Studying real world chemical complexity in the lab: The ocean in a beaker

The Center for Aerosol Impacts on Climate and the Environment (CAICE) is simulating ocean-atmosphere-climate reaction processes in a lab setting, using breaking waves that produce realistic sea spray particles. After a year of major effort working with Scripps oceanographers, an ocean-atmosphere system is now in place to study the chemistry of ocean and atmosphere and how they impact one another. Scientists will be able to systematically make changes to ocean chemistry, by adding microorganisms, to determine how changes in ocean chemistry will affect sea spray and cloud properties that are important to climate. Over the next 2.5 weeks, scientists with state-of-the-art instrumentation shipped from around the world will be visiting UC San Diego to sample the new ocean in the lab, studying how effectively the particles form clouds, undergo heterogeneous reactions, as well as details on their chemical complexity at the microscopic level. It you are in the San Diego area between Oct 31 and Nov 13, you are invited to visit and see the project in action. Plus, scientists involved will update this blog each day. <a href="https://climatechem.wordpress.com">https://climatechem.wordpress.com</a>