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Aerosol size‐temperature relationship
Author(s) -
Shaw Glenn E.
Publication year - 1988
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/gl015i002p00133
Subject(s) - aerosol , cloud condensation nuclei , atmospheric sciences , environmental science , air mass (solar energy) , warm front , arctic , air pollution , climatology , meteorology , geology , oceanography , chemistry , physics , boundary layer , thermodynamics , organic chemistry
It has been discovered that the size distribution of atmospheric aerosols in air masses over central Alaska varies systematically with air temperature. Cold air masses contain relatively few, coarse aerosols. Aerosols in warm Pacific‐marine air masses, on the other hand, are plentiful in number, but their mean size and mass loading is small. There are decreasing numbers of cloud condensation nuclei, but substantial increases in aerosol mass with decreasing temperatures. We speculate that the cause is related to a combination of air pollution transport from Eurasia into the Arctic air mass and photolytic creation of nuclei in the sunlit Northern Pacific.