Revisiting Contrail Ice Formation: Impact of Primary Soot Particle Sizes and Contribution of Volatile Particles.

ABSTRACT: Aircraft contrails, formed largely on soot particles in current flights, are important for aviation's non-CO₂ climate impact. Here we show that the activation of nonvolatile soot particles during contrail formation is likely determined by the sizes of primary soot particles rather than the effective sizes of soot aggregates as assumed in previous studies, which can explain less-than-unity fractions of soot particles forming contrail ice particles as recently observed during ECLIF (Emission and CLimate Impact of alternative Fuels) campaigns. The smaller soot primary sizes compared to aggregate sizes delay the onset of contrail ice formation, increase the maximum plume supersaturation reached in the contrail plume, and thus increase the probability of small volatile particles cont

SUBMITTER: Yu F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11465739 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature