Aerosol-cloud interactions exert profound impacts on weather and climate change. Atmospheric aerosols can serve as ice nucleating particles influencing cloud formation and precipitation by participating in the process of heterogeneous nucleation. The ice-nucleating activity (INA) of atmospheric aerosols is rooted in the particles’ physicochemical properties, which are significantly regulated by atmospheric aging processes. With the development of aerosol measurement techniques and models, the connections among the physicochemical properties of atmospheric aerosols, their INA, and the complex and variable atmospheric aging processes are being illustrated by laboratory studies, field observations, and in silico simulations in recent years, exposing a tip of the iceberg of the complicated picture.
Recently, a review article from Professor Pingqing Fu’s group from SESS, titled “Atmospheric aging effects on aerosol ice nucleation”, has been published in the renowned geoscience journal Earth-Science Reviews. The article integrates the newest understandings of the aging effects on the INA of atmospheric aerosols and presents future perspectives on this open question.
Current studies have demonstrated that the aging history of atmospheric aerosols mediates the evolution of the aerosols’ INA, with the direction and intensity of such impacts dependent on factors such as specific aerosol types, surface physicochemical properties, freezing modes, etc. Chemical modification of particle surfaces, contact with aqueous solutions, as well as changes in mixing state and morphology are common aging pathways that impact INA. While, there are particular aging pathways that affect the INA of bioaerosols selectively. The inconsistency of INA between laboratory results and field observations demonstrates the complexity of the real atmosphere and urges for a deeper understanding of ice-nucleating mechanisms.
The article has Ziye Huang, an MS graduate from SESS, as the first author, and Professor Pingqing Fu and Associate Professor Wei Hu as the co-corresponding authors. The work has been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (2130513, 41977183, 41805118).
Article information: Ziye Huang, Wei Hu*, Jie Chen, Jialei Zhu, Zhijun Wu, Yue Zhang, Pingqing Fu*, 2025. Atmospheric aging effects on aerosol ice nucleation. Earth-Science Reviews, 269, 105176. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2025.105176
