CAREER: New Techniques for Aerosol/Cloud Sampling and Analysis

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This project concerns new techniques for aerosol-cloud characterization from high-speed aircraft, including 1) size-segregated sampling of activated particles with a new dual-channel counterflow virtual impactor for analysis of multi-phase clouds; 2) a blunt-body sampler design for sampling non-activated particles without contamination from droplet shatter; and 3) a fast aerosol mobility spectrometer for particle size and compositional characterization. Fundamental aerosol and fluid dynamics modeling will be coupled with numerical simulations and wind-tunnel experiments to obtain optimized instrument designs. A sampler for aerosol-cloud characterization from a wide range of aircraft platforms and a fast sizing particle instrument that could be extended for tandem differential mobility analyzer (TDMA) measurements of size-resolved compositional characteristics of atmospheric aerosol will be built.The educational plan includes a K-12 outreach program, undergraduate research, and new course development. An outreach program will be developed to bring cloud physics and atmospheric science fundamentals to high school students. Undergraduate students will be exposed to atmospheric science topics through participation in summer and honors research projects. Research results will be integrated with a new graduate course in experimental aerosol techniques, with emphasis on learning through a project-based approach. A web-based tool will be developed with participation by undergraduate students, to provide visualization of aircraft-particle interactions for the atmospheric sampling community. Recruitment of underrepresented students will be coordinated both through Clarkson's minority programs and with additional efforts at Southern University, Baton Rouge, LA.