Instruments

Scientists Fred Eisele, Jim Smith, and Katharine Moore with the Thermal Desorption Chemical Ionization Mass Spectrometer (TDCIMS).

The properties of ultrafine aerosols:

We study the properties of ultrafine aerosol, in particular their chemical composition, using the Thermal Desorption Chemical Ionization Mass Spectrometer, or TDCIMS. The Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Ionization Ion Trap Mass Spectrometer is a new development effort towards building a lightweight, portable instrument for characterizing both chemicals in the gas and particle phases.

The impacts of ultrafine aerosols:

We study the impacts of ultrafine aerosols using a Hygroscopicity Tandem Differential Mobility Analyzer (HTDMA), which exposes size-selected particles to high humidity (90% relative humidity) to investigate how readily particles can take on water. We also employ a Cloud Condensation Nucleus counter (CCNc), which counts the number of particles that are capable of forming cloud droplets.