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Factors influencing the production of primary marine aerosol are of great importance to better understand the marine aerosols' impact on our climate. Bubble-bursting from whitecaps is considered the most effective mechanism for sea spray production, and a way of sea-air transfer for some bacterial species. Two coastal sites in the Baltic Sea were used to investigate aerosol and bacterial emissions from the bubble-bursting process by letting a jet of water hit a water surface within an experimental tank, mimicking the actions of breaking waves. The aerosol size distribution spectra from the two sites were similar and conservative in shape where the modes were centered at about 200 nm dry diameter. We found a distinct decrease in bubbled aerosol production with increasing water temperature. A clear diurnal cycle in bubbled aerosol production was observed, anticorrelated with both water temperature and dissolved oxygen, which to our knowledge has never been shown before. A link between decreasing aerosol production in daytime and phytoplankton activity is likely to be an important factor. Colony-forming bacteria were transferred to the atmosphere via the bubble-bursting process, with a linear relationship to their seawater concentration. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Vertical number fluxes of aerosol particles and vertical fluxes of CO(2) were measured with the eddy covariance method at the top of a 53 m high tower in the Amazon rain forest as part of the LBA (The Large Scale Biosphere Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia) experiment. The observed aerosol number fluxes included particles with sizes down to 10 nm in diameter. The measurements were carried out during the wet and dry season in 2008. In this study focus is on the dry season aerosol fluxes, with significant influence from biomass burning, and these are compared with aerosol fluxes measured during the wet season. Net particle deposition fluxes dominated in daytime in both seasons and the deposition flux was considerably larger in the dry season due to the much higher dry season particle concentration. The particle transfer velocity increased linearly with increasing friction velocity in both seasons. The difference in transfer velocity between the two seasons was small, indicating that the seasonal change in aerosol number size distribution is not enough for causing any significant change in deposition velocity. In general, particle transfer velocities in this study are low compared to studies over boreal forests. The reasons are probably the high percentage of accumulation mode particles and the low percentage of nucleation mode particles in the Amazon boundary layer, both in the dry and wet season, and low wind speeds in the tropics compared to the midlatitudes. In the dry season, nocturnal particle fluxes behaved very similar to the nocturnal CO(2) fluxes. Throughout the night, the measured particle flux at the top of the tower was close to zero, but early in the morning there was an upward particle flux peak that is not likely a result of entrainment or local pollution. It is possible that these morning upward particle fluxes are associated with emission of primary biogenic particles from the rain forest. Emitted particles may be stored within the canopy during stabl

Size-resolved vertical aerosol number fluxes of particles in the diameter range 0.25-2.5 mu m were measured with the eddy covariance method from a 53 m high tower over the Amazon rain forest, 60 km NNW of Manaus, Brazil. This study focuses on data measured during the relatively clean wet season, but a shorter measurement period from the more polluted dry season is used as a comparison. Size-resolved net particle fluxes of the five lowest size bins, representing 0.25-0.45 mu m in diameter, were in general dominated by deposition in more or less all wind sectors in the wet season. This is an indication that the source of primary biogenic aerosol particles may be small in this particle size range. Transfer velocities within this particle size range were observed to increase linearly with increasing friction velocity and increasing particle diameter. In the diameter range 0.5-2.5 mu m, vertical particle fluxes were highly dependent on wind direction. In wind sectors where anthropogenic influence was low, net upward fluxes were observed. However, in wind sectors associated with higher anthropogenic influence, deposition fluxes dominated. The net upward fluxes were interpreted as a result of primary biogenic aerosol emission, but deposition of anthropogenic particles seems to have masked this emission in wind sectors with higher anthropogenic influence. The net emission fluxes were at maximum in the afternoon when the mixed layer is well developed, and were best correlated with horizontal wind speed according to the equation log(10)F = 0.48.U + 2.21 where F is the net emission number flux of 0.5-2.5 mu m particles [m(-2) s(-1)] and U is the horizontal wind speed [ms(-1)] at the top of the tower.

The remote marine aerosol and the cloud droplet number concentration (CDNC) are examined with an aerosol microphysics box model in an attempt to better understand the processes involved in the formation and transformation of the marine aerosol. Emission of submicrometre sea-salt and dimethylsulfide (DMS) have been included together with aerosol dynamics, gas and liquid phase chemistry and cloud processing representative for the marine boundary layer atmosphere. Our simulations are able to reproduce a bimodal submicrometre size distribution with realistic number concentrations even when new particle formation by nucleation is neglected. This indicates that ultrafine primary sea-salt flux is an important source of Aitken mode particles and CDNC. However, sulphate still constitutes 20-80% of the Aitken and accumulation mode masses. The temperature dependence of the sea-salt source function leads to a 23% decrease in total number concentration when the temperature increases from 12 to 20 degrees C. The influence of DMS emission on the aerosol and CDNC is minimal but the size distribution and mass concentration of sulphate is changed, mostly due to in-cloud processes. The wind speed is the dominant factor determining the CDNC, although entrainment of aerosols from free troposphere can have a substantial effect.

Bubbles bursting from whitecaps are considered to be the most effective mechanism for particulate matter to be ejected into the atmosphere from the Earth's oceans. To realistically predict the climate effect of marine aerosols, global climate models require process-based understanding of particle formation from bubble bursting. During a cruise on the highly biologically active waters of the northeastern Atlantic Ocean in the summer of 2006, the submicrometer primary marine aerosol produced by a jet of seawater impinging on a seawater surface was investigated. The produced aerosol size spectra were centered on 200 nm in dry diameter and were conservative in shape throughout the cruise. The aerosol number production was negatively correlated with dissolved oxygen (DO) in the water (r < -0.6 for particles of dry diameter D-p > 200 nm). An increased surfactant concentration as a result of biological activity affecting the oxygen saturation is thought to diminish the particle production. The lack of influence of chlorophyll on aerosol production indicates that hydrocarbons produced directly by the photosynthesis are not essential for sea spray production. The upward mixing of deeper ocean water as a result of higher wind speed appears to affect the aerosol particle production, making wind speed influence aerosol production in more ways than by increasing the amount of whitecaps. The bubble spectra produced by the jet of seawater was representative of breaking waves at open sea, and the particle number production was positively correlated with increasing bubble number concentration with a peak production of 40-50 particles per bubble.

Number fluxes of particles with diameter larger than 10 nm were measured with the eddy covariance method over the Amazon rain forest during the wet season as part of the LBA (The Large Scale Biosphere Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia) campaign 2008. The primary goal was to investigate whether sources or sinks dominate the aerosol number flux in the tropical rain forest-atmosphere system. During the measurement campaign, from 12 March to 18 May, 60% of the particle fluxes pointed downward, which is a similar fraction to what has been observed over boreal forests. The net deposition flux prevailed even in the absolute cleanest atmospheric conditions during the campaign and therefore cannot be explained only by deposition of anthropogenic particles. The particle transfer velocity v(t) increased with increasing friction velocity and the relation is described by the equation v(t) = 2.4x10(-3)xu(*) where u(*) is the friction velocity. Upward particle fluxes often appeared in the morning hours and seem to a large extent to be an effect of entrainment fluxes into a growing mixed layer rather than primary aerosol emission. In general, the number source of primary aerosol particles within the footprint area of the measurements was small, possibly because the measured particle number fluxes reflect mostly particles less than approximately 200 nm. This is an indication that the contribution of primary biogenic aerosol particles to the aerosol population in the Amazon boundary layer may be low in terms of number concentrations. However, the possibility of horizontal variations in primary aerosol emission over the Amazon rain forest cannot be ruled out.

We present, to our knowledge for the first time, results from subcanopy (forest trunk space) aerosol flux measurements with the eddy covariance (EC) technique. The measurements were performed at the SMEAR II measurement station located in a Scots pine forest in southern Finland during spring 2003 when the ground was snow covered and in situ biogenic particle formation took place almost every day. Spectral analysis showed that the EC method can be applied to estimate subcanopy aerosol fluxes and thereby ground deposition in a forest. By using the two-layer EC measurements we were able to investigate the fraction of the total aerosol deposition taking place in the canopy and on the forest floor. We found that the ratio of subcanopy to above- canopy flux is dependent on the strength of turbulence. When the friction velocity was low (u(*) < 0.25 m s(-1)), approximately 35% of the depositing particles penetrated the canopy and deposited on the ground. When u* increased, the fractional deposition on the forest floor decreased almost linearly, and in strongly turbulent conditions (u(*)> 1.0 m s(-1)) the ground deposition contributed only around 10% to the total deposition. Thus, it seems that increased turbulence enhances the importance of the canopy for aerosol deposition and the relative importance of the forest floor to the total deposition diminishes.