Size and time-resolved growth rate measurements of 1 to 5 nm freshly formed atmospheric nuclei

Novel data analysis methods were developed, de-coupling for the first time the size and time-dependence of particle growth rates by fitting the aerosol general dynamic equation to size distributions obtained at an instant in time. Size distributions of freshly nucleated total aerosol (neutral and charged) were measured during two intensive measurement campaigns in different environments (Atlanta, GA and Boulder, CO) using a recently developed electrical mobility spectrometer with a diethylene glycol-based ultrafine condensation particle counter as the particle detector.

One new particle formation (NPF) event from each campaign was analyzed in detail. At a given instant in time during the NPF event, size-resolved growth rates were obtained directly from measured size distributions and were found to increase approximately linearly with particle size from ~1 to 3 nm geometric diameter, increasing from 5.5 ± 0.8 to 7.6 ± 0.6 nm h⁻¹ in Atlanta (13:00) and from 5.6 ± 2 to 27 ± 5 nm h⁻¹ in Boulder (13:00).