Size-resolved condensation sink as an approach to understand pathways how gaseous emissions affect health and climate

Abstract

Vapour condensation onto existing aerosol particles is important regarding aerosol health and climate effects. Existing particles can act as carriers for toxic vapours into the human respiratory tract. Also, condensation changes the aerosol optical properties. Condensation sink (CS) is a widely utilised parameter in atmospheric aerosol studies that estimates the attachment rate of vapour molecules onto existing particles. However, typically only the total CS is investigated. Here, we explore the concept of size-resolved condensation sink (CS size distribution). We calibrate an electrical low pressure impactor to measure CS and then utilise the method in urban aerosol measurements conducted in Finland, Germany, Czechia and India, covering road traffic sites, airports, detached housing residential areas, industrial and shipping sites. We report considerably varying shapes and mean sizes of CS size distributions: CS in Finland was more attributable to ultrafine particles (geometric mean diameters being 85–206 nm) than in Central Europe (151–263 nm) and India (278 nm). We introduce a parameter CS attributable to ultrafine particles (CS0.1), which may be especially relevant when considering the formation of cloud condensation nuclei as well as deposition of condensed vapours in the human lung. Furthermore, the results show that the formation and changes of the atmospheric particle size distribution vary in different conditions and environments. Thus, adaptation of CS size distribution could be a simple but effective approach to consider these differences in climate models. Overall, CS size distribution can improve general understanding of the effects of gaseous emissions on health and climate.