Chemical and physical characterisation of low clouds: results from the FEBUKO ground-based cloud experiment

Clouds play an immense role in transport and transformation of atmospheric trace species. In the joint project FEBUKO (Field investigations of budgets and conversions of particle phase organics in tropospheric cloud processes) the microphysics and chemistry of different types of aerosols, the role of aerosol chemical composition for cloud formation as well as the chemical transformation in cloud processes have been investigated by means of ground-based cloud experiments at Mt. Schmücke in the Thuringian Forest (Germany). The groups involved used a wide range of measurements of trace gases, aerosol particles and cloud droplets at three sites to study their sources and sinks, especially those in cloud. Although kind and behaviour of organic substances were of special interest (e.g., organic acids, peroxides, organic carbon, soot) attention was paid to the role of inorganic soluble material being the main part of the cloud condensation nuclei. In this paper we present selected results from the first experiment in autumn 2001.