Cloud condensation nuclei concentrations measured during the FAIRARI campaign, Po valley, Italy, February – April 2022
Almuth Neuberger, Rahul Ranjan, Ilona Riipinen, Paul Zieger
The data set provides measured concentrations of cloud condensation nuclei at defined supersaturations measured during the Fog and Aerosol InteRAction Research Italy (FAIRARI) campaign 2021/2022 that took place from 8 February to 4 April 2022 at San Pietro Capofiume, northern Italy. Measuring cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) number concentration is needed because it directly gives information on how many cloud droplets form in the atmosphere at a given supersaturation, which in turn directly influences e.g. climate, precipitation, or cloud albedo. Here, observational in-situ data from a CCN counter is given, which provides real-time measurements of the activated aerosol fraction under specific supersaturation levels.
AtmosphereAerosolsAerosolsCloudsFogFAIRARIPo-valleyAerosol-cloud-interactionCCNCCNC
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References
Neuberger A, Decesari S, Aktypis A, Andersen H, Baumgardner D, Bianchi F, Busetto M, Cai J, Cermak J, Dipu S, Ekman A, Fuzzi S, Gramlich Y, Haslett SL, Heikkinen L, Joutsensaari J, Kaltsonoudis C, Kangasluoma J, Krejci R, Lupi A, Marinoni A, Matrali A, Mattsson F, Mohr C, Nenes A, Paglione M, Pandis SN, Patel A, Riipinen I, Rinaldi M, Steimer SS, Stolzenburg D, Sulo J, Vasilakopoulou CN, Zieger P (2025) From Molecules to Droplets: The Fog and Aerosol Interaction Research Italy (FAIRARI) 2021/22 Campaign. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 106:E23–E50. https://doi.org/10.1175/bams-d-23-0166.1
Gysel M, Stratmann F (2024) WP3- NA3: In-situ chemical, physical and optical properties of aerosols Deliverable D3.11: Standardized protocol for CCN measurements https://actris-ecac.eu/ccn-nc.html, last accessed: 2024-12-20
Rose D, Gunthe SS, Mikhailov E, Frank GP, Dusek U, Andreae MO, Pöschl U (2008) Calibration and measurement uncertainties of a continuous-flow cloud condensation nuclei counter (DMT-CCNC): CCN activation of ammonium sulfate and sodium chloride aerosol particles in theory and experiment. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 8:1153–1179. https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-8-1153-2008
Data description
fairari-2021-2022-ccn-concentrations-1.csv
File containing the following variables:
datetimein format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS (UTC)SC1concentration of cloud condensation nuclei (particles/cm³) at 0.1% supersaturationSC2concentration of cloud condensation nuclei (particles/cm³) at 0.2% supersaturationSC3concentration of cloud condensation nuclei (particles/cm³) at 0.3% supersaturationSC4concentration of cloud condensation nuclei (particles/cm³) at 0.5% supersaturationSC5concentration of cloud condensation nuclei (particles/cm³) at 1.0% supersaturation
The flow and supersaturation (SS) of cloud condensation nuclei concentrations (CCNC) were calibrated nine months before the campaign, following the ACTRIS recommendations (Gysel and Stratmann, 2024; Rose et al., 2008) and checked during the campaign. A sampling flow of about 0.515 liters per minute (lpm) was measured, which is within the interval of (0.500±0.025) lpm as recommended by the manufacturer. To ensure that the temperature had stabilised after a change in set SS, the following 4 minutes of data were excluded; after a change from the highest to the lowest SS, an additional 5 minutes were excluded. The median CCN concentration is then reported with the datetime as the midpoint between the start and end time of each full supersaturation cycle.
Comments
FAIRARI campaign
The data was recorded from 8 February, 2022, until 4 April, 2022, at the San Pietro Capofiume, Italy, as part of the FAIRARI 2021/22 campaign (see Neuberger at al. 2025).
San Pietro Capofiume is located 30 km north-east of the city of Bologna, Italy, in a rural area.
Coordinates: 44.65° N, 11.62° E.
Please consult and cite Neuberger et al. (2025) when using the data.
Associated data sets
The current data set is part of a collection of data sets from the fog and aerosol interaction research Italy (FAIRARI) campaign, November 2021 to May 2022.
Project
European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (project FORCeS under grant agreement No 821205); European Research Council (Consolidator grant INTEGRATE No 865799); Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (grant numbers 2021.0169 and 2021.0298).
Publisher
Bolin Centre Database
License
Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-By) v1.0
First name
Paul
Last name or organisation
Zieger
Email address
Address
Department of Environmental Science; Stockholm University
Postal code
SE-106 91
City
Stockholm
Province or state
Stockholm
Country
Sweden
GCMD science keyword
Earth science
GCMD location
Continent > Europe > Southern Europe > Italy
Dataset language
English
Begin date
2022-02-16
End date
2022-04-04