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Aerosol formation

Atmospheric particles from organic vapours

Abstract

Aerosol particles produced over forested areas may affect climate by acting as nuclei for cloud condensation, but their composition (and hence the chemical species that drive their production) remains an open question. Here we show, to our knowledge for the first time, that these newly formed particles (3–5 nm in diameter) are composed primarily of organic species, such as cis-pinonic acid and pinic acid, produced by oxidation of terpenes in organic vapours released from the canopy1,2,3,4.

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Figure 1: Size distribution of particles and their detection by a PHA (pulse-height analyser) condensation-particle counter.

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Correspondence to Colin D. O'Dowd.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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O'Dowd, C., Aalto, P., Hmeri, K. et al. Atmospheric particles from organic vapours. Nature 416, 497–498 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/416497a

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