Sea-salt Aerosol in Hawaii and the Influence of Large Organized Structures (LOS) or Rolls on Fluxes and Visibility

Our long-term goal is to establish an improved understanding of the factors that control the marine aerosol properties and concentrations as they relate to generation processes, mixing processes, their dependence on oceanic and environmental conditions and physicochemical evolution in the marine boundary layer. We expect these efforts to lead to improved modeling and predictability of marine aerosol concentrations and optical properties. One of the components of our work is to describe the chemical composition of submicron, nonrefractory, aerosol over the central Pacific Ocean, a region where little data of this type exists. Our studies involve using an Aerodyne Time-of-Flight Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (ToF-AMS) to chemically characterize the aerosol. We also seek to address the evolving issue of organic aerosol in the marine environment, and deduce potential sources of these organics. More specifically, we wish to continue our investigation of the marine source of organics to the remote marine atmosphere, and add strength to our hypothesis that little to negligible organics can be associated with a natural marine source. Our activities this past year also include analysis of equatorial Pacific aerosol aircraft data (NCAR C-130 PASE experiment) as part of our studying Large Organized Structures (LOS) or rolls and their role in aerosol processes and the vertical mixing of sea-salt and associated optical extinction. The original document contains color images.