Publication - Journal Article The role of jet and film drops in controlling the mixing state of submicron sea spray aerosol particles

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 114, iss. 27, pp. 6978-6983, 2017

Xiaofei Wang, Grant B. Deane, Kathryn A. Moore, Olivia S. Ryder, M. Dale Stokes, Charlotte M. Beall, Douglas B. Collins, Mitchell V. Santander, Susannah M. Burrows, Camille M. Sultana, Kimberly A. Prather

Significance Submicrometer sea spray aerosol (SSA) particles play a critical role in determining cloud properties in marine environments. Typically, it is assumed that submicrometer SSA particles mainly originate from bubble-cap films bursting at the sea surface. However, we show that in addition to this formation pathway, a substantial fraction of submicrometer SSA particles are also produced from jet drops. Using an experimental approach that relies on differences in the electrical mobility of jet and film drops, we show that jet drops contribute up to 43% of total submicrometer SSA number concentrations. As shown herein, these two different production pathways result in an externally mixed submicrometer SSA population with two distinct chemical compositions with significantly different ice nucleating activities.