Hygroscopicity of Early Earth and Titan Laboratory Aerosol Analogs

Details Hygroscopicity of Early Earth and Titan Laboratory Aerosol Analogs Hygroscopicity of Early Earth and Titan Laboratory Aerosol Analogs

Dec 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufmpp31c1355h&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #PP31C-1355

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[0305] Atmospheric Composition And Structure / Aerosols And Particles, [0473] Biogeosciences / Paleoclimatology And Paleoceanography, [5210] Planetary Sciences: Astrobiology / Planetary Atmospheres, Clouds, And Hazes, [9623] Information Related To Geologic Time / Archean

Scientific paper

We have explored the ability of organic hazes, known to exist in the atmosphere of Titan and postulated to have existed in the Archean Earth atmosphere, to act as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). These laboratory aerosol analogs are generated via UV-photolysis of early Earth and Titan analog gas mixtures and are designed to mimic the present day atmospheric conditions on Titan and the early Earth atmosphere before the rise of oxygen. Water uptake is observed to occur on the early Earth and Titan aerosol analogs at relative humidities of 80% - 90% via optical growth measurements using cavity ring-down aerosol extinction spectroscopy. We find the optical growth of these aerosols is similar to known slightly-soluble organic acids, such as phthalic and pyromellitic acids. On average, the optical growth of the early Earth analog is slightly larger than the Titan analog. In order to translate our measurements obtained in a subsaturated regime into the CCN ability of these particles, we rely on the hygroscopicity parameter κ, developed by Petters & Kreidenweis (2007). We retrieve κ = 0.17±0.03 and 0.06±0.01 for the early Earth and Titan analogs, respectively. This early Earth analog hygroscopicity value indicates that the aerosol could activate at reasonable water vapor supersaturations. We use previous aerosol mass spectrometry results to correlate the chemical structure of the two types of analog with their hygroscopicity. The hygroscopicity of the early Earth aerosol analog, coupled with the apparent lack of other good CCN during the Archean, helps explain the role of the organic haze in the indirect effect of clouds on the early Earth and indicates that it may have had a significant impact on the hydrological cycle.

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