A Community Laboratory Facility for Exploring and Sensing of Aerosol-Cloud-Drizzle Processes: The Aerosol-Cloud-Drizzle Convection Chamber

大气云室通过模拟在受控环境中形成云的自然条件来运行。 科学家可以改变室内的温度、湿度和颗粒，以评估这些因素如何控制云滴的发展和特征。 然而，目前的云室要么太小，要么不允许在真实的云中普遍存在的各种空气运动。 该奖项为一组研究人员提供资金，以进行大型云室的初步设计工作，该云室能够产生毛毛雨大小的液滴，这是充分了解降水发展的关键过渡点。 在设计项目结束时，团队将有坚实的计划，提出建造云室。 拟议中的室将是一个世界级的设施，并大大扩大了美国研究界进行云实验室研究的能力。 该设计项目具有重要的学生和博士后培训方面，包括学生访问计划，将参与代表性不足的individuals.This设计项目是一个大规模的气溶胶云毛毛雨对流室（ACDC 2）和配套仪器，探索化学和物理的相互作用和演变的气溶胶，云滴，毛毛雨湍流云。 了解和量化从气溶胶激活到毛毛雨形成的整个事件链，以及通过化学和物理过程对气溶胶的相关反馈，所有这些都在湍流云中，是大气化学和物理学的一些核心不确定性，也是云气候难题的关键。 ACDC2室将是世界级的设施，是唯一一个旨在探索与毛毛雨生产有关的问题的云室。 该项目有三个主要目标：1）实现毛毛雨形成和气溶胶处理的腔室特性的设计，2）气溶胶、云和毛毛雨特性的测量系统的设计，以及3）工程和技术方面的设计，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值进行评估，被认为值得支持和更广泛的影响审查标准。

Atmospheric cloud chambers operate by mimicking the natural conditions that form clouds within a controlled environment. Scientists can vary the temperature, moisture, and particles within the chamber to assess how each of these factors controls the development and characteristics of cloud droplets. However, current cloud chambers are either too small or do not allow for the kinds of air motions that are ubiquitous in real clouds. This award provides funding to a cohort of researchers to conduct preliminary design work on a large cloud chamber that would be capable of producing droplets up to the size of drizzle, which is a key transition point for fully understanding the development of precipitation. At the end of the design project, the team will have solid plans to propose the construction of the cloud chamber. The proposed chamber would be a world-class facility and dramatically expand on the US research community’s ability to conduct laboratory studies of clouds. The design project has significant student and post-doctoral training aspects, including a student visitor program that will engage underrepresented individuals.This design project is for a large-scale Aerosol-Cloud-Drizzle-Convection Chamber (ACDC2) and accompanying instrumentation to explore chemical and physical interactions and evolution of aerosols, cloud droplets, and drizzle within turbulent clouds. Understanding and quantifying the full chain of events from aerosol activation to drizzle formation, and the associated feedbacks to the aerosol through chemical and physical processes, all within a turbulent cloud are some of the central uncertainties of atmospheric chemistry and physics, and are keys to the cloud-climate puzzle. The ACDC2 chamber would be a world-class facility as the only cloud chamber designed to explore problems linked to drizzle production. This project has three main objectives: 1) Design of chamber characteristics to achieve drizzle formation and aerosol processing, 2) Design of measurement system for aerosol, cloud, and drizzle characterization, and 3) Design of engineering and technical aspects, including a Project Execution Plan.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.