Ice Nucleating Particle Concentrations Increase When Leaves Fall in Autumn
1
Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Basel, 4056 Basel, Switzerland
2
Institute of Soil Science and Agrochemistry, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia
3
NILU—Norwegian Institute for Air Research, 2027 Kjeller, Norway
4
Laboratory for Air Pollution/Environmental Technology, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa), 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Atmosphere 2017, 8(10), 202; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos8100202
Received: 25 September 2017 / Revised: 12 October 2017 / Accepted: 13 October 2017 / Published: 17 October 2017
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Atmospheric Aerosol Composition and its Impact on Clouds)
Abstract
Ice nucleating particles active at −8 °C or warmer (INP−8) are produced by plants and by microorganisms living from and on them. Laboratory studies have shown that large numbers of INP−8 are produced by decaying leaves. At three widely dispersed locations in Northwestern Eurasia, we saw, from an analysis of PM10 filter samples, that seasonal median concentrations of INP−8 in the boundary layer doubled from summer to autumn. Concentrations of INP−8 increased in autumn soon after the normalized differential vegetation index had started to decrease. Whether the large-scale phenological event of leaf senescence and shedding in autumn has an impact on ice formation in clouds is a justified question. View Full-Text
Figure 1
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Conen, F.; Yakutin, M.V.; Yttri, K.E.; Hüglin, C. Ice Nucleating Particle Concentrations Increase When Leaves Fall in Autumn. Atmosphere 2017, 8, 202.
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