Development and validation of a new cloud simulation experiment for lab-based aerosol-cloud studies

Abstract

The Aerosol Interaction and Dynamics in the Atmosphere (AIDA) cloud expansion chamber with a volume of 84 m3 was extended for the small cloud expansion chamber AIDA mini (AIDAm) with a volume of 20 L. AIDAm is located in the cold room of AIDA and can perform automated ice-nucleation measurements over longer time periods of hours to days. AIDAm samples from the AIDA chamber, which acts as a reservoir of atmospheric aerosol types, which can slowly be modified by physical or chemical processes similar to those occurring in the atmosphere. AIDAm was validated for accurate ice-nucleation temperature control by measuring homogeneous freezing of pure water droplets at temperatures around -34 °C and for immersion freezing induced by dust aerosol particles in the temperature range between -20 and -30 °C. Further validation experiments at cirrus cloud temperatures of -45 °C revealed that AIDAm can distinguish between heterogeneous ice formation on mineral dust aerosols and homogeneous freezing of sulfuric acid solution particles. The contribution of homogeneous and heterogeneous ice formation processes to the ice-nucleation activity of coated dust particles was investigated in a 7 h long experiment, where solid dust particles were slowly coated with sulfuric acid. The continuous AIDAm measurements with a time resolution of 6 min showed a substantial suppression of the heterogeneous freezing phenomenon and an increasing role of homogeneous freezing while the coating amount was slowly increased. This experiment proved the capability of AIDAm to sensitively detect small changes in the ice-nucleation ability of aerosols, which undergo slow processing like chemical surface coating.