Simulated contrail-processed aviation soot aerosols are poor ice-nucleating particles at cirrus temperatures

Abstract

Aviation soot surrogates processed in contrails are believed to become potent ice nuclei at cirrus temperatures. This is not verified for real aviation soot, which can have vastly different physico-chemical properties. Here, we sampled soot particles from in-use commercial aircraft engines and quantified the effect of contrail processing on their ice nucleation ability at T< 228 K. We show that aviation soot becomes compacted upon contrail processing, but that does not change their ice nucleation ability in contrast to other soot types. The presence of H2SO4 condensed in soot pores, the highly fused nature of the soot primary particles and their arrangement are what limit the volume of pores generated upon contrail processing, in turn limiting sites for ice nucleation. Furthermore, we hypothesized that contrail-processed aviation soot particles emitted from alternative jet fuel would also be poor ice-nucleating particles if their emission sizes remain small (< 150 nm).