Articles | Volume 19, issue 10
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-19-3363-2026
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-19-3363-2026
Research article
 | 
26 May 2026
Research article |  | 26 May 2026

Calibrating interdependent photochemistry, nucleation, and aerosol microphysics in chamber experiments

Neil M. Donahue, Victoria Hofbauer, Henning Finkenzeller, Dominik Stolzenburg, Paulus S. Bauer, Randall Chiu, Lubna Dada, Jonathan Duplissy, Xu-Cheng He, Martin Heinritzi, Christopher R. Hoyle, Andreas Kürten, Aleksandr Kvashnin, Katrianne Lehtipalo, Naser Mahfouz, Vladimir Makhmutov, Roy L. Mauldin III, Ugo Molteni, Lauriane L. J. Quéléver, Matti Rissanen, Siegfried Schobesberger, Mario Simon, Andrea C. Wagner, Mingyi Wang, Chao Yan, Penglin Ye, Ilona Riipinen, Hamish Gordon, Joachim Curtius, Armin Hansel, Imad El Haddad, Markku Kulmala, Douglas R. Worsnop, Rainer Volkamer, Paul M. Winkler, Jasper Kirkby, and Richard Flagan

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Cited articles

Ahlm, L., Yli-Juuti, T., Schobesberger, S., Praplan, A. P., Kim, J., Tikkanen, O.-P., Lawler, M. J., Smith, J. N., Tröstl, J., Navarro, J. C. A., Baltensperger, U., Bianchi, F., Donahue, N. M., Duplissy, J., Franchin, A., Jokinen, T., Keskinen, H., Kirkby, J., Kürten, A., Laaksonen, A., Lehtipalo, K., Petäjä, T., Riccobono, F., Rissanen, M. P., Rondo, L., Schallhart, S., Simon, M., Winkler, P. M., Worsnop, D. R., Virtanen, A., and Riipinen, I.: Modeling the thermodynamics and kinetics of sulfuric acid-dimethylamine-water nanoparticle growth in the CLOUD chamber, Aerosol Sci. Tech., 50, 1017–1032, https://doi.org/10.1080/02786826.2016.1223268, 2016. a, b
Bezantakos, S., Huang, L., Barmpounis, K., Martin, S., and Biskos, G.: Relative humidity non-uniformities in Hygroscopic Tandem Differential Mobility Analyzer measurements, J. Aerosol Sci., 101, 1–9, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaerosci.2016.07.004, 2016. a
Chan, T. W. and Mozurkewich, M.: Measurement of the coagulation rate constant for sulfuric acid particles as a function of particle size using tandem differential mobility analysis, J. Aerosol Sci., 32, 321–339, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0021-8502(00)00081-1, 2001. a, b, c
Dada, L., Lehtipalo, K., Kontkanen, J., Nieminen, T., Baalbaki, R., Ahonen, L., Duplissy, J., Yan, C., Chu, B., Petäjä, T., Lehtinen, K., Kerminen, V.-M., Kulmala, M., and Kangasluoma, J.: Formation and growth of sub-3-nm aerosol particles in experimental chambers, Nat. Protoc., 15, 1013–1040, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41596-019-0274-z, 2020. a
Donahue, N. M. and CLOUD collaboration: Calibrating Interdependent Photochemistry, Nucleation, and Aerosol Microphysics in Chamber Experiments: Data Resources, Zenodo [data set], https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19695084, 2026. a
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Short summary
We describe accurate measurement of particle formation and growth in the CERN CLOUD (European Council for Nuclear Research Cosmics Leaving OUtdoor Droplets) chamber, using a suite of gas- and particle-phase instruments. The interconnected measurements establish high accuracy in key particle properties and critically important gas-phase sulfuric acid. This is a template for accurate calibration of similar experiments and thus accurate determination of aerosol nucleation and growth rates, which are an important source of uncertainty in climate science.
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