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Göran Frank

Director of graduate studies

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"Missing" cloud condensation nuclei in peat smoke

Author

  • U. Dusek
  • G. P. Frank
  • G. Helas
  • Y. Iinuma
  • K. Zeromskiene
  • P. Gwaze
  • T. Hennig
  • A. Massling
  • O. Schmid
  • H. Herrmann
  • A. Wiedensohler
  • M. O. Andreae
Show all

Summary, in English

We characterized particulate emissions from vegetation fires by burning Indonesian and German peat and other biomass fuels in a controlled laboratory setting. By measuring cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) both as a function of particle diameter (dp) and supersaturation (S), we discovered particles in peat smoke that were not activated to cloud droplets at high S (1.6%). These hydrophobic particles were present predominantly in the size range of dp > 200 nm, where typical wood burning particles are activated at S < 0.3%. Ambient measurements during the 1997 Indonesian peat fires suggested that peat smoke particles are highly soluble and therefore efficient CCN. Our CCN measurements performed on fresh smoke from peat samples of the same area suggest that these Indonesian smoke particles probably acquired soluble material through chemical processing in the atmosphere. Freshly emitted peat smoke particles are at least partially not very efficient CCN.

Publishing year

2005-06-16

Language

English

Pages

1-4

Publication/Series

Geophysical Research Letters

Volume

32

Issue

11

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

American Geophysical Union (AGU)

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0094-8276