1. ABOUT THE DATASET -------------------- Title: Dataset for 'Atmospheric ice-nucleating particles in the eastern Mediterranean' Creator(s): Mark D. Tarn[1], Bethany V. Wyld[1], Naama Reicher[2], Matan Alayof[2], Daniella Gat[2], Alberto Sanchez-Marroquin[1], Sebastien N. F. Sikora[1], Alexander D. Harrison[1], Yinon Rudich[2], and Benjamin J. Murray[1] Organisation(s): 1. University of Leeds. 2. Weizmann Institute of Science. Rights-holder(s): Copyright 2024 University of Leeds Publication Year: 2024 Description: While the atmosphere in the eastern Mediterranean is part of the dust belt, it encounters air masses from Europe, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Sahara and Arabian Desert that bring with them a whole host of potential dust and bioaerosol compositions and concentrations via long-range transport. The consequential changes in the populations of ice-nucleating particles (INPs), aerosols that influence weather and climate by the triggering of freezing in supercooled cloud water droplets, including in the convective cloud systems in the region, are not so well understood beyond the influence of desert dust storms in increasing INP concentrations. Here, we undertook an intensive INP measurement campaign in Israel to monitor changes in concentrations and activity from four major air masses, including the potential for activity from biological INPs. Our findings show that the INP activity in the region is likely dominated by the K-feldspar mineral content, with southwesterly air masses from the Sahara and easterly air masses from the Arabian Desert markedly increasing both aerosol and INP concentrations. Most intriguingly, a handful of air masses that passed over the Nile Delta and the northern Fertile Crescent, regions containing fertile agricultural soils and wetlands, brought high INP concentrations with strong indicators of biological activity. These results suggest that the Fertile Crescent could be a sporadic source of high-temperature biological ice-nucleating activity across the region that could periodically dominate the otherwise K-feldspar-controlled INP environment. We propose that these findings warrant further exploration in future studies in the region, which may be particularly pertinent given the ongoing desertification of the Fertile Crescent that could reveal further sources of dust and fertile soil-based INPs in the eastern Mediterranean region. The Dataset contains ice-nucleating particle concentrations and activities measured throughout the two-week campaign, alongside aerosol particle concentrations, and bacterial and fungal aerosol concentrations. Cite as: Tarn, M. D., Wyld, B. V., Reicher, N., Alayof, M., Gat, D., Sanchez-Marroquin, A., Sikora, S. N. F., Harrison, A. D., Rudich, Y., and Murray, B. J. (2024) Dataset for 'Atmospheric ice-nucleating particles in the eastern Mediterranean'. University of Leeds. [Dataset]. https://doi.org/10.5518/1487. Related publication: Mark D. Tarn, Bethany V. Wyld, Naama Reicher, Matan Alayof, Daniella Gat, Alberto Sanchez-Marroquin, Sebastien N. F. Sikora, Alexander D. Harrison, Yinon Rudich, and Benjamin J. Murray, Atmospheric ice-nucleating particles in the Eastern Mediterranean and the contribution of mineral and biological aerosol, Aerosol Research, 2024, Accepted. Contact: Mark D. Tarn: m.d.tarn@leeds.ac.uk; Benjamin J. Murray: b.j.murray@leeds.ac.uk 2. TERMS OF USE --------------- Copyright 2024 University of Leeds. This dataset is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. 3. PROJECT AND FUNDING INFORMATION ---------------------------------- Title: Analysis Of Ice Nucleating Particles And Their Biological Content In The Eastern Mediterranean Using Microfluidic Devices Dates: 2017-2018 Funding organisations: Weizmann UK; European Research Council (ERC); Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Grant no.: Weizmann UK: Weizmann-UK Making Connections; ERC: 648661 MarineIce; EPSRC: EP/R513258/1. 4. CONTENTS ----------- File listing The following Datasets are for data illustrated in figures in the related publication and its Supplement (SI): Dataset_for_Fig_1.csv Background-corrected ice-nucleating particle concentrations Dataset_for_Fig_2f.csv Aerosol particle concentrations measured using an OPC Dataset_for_Fig_2g.csv Particle mass concentrations measured using an OPC Dataset_for_Fig_2h.csv Particle size distributions measured using an OPC Dataset_for_Fig_2i.csv Time series of ice-nucleating particle concentrations Dataset_for_Fig_4.csv Droplet freezing temperatures for heated and non-heated 3 hour filter samples Dataset_for_Fig_5a.csv Bacterial aerosol concentrations Dataset_for_Fig_5b.csv Fungal aerosol concentrations Dataset_for_Fig_6.csv Ice-active surface site densities of aerosol samples Dataset_for_SI_Fig_S1.csv Fraction frozen data for purified water blanks Dataset_for_SI_Fig_S2.csv Fraction frozen data for handling blanks Dataset_for_SI_Fig_S3.csv Fraction frozen data for heated water blanks Dataset_for_SI_Fig_S4.csv Fraction frozen data for 3 hour filter samples Dataset_for_SI_Fig_S5.csv Fraction frozen data for 24 hour filter samples Dataset_for_SI_Fig_S6.csv Fraction frozen data for 20-60 min impinger samples Dataset_for_SI_Fig_S7a.csv Fraction frozen data for heated and non-heated 3 hour filter samples Dataset_for_SI_Fig_S7b.csv Fraction frozen data for heated and non-heated 24 hour filter samples Dataset_for_SI_Fig_S7c.csv Fraction frozen data for heated and non-heated 20-60 min impinger samples Dataset_for_SI_Fig_S8.csv Differential freezing nucleus spectra for purified water blanks Dataset_for_SI_Fig_S9a.csv Differential freezing nucleus spectra for 3 hour filter data and early blanks Dataset_for_SI_Fig_S9b.csv Differential freezing nucleus spectra for 3 hour filter data and later blanks Dataset_for_SI_Fig_S9c.csv Differential freezing nucleus spectra for 24 hour filter data and early blanks Dataset_for_SI_Fig_S9d.csv Differential freezing nucleus spectra for 24 hour filter data and later blanks Dataset_for_SI_Fig_S9e.csv Differential freezing nucleus spectra for 20-60 min filter data and early blanks Dataset_for_SI_Fig_S10a.csv Background-corrected cumulative number of ice nucleation sites per unit volume for samples related to early blanks Dataset_for_SI_Fig_S10b.csv Background-corrected cumulative number of ice nucleation sites per unit volume for samples related to later blanks Dataset_for_SI_Fig_S11a.csv Background-corrected ice-nucleating particle concentrations for samples related to early blanks Dataset_for_SI_Fig_S11b.csv Background-corrected ice-nucleating particle concentrations for samples related to later blanks Dataset_for_SI_Fig_S12.csv Background-corrected ice-nucleating particle concentrations for 24 hour filter samples Dataset_for_SI_Fig_S13.csv Background-corrected ice-nucleating particle concentrations for 20-60 min impinger samples Dataset_for_SI_Fig_S14.csv Particle concentration time series from OPC Dataset_for_SI_Fig_S15.csv Particle concentration time series from SMPS Dataset_for_SI_Fig_S16a.csv Particle size distributions Dataset_for_SI_Fig_S16b.csv Particle surface area size distributions Dataset_for_SI_Fig_S18.csv Background-corrected ice-nucleating particle concentrations for '181029 afternoon' samples Dataset_for_SI_Fig_S19.csv Droplet freezing temperatures for heated and non-heated 24 hour filter samples Dataset_for_SI_Fig_S20.csv Droplet freezing temperatures for heated and non-heated 20-60 min impinger samples Abbreviations used in the Dataset: dme Mobility equivalent particle diameter (nm) dN Particle concentration (cm^-3) Dp Particle diameter (µm) dS Particle surface area concentration (µm^2 cm^-3) E Easterly air mass ED Easterly air mass with dust event GCN Gene copy number (L^-1 of air) INP Ice-nucleating particle ITS Internal transcribed spacer k(T) Differential freezing nucleus spectrum (mL^-1 °C^-1) K(T) Cumulative number of ice nucleation sites per unit volume (mL^-1) µL-NIPI Microlitre Nucleation by Immersed Particle Instrument N Ice-nucleating particle concentration (L^-1) ns(T) Ice-active surface site density (cm^-2) NW Northwesterly air mass OPC Optical particle counter PM1 Particulate matter equal to or smaller than 1 µm PM10 Particulate matter equal to or smaller than 10 µm SMPS Scanning mobility particle sizer SWD Southwesterly air mass with dust event T Temperature (°C) 5. METHODS ---------- The methods for the collection and processing of the dataset are described in the related publication: Mark D. Tarn, Bethany V. Wyld, Naama Reicher, Matan Alayof, Daniella Gat, Alberto Sanchez-Marroquin, Sebastien N. F. Sikora, Alexander D. Harrison, Yinon Rudich, and Benjamin J. Murray, Atmospheric ice-nucleating particles in the Eastern Mediterranean and the contribution of mineral and biological aerosol, Aerosol Research, 2024, Accepted.