Stratospheric air intrusions promote global-scale new particle formation

New particle formation in the free troposphere is a major source of cloud condensation nuclei globally. The prevailing view is that in the free troposphere, new particles are formed predominantly in convective cloud outflows. We present another mechanism using global observations. We find that during stratospheric air intrusion events, the mixing of descending ozone-rich stratospheric air with more moist free tropospheric background results in elevated hydroxyl radical (OH) concentrations. Such mixing is most prevalent near the tropopause where the sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ) mixing ratios are high. The combination of elevated SO 2 and OH levels leads to enhanced sulfuric acid concentrations, promoting particle formation. Such new particle formation occurs frequently and over large geographic regions, representing an important particle source in the midlatitude free troposphere.

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Author Zhang, J.
GONG, X.
Crosbie, E.
Diskin, G.
Froyd, K.
Hall, Samuel R.
Kupc, A.
Moore, R.
Peischl, J.
Rollins, A.
Schwarz, J.
Shook, M.
Thompson, C.
Ullmann, Kirk
Williamson, C.
Wisthaler, A.
Xu, L.
Ziemba, L.
Brock, C. A.
Wang, J.
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 2024-07-01T00:00:00
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) Not Assigned
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Topic Category geoscientificInformation
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Metadata Date 2025-07-10T20:00:39.863671
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:42432
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Zhang, J., GONG, X., Crosbie, E., Diskin, G., Froyd, K., Hall, Samuel R., Kupc, A., Moore, R., Peischl, J., Rollins, A., Schwarz, J., Shook, M., Thompson, C., Ullmann, Kirk, Williamson, C., Wisthaler, A., Xu, L., Ziemba, L., Brock, C. A., Wang, J.. (2024). Stratospheric air intrusions promote global-scale new particle formation. UCAR/NCAR - Library. https://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7c251qz. Accessed 06 August 2025.

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