Aerosol Research
Aerosol Research
Aerosol Research
Articles | Volume 3, issue 1
Articles | Volume 3, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/ar-3-231-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/ar-3-231-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Articles | Volume 3, issue 1
Opinion
 | 
05 May 2025
Opinion |  | 05 May 2025

Opinion: Influence of the mean free path of air on atmospheric particle growth

Runlong Cai and Markku Kulmala

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Latest update: 31 Aug 2026
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Short summary
The concept of the mean free path is fundamentally important to aerosol studies. Recent studies suggest that the mean free path of air (λair) could have been significantly overestimated by a factor of ~2. Here we show that this potential overestimation does not directly affect collision-induced aerosol dynamics in atmospheric conditions without high excess latent heat, while a similar influence of the mean free path of vapor (λ) on aerosol dynamics has been accounted for in current studies.
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