Aitken mode, atmospheric particles

Atmospheric particles have spherical equivalent diameters (Dp) ranging from 1 nm to 100 pm. Plots of particle number concentration (as well as surface area and volume) as a function of particle size usually show that an atmospheric aerosol is composed of three or more modes, as illustrated in Figure 1. By convention, particles are classified into three approximate categories according to their size Aitken (or transient) nuclei mode (Dp <0.1 pm), accumulation mode (0.1 < Dp < 2.5 pm), and coarse mode (Dp > 2.5 pm) (Seinfeld and Pandis 1998). Particles smaller than 2.5 pm are generally classified as fine. The terms PM2.5 and PMio refer to particulate matter with aerodynamic equivalent diameters under 2.5 and 10 pm, respectively. These terms are often used to describe the total mass of particles with diameters smaller than the cutoff size. 

This section provides a conceptual framework and several examples of modeling and fieldwork on the growth of atmospheric nanoparticles. The growth of nanoparticles is an important source of Aitken mode and accumulation mode particles, including cloud condensation nuclei, especially in remote regions with few primary particle sources. For more quantitative descriptions of growth processes, as well as their parameterizations in models, see Kulmala (1993), Kulmala et al. (1993), Kerminen et al. (1997), Mattila et al. (1997), Vesala et al. (1997), Seinfeld and Pandis (1998), and Friedlander (2000). 

The phenomena that influence particle sizes are shown in an idealized schematic in Figure 2.7, which depicts the typical distribution of surface area of an atmospheric aerosol. Particles can often be divided roughly into modes. The nucleation (or nuclei) mode comprises particles with diameters up to about 10 nm. The Aitken mode spans the size range from about lOnm to lOOnm (0.1 pm) diameter. These two modes account for the... 

In the absence of significant transport of continental aerosols, particles over the remote oceans are largely of marine origin (Savoie and Prospero 1989). Marine atmospheric particle concentrations are normally in the range of 100-300 cm-3. Their size distribution is usually characterized by three modes (Figure 8.15) the Aitken (Dp < 0.1 pm) the... 

The nucleation mode occurs in the atmosphere only sporadically, depending on favorable conditions for new particle formation (see under Sec. III.B) or on mixing processes (2). The Aitken mode and accumulation mode are usually always present in the boundary layer of the atmosphere. The Aitken mode... 

The in situ produced aerosol has a characteristic bimodal distribution dS/dlgr. The first mode is determined by Aitken particles themselves (r < 0.1 pm). The second, coagulative mode (0.1 pm < r < 1 pm) is constantly supplied with heterogeneously coagulating Aitken particles and, for these particles, it is the last form of existence before the aerosol particles in question leave the atmosphere. The parameters of the coagulative mode are dg (mean geometrical diameter) = 0.37 pm, o = 2.00... 

A different picture of the ambient aerosol distribution is obtained if one focuses on the number of particles instead of their mass (Figure 8.10, upper panel). The particles with diameters larger than 0.1 pm, which contribute practically all the aerosol mass, are negligible in number compared to the particles smaller than 0.1 pm. Two modes usually dominate the aerosol number distribution in urban and rural areas the nucleation mode (particles smaller than 10 nm or so) and the Aitken nuclei (particles with diameters between 10 and 100 nm or so). The nucleation mode particles are usually fresh aerosols created in situ from the gas phase by nucleation. The nucleation mode may or may not be present depending on the atmospheric conditions. Most of the Aitken nuclei start their atmospheric life as primary particles, and secondary material condenses on them as they... 

Very early on, Aitken (1923) showed that most particles in the atmosphere are smaller than 0.1 pm diameter and that their concentrations vary from some hundreds per cm over the ocean to millions per cm in urban areas. Junge (1955,1963,1972) measured the atmospheric aerosol number size distribution and concentration in urban and non-urban areas as functions of altitude and site. He established the standard form for plotting size distribution data log of AN/ADp versus logD, where N = number and Dp = particle diameter. He observed that this plot was a straight line that could be described by the equation AN/ADp = AD, where A and k were constants. He also noted that in the range from 0.1 to 10.0 pm particle diameter, k was approximately equal to 4.0. This distribution mode was widely known as the Junge distribution or the power law distribution. 

Washout by rain greatly reduces the Aitken nuclei mode and the coarse particle mode but has little effect on the accumulation mode in the trimodal size distribution (Whitby, 1975). The origin of each mode of atmospheric aerosol size distribution can be associated with various aerosol formation mechanisms, such as Brownian motion of the particles smaller than 0.1 pm in diameter, which causes the particles to diffuse and by collisions to coagulate to larger sizes. Coagulation generates multimodal distributions and affects the shape and the chemical composition of the particles. 

A method for estimating the residence time of tropospheric aerosol particles associated with the cosmic-ray produced radionuclides, such as Be, is based on the aerosol particle growth rate, which is the change of particle diameter with time, which was estimated to be 0.004 to 0.005 pmh (McMurry and Wilson, 1982) and the difference between the activity median aerodynamic diameter, AMAD, of a radionuclide, e.g. Be, and the size of the Aitken nuclei in the size distribution of the aerosol particles, which is 0.015 pm (NRC, 1979). The AMAD of all radionuclides is in the accumulation mode of the size distribution of atmospheric aerosol particles which ranges between 0.1 and 2.0 pm (NRC, 1979 Papastefanou and Bondietti, 1987). 

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