Air Ion Measurements at Mace Head on the West Coast of Ireland

Abstract

Coastal nucleation events and behavior of cluster ions were characterized through the measurements of air ion mobility distributions at the Mace Head research station on the west coast of Ireland in 2006. We measured concentrations of cluster ions and charged aerosol particles in the size range of 0.4–40 nm. These measurements allow us to characterize freshly nucleated charged particles with diameter below 3 nm. The analysis shows that bursts of intermediate ions (1.6–7 nm) are a frequent phenomenon in marine coastal environment. Nucleation evens occurred during most of the measurement days. We classified the nucleation burst events. Particle formation and growth events mostly coincided with the presence of low tide. Small ions concentrations appear to be strongly dependent on the variations of meteorological parameters including wind speed and direction.