2026-08-05 バーミンガム大学

View from a ship’s bridge over ice floes
<関連情報>
- https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/2026/melting-sea-ice-combines-with-arctic-ocean-to-make-clouds
- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-026-02062-6
ヨウ素、硫黄、有機前駆物質によって強化される北極の雲凝結核 Arctic cloud condensation nuclei enhanced by iodine, sulfur and organic precursors
Mao Du,James Brean,Douglas R. Worsnop,Congbo Song,Yangmei Zhang,Vipul Lal Chandani,Deepchandra Srivastava,David C. S. Beddows,W. Joe F. Acton,Darrel Baumgardner,Jo Browse,Anna B. Callaghan,Manjula Canagaratna,Yuqing Dai,Pete M. Edwards,Jingkun Jiang,Thomas M. Jordan,James D. Lee,Roberto Sommariva,Harald Stark,Mark D. Tarn,Loren G. Temple,Gavin H. Tilstone,Mingxi Yang,… Zongbo Shi
Nature Geoscience Published:05 August 2026
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-026-02062-6
Abstract
New particle formation is an important source of Arctic atmospheric particles and cloud condensation nuclei, yet their precursor sources and molecular-level mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here we report comprehensive ship-based observations from 19 May to 26 June 2022 from southeastern to western Greenland and into the Davis Strait’s marginal ice zone to investigate sources and processes controlling atmospheric particles and cloud condensation nuclei. Our observations provide field evidence of frequent nucleation events driven by the multicomponent iodine oxoacid and sulfuric acid mechanism recently identified in laboratory studies. Newly formed particles grew rapidly beyond 20 nm on 8 out of 13 nucleation days, mainly driven by oxygenated organic molecules from aldehyde and monoterpene oxidation. We also report a previously unobserved class of iodine-containing oxygenated organic molecules that contributed to particle growth and enhanced cloud condensation nuclei formation. We show that marginal sea ice zone produces precursors that drive rapid new particle formation and enhance cloud condensation nuclei concentrations by up to 50-fold. Our findings demonstrate that Arctic iodine, sulfur and organic precursors can enhance cloud condensation nuclei abundance through new particle formation, highlighting a potential but unquantified pathway for influencing cloud cover, radiative balance and the hydrological cycle.


