Characteristics of Aerosol Activation Efficiency and Aerosol and CCN Vertical Distributions in North China

By analyzing airborne observations over North China from 30 flights during spring and autumn of 2005–2007, characteristics of the vertical distributions of aerosol and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) at 0.3% supersaturation in various locations of North China are investigated. The measurement samplings were conducted over different surfaces such as plains, plateau, and sea. The results show that the number concentration of accumulation mode aerosols was greater in autumn than in spring, but the reverse is true for CCN. This means that more aerosols with diameters smaller than 100 nm could be activated as CCN in spring, and this could induce higher aerosol activation efficiency. The aerosol activation efficiency over the plains near the Taihang Mountain was greater in spring than in autumn, and it was greater over sea than over land. The aerosol activation efficiency above the boundary layer over the Bashang Plateau was very low. Based on a fit of the negative exponential vertical distributions of aerosol and CCN, a spatial parameterization model of aerosol and CCN as well as aerosol activation efficiency over North China was proposed. The results show that aerosol activation efficiency was not clearly dependent on altitude because it was mainly affected by regional physical and chemical characteristics of aerosols and the ambient atmospheric conditions. The mean aerosol activation efficiency is 0.66, with values of 0.70 and 0.53 in spring and autumn, respectively.