Aerosol decadal trends – Part 2: In-situ aerosol particle number concentrations at GAW and ACTRIS stations

Abstract

We have analysed the trends of total aerosol particle number concentrations (<i>N</i>) measured at long-term measurement stations involved either in the Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) and/or EU infrastructure project ACTRIS. The sites are located in Europe, North America, Antarctica, and on Pacific Ocean islands. The majority of the sites showed clear decreasing trends both in the full-length time series, and in the intra-site comparison period of 2001–2010, especially during the winter months. Several potential driving processes for the observed trends were studied, and even though there are some similarities between <i>N</i> trends and air temperature changes, the most likely cause of many northern hemisphere trends was found to be decreases in the anthropogenic emissions of primary particles, SO₂ or some co-emitted species. We could not find a consistent agreement between the trends of <i>N</i> and particle optical properties in the few stations with long time series of all of these properties. The trends of <i>N</i> and the proxies for cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) were generally consistent in the few European stations where the measurements were available. This work provides a useful comparison analysis for modelling studies of trends in aerosol number concentrations.