Characterization of ambient aerosol from measurements of cloud condensation nuclei during the 2003 Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Aerosol Intensive Observational Period at the Southern Great Plains site in Oklahoma

Measurements were made by a new cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) instrument (CCNC3) during the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program's Aerosol Intensive Observational Period (IOP) in May 2003 in Lamont, Oklahoma. An inverse aerosol/CCN closure study is undertaken, in which the predicted number concentration of particles available for activation (N_P) at the CCNC3 operating supersaturations is compared to that observed (N_O). N_P is based on Köhler Theory, with assumed and inferred aerosol composition and mixing state, and the airborne aerosol size distribution measured by the Caltech Dual Automatic Classified Aerosol Detector (DACAD). An initial comparison of N_O and N_P, assuming the ambient aerosol is pure ammonium sulfate ((NH_4)_2SO_4), results in closure ratios (N_P/N_O) ranging from 1.18 to 3.68 over the duration of the IOP, indicating that the aerosol is less hygroscopic than (NH_4)_2SO_4. N_P and N_O are found to agree when the modeled aerosol population has characteristics of an external mixture of particles, in which insoluble material is preferentially distributed among particles with small diameters (