Comprehensive Physical and Chemical Measurements to Test Predictions of Radiative and Hygroscopic Properties of Surface Atmospheric Aerosol

该项目的主要目标是提高我们对大气气溶胶对气候影响的认识。特别是，将测试气溶胶成分与气溶胶辐射和云滴活化特性之间的关系。该计划是测量气溶胶化学成分随时间变化的粒径谱，并检查这种变化如何影响计算和测量的气溶胶光学和液滴成核特性，作为粒径的函数。辅助目标是比较在小型城市环境中与在偏远的中部大陆站点进行的测量，两者都在怀俄明州。全面的气溶胶仪器将被用来测量气溶胶成分、大小分布、云滴成核特性、三个波长的散射和光吸收。特别重要的将是使用气溶胶质谱仪来测量在短至几分钟的时间尺度上粒径分解成分的变异性。这些测量加上尺寸分布测量，将使气溶胶的光学和云凝结特性能够以同样高的时间分辨率计算出来，并与观测结果进行比较。对这些比较的分析将提供气溶胶性质的大小和时间变异性的重要性的估计，从而提供使用这些性质的平均值来描述气溶胶行为的模式估计的适当性。对这些数据集的分析将有助于我们了解气溶胶对地球大气的影响。其他更广泛的影响包括怀俄明大学的能力建设和研究生的培训。

The primary goal of this project is to improve our understanding of the influence of atmospheric aerosols on climate. In particular, the relationships between aerosol composition and aerosol radiative and cloud droplet activation properties will be tested. The plan is to measure time-dependent variations of aerosol chemical composition across the particle size spectrum, and to examine how that variability affects calculated and measured optical and droplet-nucleating properties of the aerosol, as a function of particle size. An ancillary objective is to compare measurements made in a small urban environment with those at a remote mid-continental site, both in Wyoming. A comprehensive range of aerosol instruments will be employed to measure aerosol composition, size distribution, cloud drop nucleating properties, scattering at three wavelengths, and light absorption. Of particular importance will be the use of an aerosol mass spectrometer to measure the variability of particle size-resolved composition over time scales as short as a few minutes. These measurements, coupled with size distribution measurements, will permit optical and cloud condensation properties of the aerosol to be calculated with a similarly high time resolution, and compared with observations. Analysis of these comparisons will provide estimates of the importance of size and temporal variability of aerosol properties, and, thus, the appropriateness of model estimates which use averages of those properties to describe aerosol behavior. The analysis of these data sets will contribute to our understanding of the impacts of aerosol on the Earth's atmosphere. Additional broader impacts include capacity building at the University of Wyoming, and the training of a graduate student.