Aerosol hygroscopicity over the South-East Atlantic Ocean during the biomass burning season: Part I – From the perspective of scattering enhancement.

Aerosol hygroscopicity plays a vital role in aerosol radiative forcing. One key parameter describing hygroscopicity is the scattering enhancement factor, f (RH), defined as the ratio of the scattering coefficient at humidified relative humidity (RH) to its dry value. Here, we utilize the f (80 %) from ORACLES 2016 and 2018 airborne measurements to investigate the hygroscopicity of aerosols, its vertical distribution, its relationship with chemical composition, and its sensitivity to organic aerosol (OA) hygroscopicity over the South-East Atlantic (SEA) Ocean during the biomass burning (BB) season. We found that aerosol hygroscopicity remains steady above 2 km, with a mean f (80 %) of 1.40±0.17. Below 2 km, aerosol hygroscopicity increases with decreasing altitude, with a mean f (80 %) of 1.51±0.22, consistent with higher values of BB hygroscopicity found in the literature. The hygroscopicity parameter of OA (κ_OA) is retrieved from the Mie model with a mean value of 0.11±0.08, which is in the middle to upper range compared to literature. Higher OA hygroscopicity is related to aerosols that are more aged, oxidized, and present at lower altitudes. The enhanced BBA hygroscopicity at lower altitudes is mainly due to a lower OA fraction, increased sulphate fraction, and greater κ_OA at lower altitudes. We propose a parameterization that quantifies f (RH) with chemical composition and κ_OA based on Mie simulation of internally mixed OA-(NH₄)₂SO₄-BC mixture. The good agreement between the predictions and the ORACLES measurements implies that the aerosols in the SEA during the BB season can be largely represented by the OA-(NH₄)₂SO₄-BC internal mixture with respect to the f (RH) prediction. The sensitivity of f (RH) to κ_OA indicates that applying a constant κ_OA is only suitable when the OA fraction is low and κ_OA shows limited variation. However, in situations deviating these two criteria, κ_OA can notably impact scattering coefficients and aerosol radiative effect; therefore, accounting for κ_OA variability is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]