Sub-micron aerosol particle size distribution collected in the Southern Ocean in the austral summer of 2016/2017, during the Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition.

Dataset abstract

The authors would highly appreciate to be contacted if the data is used for any purpose.

We measured sub-micrometer aerosol particles with two scanning mobility particle spectrometers (SMPSs) between 11 and 400 nm (file name ACESPACE_submicron_aerosol_particle_size_distribution.csv) in 100 bins, and 11 and 181 nm in 77 bins - so no data entry in the remaining 23 bins - (ACESPACE_submicron_aerosol_particle_size_distribution_nano.csv) at a time resolution of five minutes during the Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition (ACE). Particles in this size range are important for cloud formation because a sub-set of them can act as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN).

The time series of the size distribution shows that the particle population over the Southern Ocean can be quite variable featuring three dominant modes: a new particle formation mode (11 – 30 nm); an Aitken mode (20 – 70 nm); and an accumulation mode (> 70 nm). Often a concentration minimum between the Aitken and accumulation mode can be observed. It is known as Hoppel minimum (Hoppel and Frick, 1990; 10.1016/0960-1686(90)90020-N). Typically, particles larger than this minimum act as CCN. The variability of the particle size spectrum is a result of particle sources and atmospheric processes. Sea spray generation adds larger particles likely with a peak in the mode around 200 nm. Trace gas emissions from microbial communities in the ocean, such as dimethylsulfide (DMS) will be oxidized to either sulphuric acid or methanesulfonic acid in the atmosphere which condense onto pre-existing particles, hence growing those. Sulphuric acid can also form new particles (new particle formation mode). Rain and snow will remove particles larger than the Hoppel minimum.

The data set can be used to explore the variability of the particle size distribution in three different oceans around Antarctica (Indian, Pacific, Atlantic Oceans) and from Cape Town to Europe in relation to weather patterns, air mass trajectories, microbial activity etc. It is best used in combination with CCN data to explore the importance of particles for cloud formation. This data set cannot be used to unambiguously determine sources of particles over the southern ocean or to trace anthropogenic impact in the region.

The data have been cleaned from the influence of the exhaust of the research vessel.

We give five-minute average data as dN/dlog(dp), where dN is the particle number concentration per measured size bin normalized over the logarithm of the bin width. The bin width is defined as the distance between two diameters. They are spaced equally in log-space with dlog(dp) = log(d_n+1/d_n) = 1/64. To derive the total particle number concentration between 11 and 400 nm one has to integrate over the diameter range taking into account the normalization by dlog(dp).

Temporal coverage is from December 20, 2016 to April 10, 2017. The file “ACESPACE_submicron_aerosol_particle_size_distribution.csv” covers the entire time period except between 9 and 14 January 2017 due to instrument issues. The file “ACESPACE_submicron_aerosol_particle_size_distribution_nano.csv” contains data for the period between 9 and 14 January 2017 and can be used to fill the above gap. The second data file stems from another SMPS with a smaller differential mobility analyser, hence the smaller diameter coverage.

Dataset contents

The data set contains two files with the size distribution of sub-micrometer aerosol particles. The rows are indexed by the time stamp, which is the end of the 5-minutes averaging interval. The columns are the normalized concentrations of particles in the respective size bin. See the data abstract for details.

• ACESPACE_submicron_aerosol_particle_size_distribution.csv, data file, comma-separated values
• ACESPACE_submicron_aerosol_particle_size_distribution_nano.csv, data file, comma-separated values
• ACESPACE_particle_diameter_bins.csv, metadata, comma-separated values
• data_file_header.txt, metadata, text
• README.md, metadata, text

NaN values in a complete row denote missing values because of e.g., calibration periods, ship exhaust contamination, instrument failure. NaN values which appear individually or only in small groups reflect that data were below detection limit. For latitude and longitude, NaN values are noted in cases where position data was not available for the given time period.

Dataset license

This sub-micron aerosol particle size distribution dataset collected during ACE is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) whose full text can be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/