Some solutions of water-soluble organic compounds form glasses below -43 °C. The upper troposphere, where cirrus clouds form, is this cold; glass formation here could impede the water uptake of aerosol particles, ice nucleation and crystal growth, with implications for cloud formation.
Thomas Koop of Bielefeld University in Germany and his colleagues investigated glass formation in various solutions under realistic atmospheric conditions in the lab. They found that aerosol particles enriched with large organic molecules are most likely to form glasses at low temperatures and high relative humidity. Modelling studies should be used to assess the regional and global impact of atmospheric glass formation, say the authors.
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Atmospheric chemistry: Glasses in the sky. Nature 455, 267 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/455267d
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/455267d
