Addressing the impacts of atmospheric particles on Earth’s climate and human health necessitates detailed physicochemical characterization. A variety of aerosol sources, including natural (i.e., sea spray, mineral dust, biogenic particles) and anthropogenic (i.e., combustion, industrial emissions, biomass burning), require an expansion of our focus beyond source characterization to investigate the evolution of aerosol particles in the atmosphere and their climate implications. 

Our research focuses on improving our understanding of the impacts atmospheric aerosols on climate and health effects at a fundamental molecular level and connecting to observations from the ambient environment. The integrated ice nucleation measurement and advanced analytical microscopy/spectroscopy approach employed by the Lei research group will be applied to a combination of field samples and laboratory-generated proxies. Fundamental laboratory work is critical for advancing our current understanding of the physicochemical properties of ambient aerosols that are crucial to climate science. This knowledge will be used to improve the link between aerosol-cloud interaction and climate model parameterizations of aerosol processes, which are needed to reduce climate uncertainties related to global warming.