Marine organics effect on sea-spray light scattering

Primary-produced sea-spray is typically composed of sea-salt, but in biologically-active regions, the spray can become enriched with organic matter which reduces hygroscopicity of sea-spray, thereby having a potential impact on aerosol scattering. This study shows that scattering enhancement of marine aerosol, as a function of increasing relative humidity, is reduced when enriched with organics whose results are used to develop a new hygroscopicity growth-factor parameterization for sea-spray enriched in organic matter. The parameterization reveals a dual state which flips from high-hygroscopicity and high-scattering enhancement to low-hygroscopicity and low-scattering enhancement as the organic volume fraction increases from below ∼ 0.55 to above ∼ 0.55. In terms of organic enrichment, the effect on Top of Atmosphere (TOA) direct radiative forcing (ΔF) is to reduce the cooling contribution of sea-spray by ∼ 5.5 times compared to pure sea-salt spray. The results presented here highlight a significant coupling between the marine biosphere and the direct radiative budget through alteration of sea-spray chemical composition, potentially leading to accelerated global warming should biological activity increase with future projected temperature increases.