Characterization of new particle formation events at a background site in Southern Sweden: relation to air mass history

Abstract

Particle formation events were analysed from aerosol number size distribution data collected at a background station in southern Sweden between February 2001 and May 2004. Events occurred on about 36% of all days and were favoured by high global radiation values. The clearest events (class I, 20% of all days) were observed when the formation rate of activated hypothetical clusters around 1 nm diameter, J₁ was higher than 10(^{180*CondS-0.60}), where CondS is the condensation sink (in s^-1). The median condensable vapour concentration, observed formation rate at 3 nm, and growth rate during class I events were 3.0 × 107 cm^-3, 1.1 cm^-3 s^-1 and 2.1 nm h^-1, respectively. On 7% of all days, it was possible to observe growth of the newly formed particles exceeding 30 nm geometric mean diameter during event days in the evening, which is important for the regional particle population, and thereby the climate. A trajectory analysis revealed that cleaner air masses were relatively more important for the contribution of Aitken mode particles than polluted ones. Class I events were registered on 36% of all days when trajectories had passed over the open sea, indicating that ship traffic can contribute to particle formation and growth.