Abstract
Shipping contributes primary and secondary emission products to the atmospheric aerosol burden that have implications for climate, clouds, and air quality from regional to global scales. In this study we exam the potential impact of ship emissions with regards to ice nucleating particles. Particles that nucleate ice are known to directly affect precipitation and cloud microphysical properties. We have collected and analyzed particles for their ice nucleating capacity from a shipping channel outside a large Scandinavia port. We observe that ship plumes amplify the background levels of ice nucleating particles and discuss the larger scale implications. The measured ice nucleating particles suggest that the observed amplification is most likely important in regions with low levels of background particles. The Arctic, which as the sea ice pack declines is opening to transit and natural resource exploration and exploitation at an ever increasing rate, is highlighted as such a region.
Highlights
Shipping contributes primary and secondary emission products to the atmospheric aerosol burden that have implications for climate, clouds, and air quality from regional to global scales
From May through September nearly 70% of the central Arctic is covered by low-level stratiform clouds23 -the radiative properties of which depend upon their microphysics[24]
The results demonstrate the ability of ship emissions to amplify the number of atmospheric Ice Nucleating Particles (INP)
Summary
We observe that ship plumes amplify the background levels of ice nucleating particles and discuss the larger scale implications. The PEAC7 charges aerosol particles in a flow of sample air and subsequently precipitates the particles onto the surface of a grounded silicon wafer disc These sample substrates were returned to a laboratory and were analyzed using the Frankfurt isothermal static diffusion chamber for ice nucleation FRIDGE36,37. The transit time of plumes at the measurement site depended upon wind speed and direction and ranged from 2–10 minutes, with sampling continuing 30–60 s after the CPC count magnitude returned to stable background levels. The number of INP per unit volume of air is calculated based upon the counted INP and the recorded sampling parameters as recommended by Schrod et al.[36]
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