Hygroscopic properties and extinction of aerosol particles at ambient relative humidity in South-Eastern China

During the “Program of Regional Integrated Experiments of Air Quality over Pearl River Delta 2004 (PRIDE-PRD2004)” hygroscopic properties of particles in the diameter range 22 nm to 10μm were determined. For that purpose, a Humidifying Differential Mobility Particle Sizer (H-DMPS) and a Micro-Orifice Uniform Deposition Impactor (MOUDI) were operated. The derived size-dependent particle hygroscopic growth factors were interpolated to ambient relative humidity (RH) and used to calculate the particle number size distributions (PNSDs) at ambient conditions. A comparison between the modeled particle extinction coefficients (σext,Mie)(σext,Mie) and those observed with a Raman lidar was made. It is shown that the particle extinction coefficient (σextσext) at ambient RH can be properly estimated with Mie-model calculations based on the in situ physico-chemical measurements of dry and humidified PNSD and chemical composition.