What is it about?
Sea spray, or particles emitted from the ocean surface, is comprised of constituents like inorganic salts and organic matter including bacteria and viruses. The variable composition of sea spray is thought to influence how water vapor will condense onto the emitted particle. In this paper, we take a look at xanthan gum, a wettable macromolecular-polysaccharidic compound that serves as our proxy to organic matter found in the ocean. We measure the swelling by humidification (hygroscopicity) under different water vapor regimes: sub saturated and super saturated. We hypothesize that particle microstructure can influence the observed humidification and should be carefully considered when reporting organic hygroscopicity.
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Why is it important?
Models that simulate the radiative properties of sea spray should consider our results when including the influence of organic matter. The swelling behavior of organic matter like that in our study is strongly influenced by the humidity conditions of the atmosphere.
Perspectives
This research was really fun and taught me a lot about particles and their sensitivities to environmental conditions. I always enjoy work that forces us to think carefully about the assumptions and simplifications that are made to smaller details in order to gain insight into climate and the larger picture.
Dr Kyle W Dawson
North Carolina State University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Hygroscopic growth and cloud droplet activation of xanthan gum as a proxy for marine hydrogels, Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres, October 2016, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1002/2016jd025143.
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