Model study on the dependence of primary marine aerosol emission on the sea surface temperature

Abstract

Abstract. Primary marine aerosol composed of sea salt and organic material is an important contributor to the global aerosol load. By comparing measurements from two EMEP (co-operative programme for monitoring and evaluation of the long-range transmissions of air-pollutants in Europe) intensive campaigns in June 2006 and January 2007 with results from an atmospheric transport model this work shows that accounting for the influence of the sea surface temperature on the emission of primary marine aerosol improves the model results towards the measurements in both months. Different sea surface temperature dependencies were evaluated. Using correction functions based on Sofiev et al. (2011) and Jaeglé et al. (2011) improves the model results for coarse mode particles. In contrast, for the fine mode aerosols no best correction function could be found. The model captures the low sodium concentrations at the marine station Virolahti II (Finland), which is influenced by air masses from the low salinity Baltic Sea, as well as the higher concentrations at Cabauw (Netherlands) and Auchencorth Moss (Scotland). These results indicate a shift towards smaller sizes with lower salinity for the emission of dry sea salt aerosols. Organic material was simulated as part of primary marine aerosol assuming an internal mixture with sea salt. A comparison of the model results for primary organic carbon with measurements by a Berner-impactor at Sao Vincente (Cape Verde) indicated that the model underpredicted the observed organic carbon concentration. This leads to the conclusion that the formation of secondary organic material needs to be included in the model to improve the agreement with the measurements.