Soot-PCF: Pore condensation and freezing framework for soot aggregates

Abstract

Atmospheric ice formation in cirrus clouds is often initiated by aerosol particles that act as ice-nucleating particles. The aerosol–cloud interactions of soot and associated feedbacks remain uncertain, in part because a coherent understanding of the ice nucleation mechanism and activity of soot has not yet emerged. Here, we provide a new framework that predicts ice formation on soot particles via pore condensation and freezing (PCF) that, unlike previous approaches, considers soot particle properties, capturing their vastly different pore properties compared to other aerosol species such as mineral dust. During PCF, water is taken up into pores of the soot aggregates by capillary condensation. At cirrus temperatures, the pore water can freeze homogeneously and subsequently grow into a macroscopic ice crystal. In the sootPCF framework presented here, the relative humidity conditions required for these steps are derived for different pore types as a function of temperature.