The Center for Aerosol Impacts on Climate and the
Environment is a National Science Foundation Center for Chemical Innovation based at the University of California, San Diego. Led by Professor Prather, the center brings
together research groups from around the country with the goal of elucidating
the chemical complexity and reactivity of atmospheric aerosols. Interdisciplinary teams consisting of chemists,
as well as marine biologists, physical oceanographers, and atmospheric
scientists, provide insights and new perspectives into how aerosols form and
subsequently react.
The mission of CAICE is to better understand how aerosol
particles impact the environment, air quality, and climate through fundamental
chemical studies of their heterogeneity, morphology, and composition at the
single particle level. Current research
efforts are focused on the properties of sea spray aerosols, which have
tremendous chemical variability depending on ocean chemistry, biology, waves,
and wind. A more detailed description of the Prather group's experimental work can be found here.
In order to better probe the chemical complexity of sea
spray aerosols, CAICE has brought the real world into the laboratory in a
unique ocean-atmosphere facility located at the Scripps Institution of
Oceanography. The centerpiece of this
facility is a 33m linear wave channel which mimics breaking waves in the ocean
and allows for the production of realistic sea spray aerosols in a controlled
laboratory setting. For more information about CAICE research, including a full
list of collaborators and publications, please visit our website.
