Browsing by Author "Besel, Vitus"

We investigated the impact of various parameters on new particle formation rates predicted for the sulfuric acid - ammonia system using cluster distribution dynamics simulations, in our case ACDC (Atmospheric Cluster Dynamics Code). The predicted particle formation rates increase significantly if rotational symmetry number of monomers (sulfuric acid and ammonia molecules, and bisulfate and ammonium ions) are considered in the simulation. On the other hand, inclusion of the rotational symmetry number of the clusters only changes the results slightly, and only in conditions where charged clusters dominate the particle formation rate because most of the clusters stable enough to participate in new particle formation display no symmetry, therefore have a rotational symmetry number of one, and the few exceptions to this rule are positively charged. Further, we tested the influence of the application of a quasi-harmonic correction for low-frequency vibrational modes. Generally, this decreases predicted new particle formation rates, and significantly alters the shape of the formation rate curve plotted against the sulfuric acid concentration. We found that the impact of the maximum size of the clusters explicitly included in the simulations depends on the simulated conditions and the errors due to the limited set of clusters simulated generally increase with temperature, and decrease with vapor concentrations. The boundary conditions for clusters that are counted as formed particles (outgrowing clusters) have only a small influence on the results, provided that the definition is chemically reasonable and the set of simulated clusters is sufficiently large. We compared predicted particle formation rates with experimental data measured at the CLOUD (Cosmics Leaving OUtdoor Droplets) chamber. A cluster distribution dynamics model shows improved agreement with experiments when using our new input data and the proposed combination of symmetry and quasi-harmonic corrections., compared to an earlier study based on older quantum chemical data.