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Research

Research

Research

Summary

This proposal involves the development of techniques to measure the physical properties of poorly characterized environmental nanomaterials that have important consequences for both climate change and human health. Aerosols containing light-absorbing carbon (including elemental carbon, black carbon, brown carbon, etc.) from urbanized continental regions have a strong impact on the global climate, especially in the Northern Hemisphere where most industrial and urban activity is located. Unfortunately, the physical and chemical properties of carbon combustion aerosols in the atmosphere are not well characterized. This proposal will use electron microscopy and monochromated electron energy-loss spectroscopy to study atmospheric aerosols collected in-situ in several ground- and aircraft-based aerosol studies. If successful, this work will contribute to a substantial improvement of the current state of our knowledge of the optical properties of these critically important aerosols, thereby improving our confidence in these measurements. This research has a high potential to benefit climate change science through the provision of fundamental high-resolution data for climate change applications.

Funding

Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Measurement Science and Engineering

Timeline

January 2010 — December 2012