Research on Atmospheric Aerosol Nanoclusters in Molecular Beam Experiments and Computer Simulations

Atmospheric aerosols (AA) play a key role in atmospheric chemistry and physics influencing global warming, human health etc. We propose investigation of cluster in molecular beams (MB), which can contribute to our understanding of AA. Despite a large potential of the cluster beam methods for providing a detailed molecular-level information about AA, the implementation of the technique in the aerosol studies is relatively limited. We demonstrate that our experiments have recently been closing the existing gaps between MB clusters and real AA in terms of their chemical composition and size, and we suggest experiments that can provide unprecedented insight into the aerosol particles in a nanometer size range, termed aerosol nanoclusters. We will generate different nanoclusters in MB, investigate elementary processes triggered by photons and electrons in these nanoclusters, and deliver important parameters such as uptake coefficients for various atmospheric molecules, using our MB experiment and theoretical calculations.