Usually, an abelian $\ell $-group, even an archimedean $\ell $-group, has a relatively large infinity of distinct $a$-closures. Here, we find a reasonably large class with unique and perfectly describable $a$-closure, the class of archimedean $\ell $-groups with weak unit which are “$\mathbb Q$-convex”. ($\mathbb Q$ is the group of rationals.) Any $C(X,\mathbb Q)$ is $\mathbb Q$-convex and its unique $a$-closure is the Alexandroff algebra of functions on $X$ defined from the clopen sets; this is sometimes $C(X)$.