New in-situ aircraft measurements of Saharan dust originating from Mali, Mauritania and Algeria taken during the Fennec 2011 aircraft campaign over a remote part of the Sahara Desert are presented. Size distributions extending to 300 μm are shown, representing measurements extending further into the coarse mode than previously published for airborne Saharan dust. A significant coarse mode was present in the size distribution measurements with effective diameter (deff) from 2.3 to 19.4 μm and coarse mode volume median diameter (dvc) from 5.8 to 45.3 μm. The mean size distribution had a larger relative proportion of coarse mode particles than previous aircraft measurements. The largest particles (with deff > 12 μm, or dvc > 25 μm) were only encountered within 1 km of the ground. Number concentration, mass loading and extinction coefficient showed inverse relationships to dust age since uplift. Dust particle size showed a weak exponential relationship to dust age. Two cases of freshly uplifted dust showed quite different characteristics of size distribution and number concentration. Single Scattering Albed (SSA) values at 550 nm calculated from the measured size distributions revealed high absorption ranging from 0.70 to 0.97 depending on the refractive index. SSA was found to be strongly related to deff. New instrumentation revealed that direct measurements, behind Rosemount inlets, overestimate SSA by up to 0.11 when deff is greater than 2 μm. This is caused by aircraft inlet inefficiencies and sampling losses. Previous measurements of SSA from aircraft measurements may also have been overestimates for this reason. Radiative transfer calculations indicate that the range of SSAs during Fennec 2011 can lead to underestimates in shortwave atmospheric heating rates by 2.0 to 3.0 times if the coarse mode is neglected. This will have an impact on Saharan atmospheric dynamics and circulation, which should be taken into account by numerical weather prediction and climate models.

Mineral dust is an important component of the climate system, affecting the radiation balance, cloud properties, biogeochemical cycles, regional circulation and precipitation, as well as having negative effects on aviation, solar energy generation and human health. Dust size and composition has an impact on all these processes. However, changes in dust size distribution and composition during transport, particularly for coarse particles, are poorly understood and poorly represented in climate models. Here we present new in situ airborne observations of dust in the Saharan Air Layer (SAL) and the marine boundary layer (MBL) at the beginning of its transatlantic transport pathway, from the AERosol Properties – Dust (AER-D) fieldwork in August 2015, within the peak season of North African dust export. This study focuses on coarse-mode dust properties, including size distribution, mass loading, shape, composition, refractive indices and optical properties. Size distributions from 0.1 to 100 µm diameter (d) are presented, fully incorporating the coarse and giant modes of dust. Within the MBL, mean effective diameter (d_eff) and volume median diameter (VMD) were 4.6 and 6.0 µm respectively, giant particles with a mode at 20–30 µm were observed, and composition was dominated by quartz and alumino-silicates at d > 1 µm. Within the SAL, particles larger than 20 µm diameter were always present up to 5 km altitude, in concentrations over 10⁻⁵ cm⁻³, constituting up to 40 % of total dust mass. Mean d_eff and VMD were 4.0 and 5.5 µm respectively. Larger particles were detected in the SAL than can be explained by sedimentation theory alone. Coarse-mode composition was dominated by quartz and alumino-silicates; the accumulation mode showed a strong contribution from sulfate-rich and sea salt particles. In the SAL, measured single scattering albedos (SSAs) at 550 nm representing d < 2.5 µm were 0.93 to 0.98 (mean 0.97). Optical properties calculated for the full size distribution (0.1 < d < 100 µm) resulted in lower SSAs of 0.91–0.98 (mean 0.95) and mass extinction coefficients of 0.27–0.35 m² g⁻¹ (mean 0.32 m² g⁻¹). Variability in SSA was mainly controlled by variability in dust composition (principally iron) rather than by variations in the size distribution, in contrast with previous observations over the Sahara where size is the dominant influence. It is important that models are able to capture the variability and evolution of both dust composition and size distribution with transport in order to accurately represent the impacts of dust on climate. These results provide a new SAL dust dataset, fully representing coarse and giant particles, to aid model validation and development.

Optical particle counters (OPCs) are used regularly for atmospheric research, measuring particle scattering cross sections to generate particle size distribution histograms. This manuscript presents two methods for calibrating OPCs with case studies based on a Passive Cavity Aerosol Spectrometer Probe (PCASP) and a Cloud Droplet Probe (CDP), both of which are operated on the Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements BAe-146 research aircraft. A probability density function based method is provided for modification of the OPC bin boundaries when the scattering properties of measured particles are different to those of the calibration particles due to differences in refractive index or shape. This method provides mean diameters and widths for OPC bins based upon Mie-Lorenz theory or any other particle scattering theory, without the need for smoothing, despite the highly nonlinear and non-monotonic relationship between particle size and scattering cross section. By calibrating an OPC in terms of its scattering cross section the optical properties correction can be applied with minimal information loss, and performing correction in this manner provides traceable and transparent uncertainty propagation throughout the whole process. Analysis of multiple calibrations has shown that for the PCASP the bin centres differ by up to 30% from the manufacturer's nominal values and can change by up to approximately 20% when routine maintenance is performed. The CDP has been found to be less sensitive than the manufacturer's specification with differences in sizing of between 1.6 ± 0.8 μm and 4.7 ± 1.8 μm for one flight. Over the course of the Fennec project in the Sahara the variability of calibration was less than the calibration uncertainty in 6 out of 7 calibrations performed. As would be expected from Mie-Lorenz theory, the impact of the refractive index corrections has been found to be largest for absorbing materials and the impact on Saharan dust measurements made as part of the Fennec project has been found to be up to a factor of 3 for the largest particles measured by CDP with diameters of approximately 120 μm. In an example case, using the calibration and refractive index corrections presented in this work allowed Saharan dust measurement from the PCASP, CDP and a Cloud Imaging Probe to agree within the uncertainty of the calibration. The agreement when using only the manufacturer's specification was poor. Software tools have been developed to perform these calibrations and corrections and are now available as open source resources for the community via the SourceForge repository.

During April–May 2010 the UK Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements (FAAM) BAe‐146 aircraft flew 12 flights targeting volcanic ash clouds around the UK. The aircraft observed ash layers between altitudes of 2–8 km with peak mass concentrations typically between 200–2000μg/m³, as estimated from a Cloud and Aerosol Spectrometer (CAS). A peak value of 2000–5000 μg/m³ was observed over Scotland on 14 May 2010, although with considerable uncertainty due to the possible contamination by ice. Aerosol size distributions within ash clouds showed a fine mode (0.1–0.6 μm) associated with sulphuric acid and/or sulphate, and a coarse mode (0.6–35 μm) associated with ash. The ash mass was dominated by particles in the size range 1–10 μm (volume‐equivalent diameter), with a peak typically around 3–5μm. Electron‐microscope images and scattering patterns from the SID‐2H (Small Ice Detector) probe showed the highly irregular shape of the ash particles. Ash clouds were also accompanied by elevated levels of SO₂ (10–100 ppbv), strong aerosol scattering (50–500 × 10⁻⁶ m⁻¹), and low Ångstrom exponents (−0.5 to 0.4) from the 3‐wavelength nephelometer. Coarse‐mode mass specific aerosol extinction coefficients (k_ext), based on the CAS size distribution varied from 0.45–1.06 m²/g. A representative value of 0.6 m²/g is suggested for distal ash clouds (∼1000 km downwind) from this eruption.

Desert dust is one of the most important atmospheric ice‐nucleating aerosol species around the globe. However, there have been very few measurements of ice‐nucleating particle (INP) concentrations in dusty air close to desert sources. In this study we report the concentration of INPs in dust laden air over the tropical Atlantic within a few days' transport of one of the world's most important atmospheric sources of desert dust, the Sahara. These measurements were performed as part of the Ice in Clouds Experiment‐Dust campaign based in Cape Verde, during August 2015. INP concentrations active in the immersion mode, determined using a droplet‐on‐filter technique, ranged from around 10² m⁻³ at −12°C to around 10⁵ m⁻³ at −23°C. There is about 2 orders of magnitude variability in INP concentration for a particular temperature, which is determined largely by the variability in atmospheric dust loading. These measurements were made at altitudes from 30 to 3,500 m in air containing a range of dust loadings. The ice active site density (n_s) for desert dust dominated aerosol derived from our measurements agrees with several laboratory‐based parameterizations for ice nucleation by desert dust within 1 to 2 orders of magnitude. The small variability in n_s values determined from our measurements (within about 1 order of magnitude) is striking given that the back trajectory analysis suggests that the sources of dust were geographically diverse. This is consistent with previous work, which indicates that desert dust's ice‐nucleating activity is only weakly dependent on source.