Particle production in the outflow of a midlatitude storm

[1] The concentrations of atmospheric gases and condensation nuclei (CN) or aerosol in the outflow of a storm were measured aboard a NASA DC-8 aircraft, as described in a companion paper [Twohy et al., 2002]. The data are used here to study the production of the aerosol. Major fluctuations in CN concentration are observed, in correlation with gas-phase species, but these are shown to arise as the result of the mixing of two distinct air masses. It is deduced that the CN originated in a storm outflow air mass and that its concentration before mixing was approximately uniform over a flight distance of about 200 km. The formation of the aerosol by nucleation followed by growth and coagulation is analyzed assuming that it consists of water and sulphuric acid produced locally by the oxidation of SO₂. The analysis uses analytic models, and it is concluded that a 5 min burst of nucleation was followed by growth and coagulation over a period of about 5 hours. Both the mass and number concentrations of the observed aerosol can be reproduced by this analysis within a timescale consistent with that of the storm. The final number concentration is very insensitive to the initial SO₂ concentration.