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Aircraft‐generated aerosols and visible contrails
Author(s) -
Kärcher B.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/96gl01853
Subject(s) - plume , ozone , evaporation , soot , aerosol , homogeneous , coating , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , materials science , chemical engineering , environmental chemistry , meteorology , chemistry , geology , combustion , nanotechnology , organic chemistry , physics , thermodynamics , engineering
Model calculations for the formation of aerosols and the interaction between themselves and with exhaust gases in plumes of cruising airliners are presented. A subset of in situ ‐nucleated H 2 SO 4 /H 2 O aerosols that stay liquid can transform into an almost pure HNO 3 /H 2 O mode because of enhanced uptake of HNO 3 . Soot embedded in a liquid coating containing H 2 SO 4 and HNO 3 triggers heterogeneous freezing of water ice and leads to visible contrails. At low temperatures and high fuel sulfur levels homogeneous freezing increases the ice mass. The ice particles may acquire a HNO 3 · 3 H 2 O (NAT) coating upon evaporation of H 2 O, which can potentially lead to a lengthening of their lifetime. If future plume sampling experiments confirm these results, they would have important implications for ozone‐related heterogeneous plume chemistry.