CCI Center for Aerosol Impacts on Climate and the Environment

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The Center for Aerosol Impacts on Climate and the Environment (CAICE) will tackle the grand challenge of elucidating the chemical complexity and reactivity of atmospheric aerosol particles. The primary objective of CAICE is to better understand how chemical heterogeneity, morphology, phase, and molecular composition, at the individual aerosol particle level, control the properties and reactivity of atmospheric aerosols. Detailed chemical knowledge is needed to predict how aerosol chemistry influences reactivity, light absorption and scattering behavior, and cloud droplet and ice crystal formation. A globally important type of aerosol, sea spray, has tremendous chemical variability that depends on ocean chemistry, biology, and physical conditions such as waves, wind, and solar radiation. CAICE utilizes a unique experimental ocean-atmosphere facility to bring the real-world, complex chemistry of the ocean and atmosphere directly into the laboratory to replicate natural sea spray aerosol transformations in a controlled setting. An interdisciplinary team composed of chemists from all fields, as well as marine biologists, and oceanographic and atmospheric scientists will provide diverse perspectives and approaches to gain fundamental chemical insights into how aerosols form and subsequently behave in the atmosphere. New experimental tools for spatially-resolved chemical analysis along with new theoretical methodologies for molecular-level and coarse-grained simulations will be developed to explore the complex, heterogeneous, and dynamic aspects of aerosol particles bridging a broad range of length and time scales. CAICE will advance a wide range of scientific disciplines, including interfacial chemistry, air quality and atmospheric chemistry, nucleation, climate science, multiphase and heterogeneous reaction processes, nanoparticle properties, and ocean biogeochemistry. The important societal benefits include: 1) improved ability to predict regional climate, atmospheric chemistry, and water resources via advanced models that incorporate aerosol impacts on clouds and precipitation processes, and 2) the interdisciplinary training and education of the next generation of scientific leaders who will develop solutions for large scale environmental systems. CAICE students will be at the forefront of fundamental chemistry while addressing global perspectives related to the ocean, atmosphere, and climate. All CAICE participants will receive training in effectively conveying their scientific findings to the public, entrepreneurship, and play active roles in the Center's education and outreach programs. The research will be communicated to the public in close collaboration with the UC San Diego's Birch Aquarium and other public venues.The Center for Aerosol Impacts on Climate and the Environment is funded as part of the Centers for Chemical Innovation (CCI) program.