Jennifer Brooke

Postgraduate Student

Telephone number: +44(0) 113 34 36473
Email address: eejkb@leeds.ac.uk
Room: 10.127

Biography

Project details

Project title: Chemical and microphysical observations of tropospheric aerosol

Supervisors: Dr Jim McQuaid, Dr Barbara Brooks and Dr Simon Osborne (Met Office)

Start date: 1st October 2009

Funded by: NERC / Met Office CASE Award

Project Description:

Aerosols exhibit a direct radiative forcing insofar that they scatter and absorb solar and terrestrial radiation. They also contribute to the indirect cloud albedo effect where they act as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and hence affect the cloud microphysics. There are also so-called climate responses from the interaction of cloud and aerosol such as the cloud lifetime, semi-direct and aerosol-ice cloud effects. Only by increasing our knowledge of aerosol composition through in-situ measurements can we gain a deeper understanding of the role of different aerosol species on the direct and indirect radiative effects.

My research project has a number of key components:

• Detailed analysis of existing and future data collected by the Leeds airborne Volatile Aerosol Concentration and Composition (VACC) instrument, which measures the chemical composition of the aerosol by heating the sample whilst measuring the changes in aerosol concentration and size distribution.
• Enhancing the current capabilities of the VACC instrument through the implementation of a Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer that measures ultrafine particles which are the first stage in the process that grows particles large enough to interact efficiently with solar radiation and to act as CCN.

Biography:

MChem Chemistry with Year in Industry, University of York (2009)