Research subject Aerosols, Clouds and Climate

Sea spray aerosols are ubiquitous over much of the Earth's surface and are especially important in remote regions with few other aerosol sources. As such, they may have a pronounced impact on climate through direct and indirect effects on the radiation budget.

Despite their abundance in the Earth’s atmosphere, cloud formation and evolution are still poorly understood. This is particularly true for the interactions clouds have with atmospheric aerosol particles and their precursor vapors, which hampers our knowledge on the role that clouds and precipitation play in the climate system and in governing air quality.

Particles emitted from car brakes contribute an increasingly important part to air pollution in cities, but little is known about the gases which are also emitted. In this project, we investigate the gaseous emissions from brakes and their fate in the atmosphere.

Aerosol-cloud interactions (ACI) remain the largest source of uncertainty in past, present, and future radiative forcing, impeding credible climate projections.

The emissions of certain PFAAs on SSA from the oceans are estimated to be comparable to other major global sources to the air. Despite recent advances in understanding, we suspect that emissions of PFAAs in SSA from coastal waters are underestimated.

We will conduct fieldwork to determine if air concentrations of PFAS are correlated with tracers of sea spray aerosols and conduct modelling to determine if ocean-to-air transport of PFAS is an important source of PFAS relative to other sources.

While modelling of transport and deposition undertaken in our research group indicates the importance of SAA transport and deposition of PFAAs in coastal regions, there is currently little empirical evidence for these impacts.

Will the ice continue to disappear at an ever-increasing rate as the exposed ocean surface absorbs increasing amounts of solar radiation? Or might conditions become progressively more favorable for biological activity and associated cloud-formation, decreasing the amount of solar-radiation received at the surface?

Solving the climate crisis will require the participation of many actors. This project leverages the expertise and passion of actors from many sectors to help create climate solutions and better understand how these co-creative processes work.