The effect of mixing height on maritime aerosol concentrations over the north atlantic ocean

An empirical investigation of the effect of the stability of the atmosphere on near‐surface maritime aerosol concentrations is presented. the data base consists of an extensive series of aerosol experiments conducted on the western coast of the Outer Hebrides. In the absence of any well‐defined capping inversion over the Atlantic, stability is characterized in terms of convective and mechanical mixing heights, derived from radiosonde ascent data and from friction velocity, respectively. After wind‐speed‐production effects have been removed from the data, a simple relationship of the form {article}{empty}{document}concentration\, = \,A\, + \,B/( mixing\, height)\,\,\,(A,B\, constants){document} was found to adequately describe most data subsets. A discussion of the errors involved in such a model is give.