Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics www.atmos-chem-phys.net 1680-7316 1680-7324 8 11 2008 10.5194/acp-8-2859-2008 http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/8/2859/2008/ http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/8/2859/2008/acp-8-2859-2008.html http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/8/2859/2008/acp-8-2859-2008.pdf 2859 2867 2008-06-05 The role of ammonia in sulfuric acid ion induced nucleation I. K. Ortega ismael.ortegacolomer@helsinki.fi T. Kurtén H. Vehkamäki M. Kulmala Division of Atmospheric Sciences, Department of Physical Sciences, P.O. Box 64, FI-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland We have developed a new multi-step strategy for quantum chemical calculations on atmospherically relevant cluster structures that makes calculation for large clusters affordable with a good accuracy-to-computational effort ratio. We have applied this strategy to evaluate the relevance of ternary ion induced nucleation; we have also performed calculations for neutral ternary nucleation for comparison. 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