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Sunlight can convert atmospheric aerosols into a glassy solid state and modify their environmental impacts

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Significance Secondary organic aerosol is well known to affect Earth's climate, regional weather, visibility, and public health. Once these aerosols are formed, they are transported throughout the atmosphere for days… Click to show full abstract

Significance Secondary organic aerosol is well known to affect Earth's climate, regional weather, visibility, and public health. Once these aerosols are formed, they are transported throughout the atmosphere for days or even weeks. We show that exposure of secondary organic aerosols to UV solar radiation leads to a surprising and remarkable increase in viscosity by as much as five orders of magnitude. We also show that this UV exposure can lead to an increased abundance of aerosols that are in the glassy solid state in the troposphere, with important implications for climate predictions. Overall, our results clearly demonstrate that aging by exposure to solar radiation needs to be considered when predicting the environmental impacts of secondary organic aerosols.

Keywords: environmental impacts; glassy solid; aerosols glassy; solid state; secondary organic

Journal Title: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Year Published: 2022

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