Influence of sea-salt on aerosol radiative properties in the Southern Ocean marine boundary layer

There has been considerable debate about the relative importance of sea-salt and sulphate from non-sea-salt sources in determining aerosol radiative effects in the marine boundary layer. In the marine boundary layer, the most numerous aerosols are volatile sulphate particles smaller than about 0.08 µm (ref. 1) and most of the aerosol mass is in a few sea-salt particles larger than 1 µm. Yet intermediate-size aerosols between about 0.08 and 1 µm diameter are the most relevant to the radiative forcing of climate because they efficiently scatter solar radiation and also serve as cloud nuclei2. Indeed, Charlson et al.3 hypothesized that oceanic production of sulphate aerosols from the oxidation of dimethyl sulphide could be a powerful feedback in the climate system. It is generally assumed that marine aerosols smaller than about 1 µm are non-sea-salt sulphate, but a recent review cites indirect evidence that many aerosols in the sub-micrometre range contain at least some sea-salt4,5. Here we present direct observational evidence from a remote Southern Ocean region that almost all aerosols larger than 0.13 µm in the marine boundary layer contained sea-salt. These sea-salt aerosols had important radiative effects: they were responsible for the majority of aerosol-scattered light, and comprised a significant fraction of the inferred cloud nuclei.