By collaborating with Harvard and DRI, this project focuses on the interactions between aerosols and climate across multiple timescales in the past. We use the chemical transport model GEOS-Chem, combined with ice core data of black carbon and other fire proxies to study the history of wildfire activities.

Hygroscopic growth and cloud condensation nuclei activation are key processes for accurately modeling the climate impacts of organic particulate matter. Here we report complex thermodynamic behaviors, including humidity-dependent hygroscopicity, diameter-dependent cloud condensation nuclei activity, and liquid–liquid phase separation in the laboratory for biogenically derived secondary organic material representative of similar atmospheric organic particulate matter. See our publication Liu et al., Nat. Comm.