Effect of nonprecipitating clouds on the aerosol size distribution in the marine boundary layer

Abstract

The size distribution of particles smaller than 0.5 µ m has been measured over the tropical Atlantic and Pacific oceans with a differential mobility analyzer. In regions remote from continental influences the size distribution generally has peaks at about .02‐.03 µ m and at .08‐.15 µ m with a minimum in the .05‐.08 µ m radius range. The data provides strong evidence that nonprecipitating clouds play an important role in transferring material from the gas phase and from smaller particles into the 0.08 to .15 µ m radius range, and that they are responsible for the doubly peaked size distributions frequently observed over the oceans.