Disentangling the impacts of particle mixing state on ice nucleation
EMSL Project ID
60392
Abstract
Atmospheric ice nucleating particles (INPs) are rare particles required to initiate freezing in clouds at temperatures warmer than ca. -38°C, and therefore can have significant impacts on weather and climate. However, we still face significant fundamental knowledge gaps in representing INP impacts in regional and global atmospheric models.
One such knowledge gap is the impact of compositional diversity among particles – or their mixing state – on their ice nucleation behavior. Many regions of the Earth are impacted by multiple types of INPs (e.g., mineral dust, sea spray, and biological particles) that have dramatically different freezing rates. Theory and preliminary experiments indicate that the rate of cloud droplet freezing can depend, in part, on whether different chemical constituents are mixed together within the same particles (internal mixture), or are present within different particles (external mixture). However, robustly testing this theory requires that measurements of droplet freezing be conducted in combination with detailed measurements of the chemistry of individual particles that are not achievable with conventional particle characterization methods.
This project will exploit a unique combination of capabilities only available at EMSL to quantify droplet freezing under different conditions, and to characterize the bulk and surface chemistry of individual particles and INPs, in order to robustly test theoretical model predictions of the impacts of particle mixing state on ice nucleation.
Project Details
Project type
Large-Scale EMSL Research
Start Date
2022-10-01
End Date
N/A
Status
Active
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator
Co-Investigator(s)
Team Members