From Goethe University Frankfurt A research group lead by scientists at the Goethe University Frankfurt discover details on how clouds form
This news release is available in German.
It has been known for several years that sulfuric acid contributes to the formation of tiny aerosol particles, which play an important role in the formation of clouds. The new study by Kürten et al. shows that dimethylamine can tremendously enhance new particle formation. The formation of neutral (i.e. uncharged) nucleating clusters of sulfuric acid and dimethylamine was observed for the first time.
Previously, it was only possible to detect neutral clusters containing up to two sulfuric acid molecules. However, in the present study molecular clusters containing up to 14 sulfuric acid and 16 dimethylamine molecules were detected and their growth by attachment of individual molecules was observed in real-time starting from just one molecule. Moreover, these measurements were made at concentrations of sulfuric acid and dimethylamine corresponding to atmospheric levels (less than 1 molecule of sulfuric acid per 1 x 1013 molecules of air).
The capability of sulfuric acid molecules together with water and ammonia to form clusters and particles has been recognized for several years. However, clusters which form in this manner can vaporize under the conditions which exist in the atmosphere. In contrast, the system of sulfuric acid and dimethylamine forms particles much more efficiently because even the smallest clusters are essentially stable against evaporation. In this respect dimethylamine can act as “superglue” because when interacting with sulfuric acid every collision between a cluster and a sulfuric acid molecule bonds them together irreversibly. Sulphuric acid as well as amines in the present day atmosphere have mainly anthropogenic sources. Sulphuric acid is derived mainly from the oxidation of sulphur dioxide while amines stem, for example, from animal husbandry. The method used to measure the neutral clusters utilizes a combination of a mass spectrometer and a chemical ionization source, which was developed by the University of Frankfurt and the University of Helsinki. The measurements were made by an international collaboration at the CLOUD (Cosmics Leaving OUtdoor Droplets) chamber at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research).
The results allow for very detailed insight into a chemical system which could be relevant for atmospheric particle formation. Aerosol particles influence the Earth’s climate through cloud formation: Clouds can only form if so-called cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) are present, which act as seeds for condensing water molecules. Globally about half the CCN originate from a secondary process which involves the formation of small clusters and particles in the very first step followed by growth to sizes of at least 50 nanometers. The observed process of particle formation from sulfuric acid and dimethylamine could also be relevant for the formation of CCN. A high concentration of CCN generally leads to the formation of clouds with a high concentration of small droplets; whereas fewer CCN lead to clouds with few large droplets. Earth’s radiation budget, climate as well as precipitation patterns can be influenced in this manner. The deployed method will also open a new window for future measurements of particle formation in other chemical systems.
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Hmm, more cattle… less droughts?
Makes sense. This certainly compliments Dr. Allan Savory’s finding that what we really need is MORE cattle, more grazing animals, a lot more of cattle to prevent the growth and creation of new deserts or help heal existing ones on the edges.
[ http://www.ted.com/talks/allan_savory_how_to_green_the_world_s_deserts_and_reverse_climate_change.html ]
So now even the Vegans have their hand in helping to destroy the world as we have known it.
So more ccn more rain means less water in the atmosphere does that cause heating or cooling. Or is just more clouds and not necessarily more rain?
My hope is that it will mean more cloudiness (stopping further global warming) and more rain (because not all clouds will rain out). We won’t know until we try.
Less water vapor in the atmosphere means that the atmosphere has a lower enthalpy. Therefore, all those non-engineers who continue to assess the amount of heat in the atmosphere by measuring temperature can become over excited about how temperatures are rising. However, the amount of heat in the atmosphere may have stayed the same or even dropped due to the lowered enthalpy.
(This is why water vapor cannot be directly compared to CO2 as a so called ‘green house gas’)
“Sie haben herausgefunden, dass Amine möglicherweise…..” translates to:
They found out, that amines possibly…..
This is where I normally stop reading. Did they find out something or is it possible? But for sure, they need more money to find out.
In short: The mechanism of the system of sulfuric acid and dimethylamine as CNN has been studied in the lab. Nothing is said about the concentration and the distribution of these molecules in the atmosphere. In addition, one has to compare it with the concentration of other CNNs.
You ever been to San Francisco, or Humboldt county, or a paper mill. That smell in the air, the cabbage fart smell is dimethyl sulfide, or DMS.
You can smell it long before you get there. It’s overpowering. It saturates your clothes, your pores, every fiber of your being. Stay long enough you can almost forget it’s there. But every morning you wake up, there it is again, strong as ever.
I guess people on the East Coast could kid themselves into thinking that smell is due to power plant fumes or car exhaust. We on the West Coast, the honest ones anyway, with our onshore flow can’t pretend it comes from any place but the ocean.
According to the USEPA, that pleasant smell in New York City is body odor, dirty diapers etc.! EPA says that these are a measurable and significant source of ammonia emitted into the atmosphere.
http://www.epa.gov/ttnchie1/eiip/techreport/volume03/eiip_areasourcesnh3.pdf
Well water doesn’t need fuming H2SO4 to make droplets. Any speck of dust, or a microbe, or a charged particle can do it. You just need some surface, that is not hydrophobic. The moisture in my car at night condenses on the windows, or mirror, but It never just falls out of the air in my car, as rain.
I read a paper about some water studies back East, where they had figured out how to capture a single rain drop; any rain drop, and immediately isolate it, so they could analyze it. In this one study, every rain drop, already had a microbe colony in it. The droplet had apparently grown on one microbe, and while falling to earth the microbe had multiplied.
Water is a polar molecule, and evidently likes sticking head first to surfaces; which I think means Oxygen end down.
It’s that pesky 104.x degree angle in the bent water molecule, that makes all life possible.