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The article offers information about the Ice-nucleating particles (INPs) which have the potential to remove much of the liquid water in climatically important mid to high-latitude shallow supercooled clouds, markedly reducing their albedo. It mentions the Icelandic dust emissions are sporadically an important source of INPs.

The turbulent structure and growth of the remote Saharan atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) is described with in situ radiosonde and aircraft measurements and a large-eddy simulation model. A month of radiosonde data from June 2011 provides a mean profile of the midday Saharan ABL, which is characterized by a well-mixed convective boundary layer, capped by a small temperature inversion (<1 K) and a deep, near-neutral residual layer. The boundary layer depth varies by up to 100% over horizontal distances of a few kilometers due to turbulent processes alone. The distinctive vertical structure also leads to unique boundary layer processes, such as detrainment of the warmest plumes across the weak temperature inversion, which slows down the warming and growth of the convective boundary layer. As the boundary layer grows, overshooting plumes can also entrain free-tropospheric air into the residual layer, forming a second entrainment zone that acts to maintain the inversion above the convective boundary layer, thus slowing down boundary layer growth further. A single-column model is unable to accurately reproduce the evolution of the Saharan boundary layer, highlighting the difficulty of representing such processes in large-scale models. These boundary layer processes are special to the Sahara, and possibly hot, dry, desert environments in general, and have implications for the large-scale structure of the Saharan heat low. The growth of the boundary layer influences the vertical redistribution of moisture and dust, and the spatial coverage and duration of clouds, with large-scale dynamical and radiative implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A minute fraction of atmospheric particles exert a disproportionate effect on the phase of mixed-phase clouds by acting as ice-nucleating particles (INPs). To understand the effects of these particles on weather and climate, both now and into the future, we must first develop a quantitative understanding of the major INP sources worldwide. Previous work has demonstrated that aerosols such as desert dusts are globally important INPs, but the role of biogenic INPs is unclear, with conflicting evidence for their importance. Here, we show that at a temperate site all INPs active above −18 °C at concentrations >0.1 L−1 are destroyed on heating, consistent with these INPs being of biological origin. Furthermore, we show that a global model of desert dust INPs dramatically underestimates the measured INP concentrations, but is consistent with the thermally-stable component. Notably, the heat sensitive INPs are active at temperatures where shallow cloud layers in Northern Europe are frequently observed to glaciate. Hence, we suggest that biogenic material is important for primary ice production in this region. The prevalence of heat sensitive, most likely biogenic, INPs in this region highlights that, as a community, we need to quantify the sources and transport of these particles as well as determine their atmospheric abundance across the globe and at cloud altitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the EASE/OXICOA campaign of the NERC ACSOE programme, trichloroethylene and a wide range of man-made halocarbons and radiatively-active trace gases were monitored with high precision and high frequency throughout July 1996 at Mace Head on the Atlantic Ocean coast of Ireland. Trichloroethylene concentrations in concert with many other trace gases became elevated as regionally-polluted and photochemically-aged air masses reached Mace Head. However, as the anticyclonic air masses retreated during 19 and 20 July, trace gas concentrations remained elevated for a significant period. During this 2-4 day period, trichloroethylene concentrations decayed significantly, though the concentrations of the other more chemically-inert trace gases did not. Adetailed interpretation of this behaviour using a Lagrangian dispersion model has allowed the estimation of average and peak OH radical concentrations of 3 and 9 x 106 molecule cm-3, respectively, during the travel from the source areas in the U.K. and the low countries out to Mace Head. Using a simple box model, the available Mace Head measurements, when combined into a detailed chemicalmechanism, generated OH radical concentrations which peaked at 7 x 106 molecule cm-3, in close agreement with the estimates based on trichloroethylene decay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]