NVCL - Building a comprehensive understanding of ice nuclei sources from the ground up: Establishing the impact of sea spray and agricultural soils

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Building a comprehensive understanding of ice nuclei sources from the ground up: Establishing the impact of sea spray and agricultural soils

This project will improve our knowledge of the sources of ice-nucleating particles

ice-nucleating particles

Tiny specks of material suspended in the air that act as starting points for the formation of ice crystals in clouds.

Source: PNNL Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Source

that allow ice crystals to form in the atmosphere. Our research is advancing understanding of how two less-studied but important particle types contribute to determining real-world ice nucleus concentrations, and tackling the grand challenge of predicting ice nucleus concentration from the observed characteristics and sources of atmospheric particles.

Keywords	aerosol-cloud interactions, aerosol-cloud interaction The interaction of airborne particles (aerosols) with clouds. Scientists study how aerosols affect clouds and how these interactions can impact the Earth's climate. Source: DOE Source Ice-nucleating particles, primary biological aerosol aerosols Small particles or droplets, such as wildfire smoke, volcanic gases, or salty sea spray, that float in the air. They are emitted by both natural events and human activities. Source: NASA Global Climate Change Source particles, source estimation and attribution for global climate models
TYPE	Early Career

Keywords

aerosol-cloud interactions, Ice-nucleating particles, primary biological aerosol particles, source estimation and attribution for global climate models

TYPE

Early Career

Principal Investigator (PI)

Susannah Burrows

Lead Institution

The upper half of this illustration shows farm, fields, and hills with a building and cloud above it. The lower half of the image shows an abstract block-like depiction of the same image.

A new review article led by a team at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory analyzes the literature surrounding how researchers model and measure ice-nucleating particles. (Illustration by Cortland Johnson | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)

For more information

Susannah Burrows
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory