New particle formation in, around and out of ice clouds in MACPEX

Abstract

The MACPEX mission permitted observation of aerosol size distributions, cloud particles and water vapor in and around clouds in the mid-latitude upper troposphere. The NMASS consists of 5 condensation particle counters (CPCs) operating in parallel. The 5 CPCs have 50% lower size detection efficiency diameter of 5.3 nm, 8.4 nm, 15 nm, 30 nm and 53 nm. The mixing ratio of particles between 4 to 8 nm is an indicator of newly formed particles. Regions of new particle formation were observed inside and near clouds in the altitude range from 10 to 14 km. In this abstract we describe the methodology used to identify new particle formation events in and around clouds and examine the intensity and spatial coverage of these newly formed particles in relation to cloud. © 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.