The ability to perform spatially resolved spectroscopy at the nanoscale is crucial for studying individual nanometer sized sea spray particles. Specifically, scanning transmission X-ray microscopy coupled with near edge X-ray absorption fine structure (STXM/NEXAFS) spectroscopy is used to determine elementally specific molecular information on organic and inorganic species with a 30 nm spatial resolution. To date, particles collected in many laboratory and field studies have been analyzed using STXM/NEXAFS to study their composition as it relates to their cloud forming properties. Not only does secondary organic aerosol formation change the composition of the particles, but also the biological activity of the ocean plays an important role in determining the organic fraction of the particles. We have created a method to estimate mass fractions for implementation in hygroscopicity parameterizations used in cloud models. Aerosol hygroscopicity is sensitive to organic material, so measurements such as this can add physical insight into changes in CCN for complex samples containing externally/internally mixed particle populations.  This talk highlights the importance of characterizing the single particle composition for laboratory and field collected particles in order to gain insight to their physical properties in the atmosphere.

Spectromicroscopic observation of sea spray composition and aging

248th National Meeting (2014)

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