The relationship between DMS flux and CCN concentration in remote marine regions

Abstract

The relationship between the steady state cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentration and the dimethylsulfide (DMS) emission flux in remote marine regions is investigated by modeling the principal gas-, aerosol-, and aqueous-phase processes in the marine boundary layer (MBL). Results are in reasonable quantitative agreement with the available measurements of DMS, SO_2, H_2SO_4, CCN, and condensation nuclei (CN) concentrations in remote marine regions of the globe and suggest that indeed DMS plays a major role in the particle dynamics of the MBL. For sufficiently low DMS fluxes practically all the SO_2 produced by DMS photooxidation is predicted to be heterogeneously converted to sulfate in sea-salt aerosol particles. For DMS fluxes higher than approximately 2.5 μmole m^(−2)d^(−1) a linear relationship is found to exist between the CCN number concentration and the DMS flux.

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