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Contribution of crystalline iron-containing particles and bioaerosols to ice-nucleating particles over the North Pacific
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DOI：10.1186/s40645-026-00838-3.png)
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Abstract
En 中文
Ice-nucleating particles (INPs) from mineral particles and bioaerosols in the atmosphere affect cloud properties and thus climate. Crystalline iron (Fe)-containing particles are originated from lithogenic, anthropogenic, and pyrogenic sources, whereas bioaerosols are emitted from terrestrial and marine biological sources. Atmospheric aging processes can profoundly alter the physicochemical properties of surface materials on mineral-containing (ice-active) aerosols associated with air pollution. However, crystalline Fe-containing particles from anthropogenic and pyrogenic sources are not explicitly simulated in the model prediction of INPs over the oceans, partly because our knowledge of their potentially evolving ice nucleation activity (INA) due to aging is limited. Here, we hypothesize that aged crystalline Fe-containing particles from anthropogenic and pyrogenic sources in addition to natural lithogenic sources are potentially important sources of INPs to the marine clouds over the North Pacific. After the aging processes, our atmospheric chemical transport model predicts that Fe aluminosilicate is the dominant fraction of crystalline Fe-containing particles from anthropogenic sources over the western North Pacific, suggesting an exposure of the mineral surfaces. To test this hypothesis of secondary INPs precursors, we use the model to estimate a contribution of crystalline Fe-containing particles and bioaerosols to INP concentrations that could explain ship-based measurements of potential INP concentrations at specific activation temperatures. Our model results of annual mean potential INP concentrations for aged crystalline Fe-containing particles from anthropogenic sources show the same order of magnitude as those from lithogenic sources at colder temperature (1–10 L−1 at − 30 °C) near the surface over the North Pacific. The modeled crystalline Fe-containing particles (59 ± 25%) along the cruise measurements dominate potential INP concentrations for activation temperature from − 20 to − 30 °C, compared to terrestrial (22 ± 27%) and marine bioaerosols (19 ± 23%). Among the crystalline Fe-containing particles, anthropogenic sources substantially contribute to the potential INP concentrations for activation temperature of − 30 °C during October 2–4 (30%) and November 3–5 (37%) in 2019 over the western North Pacific in downstream region of East Asian outflow. Our model results indicate nonnegligible contribution of the anthropogenic sources to annual mean INPs column concentrations up to 312 hPa from 10 to 20% over the North Pacific, given the seasonality of lithogenic sources. Our model results suggest that the contribution of the anthropogenic sources to INP concentrations is pronounced over the North Pacific in winter (from 20 to 40%) when the wind-blown dust activities are low. This study calls for further studies to elucidate the role of INPs from anthropogenic activity and open biomass burning, develop the INPs parameterization due to atmospheric aging, and revisit previously observed INP concentrations.
Keywords:
Ice-nucleating particle
Anthropogenic aerosol
Biomass burning
Mineral dust
Bioaerosol
Air pollution
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