EAGER: A New Method for Sampling Sea-Salt Aerosols

海盐气溶胶在海洋环境中由破碎的波浪、白色的封顶或破裂的气泡形成。它们以小水滴的形式悬浮在空气中，影响能见度。这些被称为巨型云凝结核（GCCN）的液滴也被假设在云和降水的发展中发挥作用。GCCN的测量是有限的，主要来自需要放置在昂贵的研究飞机上的仪器。该合同将允许开发一种低成本的3d打印仪器，可以从风筝和无人驾驶飞机上测量GCCN。这些测量将有助于解决关于GCCN在云和降水发展中的作用的问题，这可能会对天气和气候模型产生影响。学生将参与系统的设计和测试，为他们提供动手研究活动。研究小组计划开发一种新的低成本仪器来测量GCCN。GCCN是非常有效的核凝聚和快速生长。在云物理社区中，它们在云开发中的作用仍然被认为是未知的。一种假设是GCCN拓宽了液滴光谱，可以加速暖云中降水的形成。GCCN传统上是通过将显微镜载玻片暴露在飞机外的自由气流中来测量的。研究小组将开发一种小型化的巨型核撞击器，称为mini-GNI，可以在风筝或无人驾驶飞机上飞行。风筝测量最初是有针对性的，因为它们能够在一个一致的时间点上进行欧拉采样。此外，还可以在风筝上安装多种仪器，以测量多个高度。迷你gni将通过3d打印，并在树莓派电脑上运行。具体的工作任务包括测试风筝设置、树莓派系统和互补状态变量的测量。整个迷你gni包将飞行多次，样品将被收集和分析。

Sea-salt aerosol form in marine environments from breaking waves, white capping, or bursting bubbles. They remain suspended in the air as tiny droplets and affect visibility. These droplets, known as Giant Cloud Condensation Nuclei (GCCN), are also hypothesized to play a role in cloud and precipitation development. Measurements of GCCN are limited and primarily come from an instrument that requires placement on an expensive research aircraft. This award will allow for the development of a low-cost, 3D-printed instrument that can make measurements of GCCN from kites and unmanned aircraft. The measurements will help to resolve questions about the role of GCCN in the development of clouds and precipitation, which will potentially make an impact on weather and climate modeling. Students will be involved in the design and testing of the system, providing them with hands-on research activities.The research team plans to develop a new, low-cost instrument to measure GCCN. GCCN are extremely efficient nuclei for condensation and rapid growth. Their role in cloud development is still considered an unknown in the cloud physics community. One hypotheses is that GCCN broaden the droplet spectrum and can accelerate precipitation initiation in warm clouds. GCCN are traditionally measured by exposing a microscope slide to the free air stream outside of an aircraft. The research team will develop a miniaturized version of the Giant Nucleus Impactor known as the mini-GNI that can be flown on kites or UASs. Kite measurements are initially targeted due to their ability to perform Eularian sampling at a consistent point over time. Also, multiple instruments can be attached to kites with the option of measuring multiple altitudes. The mini-GNI will be 3D-printed and run using a Raspberry Pi computer. The specific work tasks include testing of the kite setup, the Raspberry Pi system, and the complementary state variable measurements. The entire mini-GNI package will be flown multiple times and the samples will be collected and analyzed.