Microphysical Analysis of Maritime and Continental Aerosols: Determination of Hygroscopic Growth Factors Using OPAC Data and Modeling Approaches

The atmospheric aerosols over coastal areas are governed by the interplay of marine and continental sources.  The transport of aerosols from continental sources into sea surfaces through deposition or diffusion is what causes the fast reduction of continental aerosols.  A mass based hygroscopicity models were applied to the data extracted from the Optical Properties of Aerosols and Clouds (OPAC).  The microphysical properties obtained were radii, density, refractive index, mass, volume, and sphericity of the atmospheric aerosols of continental and maritime aerosols at eight different relative humidity of 0%, 50%, 70%, 80%, 90%, 95%, 98%, and 99%.  Using the microphysical properties, hygroscopic growth factors, and effective radii of the mixtures, mass growth factor Gm and diameter growth factor DG were determined, and also the parameter Km for mass based of the aerosols were determined using multiple regression analysis with SPSS 16.0 at each relative humidity.  The results show that Gm for maritime clean is higher than other aerosols, with a value of 34.46 at 99% RH, while the lowest value is for continental average, with a value of 5.03 at 99% RH.  Also, R2 for the model is greater than 90%.  The significance and P-values are less than 0.05; therefore, the model is good for atmospheric modeling and remote sensing.