The importance of regional INP parametrizations focusing on the local aerosol sources

Although the presence of ice in clouds is of high importance for the Earth’s radiative balance, the hydrological cycle, and the atmospheric electrification, there are many uncertainties related the spatial and temporal distribution of ice nucleating particles (INPs). In the past decades, several maritime and continental field campaigns have provided important in-situ data to improve our understating related to the global spatial distribution of INPs. This information has been very useful to develop new “global” INP parametrizations (e.g., DeMott et al. 2010, 2015) currently used in global climate models. However, there is an urgent need to develop regional parametrizations based on local measurements as the global parametrizations may not fully represent the regional aerosol physicochemical characteristics and their sources, especially in tropical latitudes where the available INP measurements is limited.