Ice Nucleating Particle Measurements at 241 K during Winter Months at 3580 m MSL in the Swiss Alps

AbstractIce nucleating particle (INP) concentrations were measured at the High Altitude Research Station Jungfraujoch, Switzerland, 3580 m above mean sea level during the winter months of 2012, 2013, and 2014 with the Portable Ice Nucleation Chamber (PINC). During the measurement periods, the research station was mostly located in the free troposphere, and particle concentrations were low. At temperature T = 241 K, INP concentrations in the deposition regime [relative humidity with respect to water (RHw) = 93%] were, on average, below 1.09 per standard liter of air (stdL−1; normalized to 1013 hPa and 273 K) and 4.7 ± 8.3 stdL−1 in the condensation regime (RHw = 103%) in winter 2014. The deployment of a particle concentrator upstream of PINC decreased the limit of detection (LOD) by a factor of 3 compared to earlier measurements. The authors discuss a potential bias of INP measurements toward higher concentrations if data below the LOD are disregarded and thus recommend reporting subLOD data in future publ...