Journal articles
Ubiquitous atmospheric production of organic acids mediated by cloud droplets
B. Franco
1, 2, *
T. Blumenstock
3
C. Cho
1
Lieven Clarisse
2
Cathy Clerbaux
2, 4
Pierre-François Coheur
2
M. de Mazière
5
I. de Smedt
5
H.-P. Dorn
1
T. Emmerichs
1
H. Fuchs
1
G. Gkatzelis
1
D. Griffith
6
S. Gromov
7, 8
J. Hannigan
9
F. Hase
3
T. Hohaus
1
N. Jones
6
A. Kerkweg
1
A. Kiendler-Scharr
1
E. Lutsch
10
E. Mahieu
11
A. Novelli
1
I. Ortega
9
C. Paton-Walsh
6
Matthieu Pommier
4, 12
A. Pozzer
7
D. Reimer
1
S. Rosanka
1
R. Sander
7
M. Schneider
3
K. Strong
10
R. Tillmann
1
M. van Roozendaël
5
L. Vereecken
1
C. Vigouroux
5
A. Wahner
1
D. Taraborrelli
1, *
*
Corresponding author
B. Franco 1, 2
Correspondent author
T. Blumenstock 3
Author
C. Cho 1
Author
Lieven Clarisse 2
Author
Cathy Clerbaux 2, 4
Author IdHAL : cathy-clerbaux ORCID : https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0394-7200
Pierre-François Coheur 2
Author
M. de Mazière 5
Author
I. de Smedt 5
Author
A. Wahner 1
Author
D. Taraborrelli 1
Correspondent author
1
IEK-8 - Institut für Energie- und Klimaforschung - Troposphäre (52425 Jülich - Germany)
- Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH | Centre de recherche de Juliers (Wilhelm-Johnen-Straße, 52428 Jülich - Germany)
- Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft = Helmholtz Association (Anna-Louisa-Karsch-Straße 2, 10178 Berlin - Germany)
2
SQUARES - Spectroscopy, Quantum Chemistry and Atmospheric Remote Sensing (50 avenue F. D. Roosevelt, B-1050 Brussels - Belgium)
- ULB - Université libre de Bruxelles (Avenue Franklin Roosevelt 50 - 1050 Bruxelles - Belgium)
3
Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research (Germany)
- KIT - Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Campus North, Hermann-von-Helmholtz-Platz 1, 76344 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen / Campus South, Kaiserstraße 12, 76131 Karlsruhe - Germany)
4
TROPO - LATMOS (France)
- LATMOS - Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales (11 boulevard d'Alembert
Quartier des Garennes
78280 - Guyancourt - France)
- SU - Sorbonne Université : UMR8190 (21 rue de l’École de médecine - 75006 Paris - France)
- UVSQ - Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines : UMR8190 (55 avenue de Paris - 78035 Versailles cedex - France)
- CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique : UMR8190 (France)
- INSU - CNRS - Institut national des sciences de l'Univers : UMR8190 (INSU-CNRS 3 rue Michel-Ange, 75794 Paris Cedex 16 - France)
5
BIRA-IASB - Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy / Institut d'Aéronomie Spatiale de Belgique (Ringlaan-3-Avenue Circulaire B-1180 Brussels - Belgium)
6
CAC - Centre for Atmospheric Chemistry [Wollongong] (School of Earth Atmospheric and Life Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong NSW 2522 - Australia)
- University of Wollongong [Australia] (Northfields Ave, Wollongong NSW 2522, Australie - Australia)
7
MPIC - Max-Planck-Institut für Chemie (Hahn-Meitner-Weg 1, 55128 Mainz - Germany)
- Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (Jägerstrasse, 10-11, D-10117 Berlin - Germany)
8
IGCE - Yu. A. Izrael Institute of Global Climate and Ecology (Moscow 107258 - Russia)
- RAS - the Russian Academy of Sciences [Moscow, Russia] (Leninsky prospekt 14, Moscow - Russia)
9
NCAR - National Center for Atmospheric Research [Boulder] (3090 Center Green Drive, Boulder, CO 80301 - United States)
10
Department of Physics [Toronto] ( 60 St. George St., Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1A7 - Canada)
- University of Toronto (27 King's College Circle, Toronto M5S 1A1 - Canada)
11
Institut d'Astrophysique et de Géophysique [Liège] (17 Allée du 6 Août, B-4000 Liège - Belgium)
- Université de Liège (Place du 20-Août, 7 4000 Liège - Belgium)
12
Ricardo Energy and Environment (Didcot OX11 0QR - United Kingdom)
Abstract : Atmospheric acidity is increasingly determined by carbon dioxide and organic acids1–3. Among the latter, formic acid facilitates the nucleation of cloud droplets4 and contributes to the acidity of clouds and rainwater1,5. At present, chemistry–climate models greatly underestimate the atmospheric burden of formic acid, because key processes related to its sources and sinks remain poorly understood2,6–9. Here we present atmospheric chamber experiments that show that formaldehyde is e ciently converted to gaseous formic acid via a multiphase pathway that involves its hydrated form, methanediol. In warm cloud droplets, methanediol undergoes fast outgassing but slow dehydration. Using a chemistry–climate model, we estimate that the gas-phase oxidation of methanediol produces up to four times more formic acid than all other known chemical sources combined. Our ndings reconcile model predictions and measurements of formic acid abundance. The additional formic acid burden increases atmospheric acidity by reducing the pH of clouds and rainwater by up to 0.3. The diol mechanism presented here probably applies to other aldehydes and may help to explain the high atmospheric levels of other organic acids that a ect aerosol growth and cloud evolution.
Document type :
Journal articles
Complete list of metadata
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-03354820
Contributor : Catherine Cardon Connect in order to contact the contributor
Submitted on : Sunday, September 26, 2021 - 5:12:24 PM
Last modification on : Friday, May 6, 2022 - 2:54:41 PM
Contributor : Catherine Cardon Connect in order to contact the contributor
Submitted on : Sunday, September 26, 2021 - 5:12:24 PM
Last modification on : Friday, May 6, 2022 - 2:54:41 PM
File
s41586-021-03462-x.pdf
Publisher files allowed on an open archive
Licence
Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Identifiers
- HAL Id : insu-03354820, version 1
- DOI : 10.1038/s41586-021-03462-x
Collections
Citation
B. Franco, T. Blumenstock, C. Cho, Lieven Clarisse, Cathy Clerbaux, et al.. Ubiquitous atmospheric production of organic acids mediated by cloud droplets. Nature, Nature Publishing Group, 2021, 593, pp.233 - 237. ⟨10.1038/s41586-021-03462-x⟩. ⟨insu-03354820⟩
Metrics
Record views
71
Files downloads