Role of methanesulfonic acid in atmospheric particle nucleation and growth
Abstract
Abstract Dimethyl sulfide (DMS; CH 3 SCH 3 ) from marine phytoplankton is a notable source of atmospheric sulfur 1 . Its oxidation products include sulfuric acid (SA; H 2 SO 4 ) and methanesulfonic acid (MSA; CH 3 SO 3 H), which has a higher yield than SA below 10 °C (ref. 2 ). Although SA is known to drive the formation of new particles 3 , which may subsequently grow and act as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN), the role of MSA remains unclear 4 . Here, in experiments performed under atmospheric conditions at the CERN CLOUD (Cosmics Leaving OUtdoor Droplets) chamber, we show that MSA nucleates together with ammonia (NH 3 ) below −10 °C, at rates comparable with SA-NH 3 . Moreover, MSA and SA nucleate synergistically below −10 °C, forming multi-acid molecular clusters with NH 3 . Even at ultralow NH 3 levels, MSA drives particle growth at or near the kinetic limit below 9 °C and above 40% relative humidity (RH). Because MSA and SA generally coexist at similar concentrations in cool marine regions, our findings indicate that nucleation rates may be accelerated up to tenfold and growth rates up to twofold compared with SA-NH3 alone. Our global model simulations indicate that MSA can enhance CCN concentrations, especially in polar regions. We propose that MSA might be an important driver of biogenic particles in cool, pristine marine regions of both the present-day and pre-industrial atmospheres and yet is unaccounted for in global climate models 5 .
Article Details
Authors (82)
Rima Baalbaki
Jiali Shen
Mario Simon
Hannah Klebach
Samuel Ruhl
Jenna DeVivo
Mingyi Wang
Wiebke Scholz
Lubna Dada
Birte Rörup
Dominik Stolzenburg
Hanna E. Manninen
Eva Sommer
Lucía Caudillo-Plath
Guillaume Marie
Martin Friedrich
Wenjuan Yu
Markus Leiminger
Dina Alfaouri
Antonio Amorim
Tatjana Arnoldi-Meadows
Hannah Beckmann
Moritz Berntheusel
Steffen Bräkling
Zoé Brasseur
Randall Chiu
Jonathan Duplissy
Henning Finkenzeller
Martin Heinritzi
Felix Kunkler
Houssni Lamkaddam
Brandon Lopez
Naser Mahfouz
Vladimir Makhmutov
Monica Martinez
Ruby Marten
Dario Massabò
Roy Mauldin
Bernhard Mentler
Markus Müller
Maxim Philippov
Ana A. Piedehierro
Pedro Rato
Tobias Reinecke
Sarah Richter
Douglas M. Russell
Benjamin Schulze
Mihnea Surdu
Roseline C. Thakur
Yee Jun Tham
Ping Tian
António Tomé
Yandong Tong
Jens Top
Andrea C. Wagner
Dongyu S. Wang
Yonghong Wang
Ryan X. Ward
Stefan K. Weber
André Welti
Yusheng Wu
Marcel Zauner-Wieczorek
Jiangyi Zhang
Joachim Curtius
Neil M. Donahue
Imad El Haddad
Richard C. Flagan
Armin Hansel
Hartwig Harder
Andreas Kürten
Tuukka Petäjä
Siegfried Schobesberger
Mikko Sipilä
Rainer Volkamer
Paul M. Winkler
Douglas R. Worsnop
Theodoros Christoudias
Andrea Pozzer
Markku Kulmala
Jasper Kirkby
Katrianne Lehtipalo
Xu-Cheng He