Aerosol transport and wet scavenging in deep convective clouds: A case study and model evaluation using a multiple passive tracer analysis approach

The apparent scavenging efficiency for nitrate aerosol is much lower (57%), but the scavenging efficiency for nitrate aerosol plus nitric acid combined (84%) is close to the other species. Scavenging efficiencies for aerosol number are high for larger particles (84% for 0.15-2.5 µm diameter) but are lower for smaller particles (64% for 0.03-0.15 µm). The storm is simulated using the chemistry version of the Weather Research and Forecasting model.

Compared to the observation-based analysis, the standard model strongly underestimates aerosol scavenging efficiencies by 32% and 41% in absolute differences for submicron mass and number. Adding a new treatment of secondary activation significantly improves simulated aerosol scavenging, producing wet scavenging efficiencies that are only 7% and 8% lower than observed efficiencies. This finding emphasizes the importance of secondary activation for aerosol wet removal in deep convective storms.