Skip to content
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Menu
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Menu
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
Relative roles of biogenic emissions and saharan dust as ice nuclei in the amazon basin
Nature Geoscience, Volume 2, No. 6, Year 2009
Notification
URL copied to clipboard!
Description
Some aerosol particles, known as ice nuclei, can initiate ice formation in clouds, thereby influencing precipitation, cloud dynamics and the amount of incoming and outgoing solar radiation. In the absence of biomass burning, aerosol mass concentrations in the Amazon basin are low. Tropical forests emit primary biological particles directly into the atmosphere; secondary organic aerosols form from the emission and oxidation of biogenic gases. In addition, particles derived from biomass burning in central Africa, marine aerosols, and wind-blown dust from North Africa often reach the central part of the Amazon basin during the wet season. The contribution of these aerosol sources to ice nucleation in the region is uncertain. Here we present observations of the concentration and elemental composition of ice nuclei in the Amazon basin during the wet season. Using transmission electron microscopy combined with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, we show that ice nuclei are primarily composed of carbonaceous material and dust. We show that biological particles dominate the carbonaceous fraction, whereas import of Saharan dust explains the intermittent appearance of dust-containing nuclei. We conclude that ice-nucleus concentration and abundance can be explained almost entirely by local emissions of biological particles supplemented by import of Saharan dust. Using a simple model, we tentatively suggest that the contribution of local biological particles to ice nucleation is increased at higher atmospheric temperatures, whereas the contribution of dust particles is increased at lower temperatures. © 2009 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.
Authors & Co-Authors
Prenni, Anthony J.
United States, Fort Collins
Colorado State University
Kreidenweis, Sonia M.
United States, Fort Collins
Colorado State University
Martin, Scot T.
United States, Cambridge
Harvard University
Artaxo, Paulo Eduardo
Brazil, Sao Paulo
Universidade de São Paulo
Garland, Rebecca M.
Germany, Mainz
Max Planck Institute for Chemistry
Pöschl, Ulrich
Germany, Mainz
Max Planck Institute for Chemistry
Statistics
Citations: 189
Authors: 6
Affiliations: 4
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1038/ngeo517
ISSN:
17520908
Research Areas
Cancer
Environmental
Study Locations
Multi-countries