The influence of the organic aerosol component on CCN supersaturation spectra for different aerosol types

Abstract This paper describes the effect of the presence of water-soluble organic compounds (WSOC) in aerosol particles on the aerosol critical supersaturation as defined by the Köhler theory and on cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) number concentration. Taking into account both the soluble mass increase and the surface tension depression due to WSOC, we calculated a substantial decrease of the aerosol critical supersaturation, which results in a large increase in CCN number concentration. CCN supersaturation spectra were computed for three different aerosol types: marine, rural and urban. The increase of CCN number concentration in the presence of WSOC (with respect to the case when only the inorganic aerosol compounds are considered) varies with aerosol type, with an increase up to 13% in the marine case, up to 97% in the rural case, and up to 110% in the urban case, for the supersaturation range typical of atmospheric conditions.     

Atmospheric Surface-Layer Processes During the Total Solar Eclipse Of 11 August 1999

The central path of the total solar eclipse (TSE) of 11 August 1999 mostly passedthrough a region of active monsoon in India, with the eclipse ending around localsunset. Measurements in the surface layer (SL) were carried out close to the eclipseaxis at Akola (20°42' N, 77°2' E) in central India. The globalradiation flux reaching the surface vanishes around totality at 1803:24 (LT), followedby a small recovery before again dipping to zero at sunset. The temperatures in the SL, and subsoil at 50-mm depth, show a local minimum with a lag of about 10 min after the second contact, whereas the lag appears to vanish when the temperature series is detrended. The SL exhibits near-neutral, though generally stable, conditions from about 1500 hr itself due to heavy cloud cover followed by the eclipse-induced cooling of the surface. The wind component across the eclipse axis vanishes at totality, the wind vector aligning with the azimuth of the traversing moon shadow. The deceleration of the mean flow can be due to the combined effect of the colder surface and downward heat flux, where the locally altered horizontal temperature gradients may cause, as in this instance, the cessation of the cross flow.The oscillations in temperature and wind that show significant peaks, around 90–100 min as well as the semi-period of the eclipse near 60 min, persist for several hours past the eclipse event. A fresh analysis of the published data on the TSE of 7 March 1970 shows spectral peaks in the temperature nearly coincident with those already reported from the surface pressure records. The oscillations in the SL fields during the two TSE events are very similar implying that the source mechanism is also likely to be the same in both the cases.     

Effective and Equitable Dissemination of Seasonal-to-Interannual Climate Forecasts: Policy Implications from the Peruvian Fishery during El Niño 1997–98

The development of seasonal-to-interannual climate predictions has spurred widespread claims that the dissemination of such forecasts will yield benefits for society. Based on the use as well as non-use of forecasts in the Peruvian fishery during the 1997–98 El Niño event, weidentify: (1) potential constraints on the realization of benefits, such aslimited access to and understanding of information, and unintended reactions; (2) theneed for an appropriately detailed definition of societal benefit, considering whose welfare counts as a benefit among groups such as labor, industry, consumers, citizens of different regions, and future generations.We argue that consideration of who benefits, and an understanding of potential socioeconomic constraints and how they might be addressed, should be brought to bear on forecast dissemination choices. We conclude with examples of relevant dissemination choices made using this process.     

Determination of Area-Averaged Water Vapour Fluxes with Large Aperture and Radio Wave Scintillometers over a Heterogeneous Surface – Flevoland Field Experiment

A large aperture scintillometer (LAS) andradio wave scintillometer (RWS)were installed over a heterogeneous areato test the applicability of the scintillation method.The heterogeneity in the area, whichconsisted of many plots, was mainly caused bydifferences in thermal properties ofthe crops; the variations in theaerodynamic roughness lengthwere small. The water vapour fluxesderived from the combined LAS-RWSsystem, also known as the two-wavelengthmethod, agreed fairly well with the aggregatedwater vapour fluxes derived from in-situeddy covariance measurements. The water vapourfluxes derived from a stand-alone LASare also presented. It was found that a single LASand an estimate of the area averagedavailable energy (using a simple parameterisationscheme) can provide also reasonablearea-averaged water vapour fluxes.     

Particle size dependent response of aerosol counters

During an international workshop at the Institute for Experimental Physics of the University of Vienna, Austria, which was coordinated within the Committee on Nucleation and Atmospheric Aerosols (IAMAS-IUGG), 10 instruments for aerosol number concentration measurement were studied, covering a wide range of methods based on various different measuring principles. In order to investigate the detection limits of the instruments considered with respect to particle size, simultaneous number concentration measurements were performed for monodispersed aerosols with particle sizes ranging from 1.5 to 50 nm diameter and various compositions.The instruments considered show quite different response characteristics, apparently related to the different vapors used in the various counters to enlarge the particles to an optically detectable size. A strong dependence of the 50% cutoff diameter on the particle composition in correlation with the type of vapor used in the specific instrument was found. An enhanced detection efficiency for ultrafine hygroscopic sodium chloride aerosols was observed with water operated systems, an analogous trend was found for n-butanol operated systems with nonhygroscopic silver and tungsten oxide particles.     

Modelling evaporation using an artificial neural network algorithm

This paper investigates the prediction of Class A pan evaporation using the artificial neural network (ANN) technique. The ANN back propagation algorithm has been evaluated for its applicability for predicting evaporation from minimum climatic data. Four combinations of input data were considered and the resulting values of evaporation were analysed and compared with those of existing models. The results from this study suggest that the neural computing technique could be employed successfully in modelling the evaporation process from the available climatic data set. However, an analysis of the residuals from the ANN models developed revealed that the models showed significant error in predictions during the validation, implying loss of generalization properties of ANN models unless trained carefully. The study indicated that evaporation values could be reasonably estimated using temperature data only through the ANN technique. This would be of much use in instances where data availability is limited. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.