The indirect aerosol effect on climate includes radiative effects from aerosol particles that take up water and form cloud droplets or alter the radiative properties and lifetimes of clouds.  This effect is one of the largest uncertainties in understanding climate change.  Natural aerosols, including mineral dust, have received little attention with respect to their contribution to indirect forcing largely due to the difficulties arising from laboratory measurements.  Recently, a number of studies have revealed the importance of adsorbed water on the surface of minerals for predicting their CCN activity.  We will report laboratory water adsorption measurements on the three most abundant clay minerals found in the atmosphere using an ATR-FTIR equipped with a flow cell.  Adsorption isotherm models are applied to the experimental results and resulting adsorption parameters have been used in Adsorption Activation Theory (AAT) in an effort to predict CCN activation of mineral dust aerosol in the atmosphere.

Water adsorption on model atmospheric clay minerals as a function of relative humidity: Application of experimental results to adsorption activation theory

244th National Meeting (2012)

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