ALBERT

Description: Widespread silicic pyroclastic eruptions of the Oligocene Afro-Arabian flood volcanic province (ignimbrites and airfall tuffs) produced up to 20% of the total flood volcanic stratigraphy (〉6*10**4 km**3). Volumes of individual ignimbrites and tuffs exposed on land range from ~150 to 〉2000 km**3 and eight major units (15-100 m thick) were erupted in 〈2 Myr, placing these amongst the largest-magnitude silicic pyroclastic eruptions on Earth. They are compositionally distinctive time-stratigraphic markers which were deposited as co-ignimbrite ashfall deposits on a near-global scale around the time of the Oi2 cooling anomaly at ~30 Ma. Two ignimbrites from the lower part of the flood volcanic succession in Yemen have been correlated to: (a) the conjugate rifted margin of Ethiopia (〉500 km distant); and (b) to two deep sea ash layers sampled by ODP Leg 115 in the Indian Ocean ~2700 km to the southeast. This correlation is based on whole rock analyses of silicic units for isotope ratios (Pb, Nd) and rare earth element compositions, in conjunction with novel in situ Pb isotope laser ablation multicollector inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy analysis of groundmass and glass shards. Compositional diversity preserved on the scale of individual ash shards in these deep sea tephra layers record chemical heterogeneity present in the silicic magma chambers that is not evident in the welded on-land deposits. Ages of the ash layers can be established by correlation to precisely dated on-land ignimbrites, and current evidence suggests that while these eruptions may have exacerbated already changing climatic conditions, they both marginally post-date the Oi2 global cooling anomaly.

Description: We investigate theoretical, laboratory, and atmospheric evidence for a recently proposed hypothesis: homogeneous ice nucleation initiates at the surface, not in the volume, of supercooled water drops. Using existing thermodynamic arguments, laboratory experiments, and atmospheric data, we conclude that ice embryo formation at the surface cannot be confirmed or disregarded. Ice nucleation rates measured as a function of drop size in an air ambient could help distinguish between volume and surface nucleation rates.

Description: We revisit a model of feedback processes proposed by Lindzen et al. (2001), in which an assumed 22% reduction in the area of tropical high clouds per degree increase in sea surface temperature produces negative feedbacks associated with upper tropospheric water vapor and cloud radiative effects. We argue that the water vapor feedback is overestimated in Lindzen et al. (2001) by at least 60%, and that the high cloud feedback is small. Although not mentioned by Lindzen et al. (2001), tropical low clouds make a significant contribution to their negative feedback, which is also overestimated. Using more realistic parameters in the model of Lindzen et al. (2001), we obtain a feedback factor in the range of -0.15 to -0.51, compared to their larger negative feedback factor of -0.45 to -1.03. It is noted that our feedback factor could still be overestimated due to the assumption of constant low cloud cover in the simple radiative-convective model.

Description: The build-up of intrinsic Bjerrum and ionic defects at ice-vapor interfaces electrically charges ice surfaces and thus gives rise to many phenomena including thermoelectricity, ferroelectric ice films, sparks from objects in blizzards, electromagnetic emissions accompanying cracking in avalanches, glaciers, and sea ice, and charge transfer during ice-ice collisions in thunderstorms. Fletcher's theory of the ice surface in equilibrium proposed that the Bjerrum defects have a higher rate of creation at the surface than in the bulk, which produces a high concentration of surface D defects that then attract a high concentration of OH- ions at the surface. Here, we add to this theory the effect of a moving interface caused by growth or sublimation. This effect can increase the amount of ionic surface charges more than 10-fold for growth rates near 1 mm s-1 and can extend the spatial separation of interior charges in qualitative agreement with many observations. In addition, ice-ice collisions should generate sufficient pressure to melt ice at the contact region and we argue that the ice particle with the initially sharper point at contact loses more mass of melt than the other particle. A simple analytic model of this process with parameters that are consistent with observations leads to predicted collisional charge exchange that semiquantitatively explains the negative charging region of thunderstorms. The model also has implications for snowflake formation, ferroelectric ice, polarization of ice in snowpacks, and chemical reactions in ice surfaces

Description: The time resolved chemical composition of aerosol particles, formed by the oxidation of alpha-pinene has been investigated by liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC-MS) using negative and positive ionisation methods (ESI(-) and APCI(+)). The experiments were performed at the EUPHORE facility in Valencia (Spain) under various experimental conditions, including dark ozone reactions, photosmog experiments with low NOx mixing ratios and reaction with OH radicals in the absence of NOx (H2O2-photolysis). Particles were sampled on PTFE filters at different stages of the reaction and extracted with methanol. The predominant products from alpha-pinene in the particulate phase are cis-pinic acid, cis-pinonic acid and hydroxy-pinonic acid isomers. Another major compound with molecular weight 172 was detected, possibly a hydroxy-carboxylic acid. These major compounds account for 50% to 80% of the identified aerosol products, depending on the time of sampling and type of experiment. In addition, more than 20 different products have been detected and structures have been tentatively assigned based on their molecular weight and responses to the different ionisation modes. The different experiments performed showed that the aerosol formation is mainly caused by the ozonolysis reaction. The highest aerosol yields were observed in the dark ozone experiments, for which also the highest ratios of mass of identified products to the formed aerosol mass were found (30% to 50%, assuming a density of 1 g cm-3).

Description: We investigate theoretical, laboratory, and atmospheric evidence for a recently proposed hypothesis: homogenous ice nucleation occurs at the surface, not in the volume, of supercooled water drops. Using existing thermodynamic arguments, laboratory experiments, and atmospheric data, we conclude that ice embryo formation at the surface cannot be confirmed or disregarded. Ice nucleation rates measured as a function of drop size in an air ambient could help distinguish between volume and surface nucleation rates.