow-covered ground were not mirrored by enhanced numbers of INP-8. Further, transport model calculations for large (>4m-3/ and small (<4m-3/ numbers of INP-8 revealed that potential source regions likely to provide precipitation to southern Norway were associated with large numbers of INP-8. The proportion of land cover and land use type in potential source regions was similar for large and small numbers of INP-8. In PM2:5 we found consistently about half as many INP-8 as in PM10. From mid-May to mid-September, INP-8 correlated positively with the fungal spore markers arabitol and mannitol, suggesting that some fraction of INP-8 during that period may consist of fungal spores. In the future, warmer winters with more rain instead of snow may enhance airborne concentrations of INP-8 during the cold season in southern Norway and in other regions with a similar climate.