Understanding flows and aerosol losses inside a new instrument for counting particles that make ice in clouds
- Academic lead
- Prof Benjamin Murray, School of Earth and Environment, b.j.murray@leeds.ac.uk
- Co-supervisor(s)
- Dr Amir Khan, School of Civil Engineering, A.Khan@leeds.ac.uk, Larissa Lacher, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, larissa.lacher@kit.edu
- Project themes
- Characterising and improving an instrument designed to quantify a special class of atmospheric aerosol particles, Environmental Flows
Ice-nucleating particles (INPs) play a pivotal role in determining the properties of clouds and their role in climate change (Murray et al. 2021). However, our ability to measure the concentration of these particles on a routine basis has been extremely limited. To address this need we have developed, with our partners in Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and Bilfinger Noell GmbH, a new instrument for quantifying the concentration of atmospheric INPs called the Portable ice nucleation experiment (PINE) (Möhler et al., 2021).
The PINE chamber is based on the concept of an expansion chamber, where the pressure is reduced inside a ~10 L vessel and the subsequent adiabatic cooling leads to cloud formation. We then count the number of cloud droplets and ice crystals that form using an optical particle counter. While PINE is a major advance in our ability to make measurements of INPs around the globe, we need to improve the temperature characterisation of the cloud and also reduce unwanted aerosol losses. Your project will be based in Leeds and involve a placement at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. You may also be able to help install of a version of PINE on the UK’s premier research aircraft (FAAM).
