Years of results regarding secondary organic aerosols reduce uncertainty in climate projections
For the past 20 years, a large portion of the particles measured in the atmosphere were missing from models. At best, models were able to explain one-tenth of the carbon-rich secondary organic aerosols, or SOA, measured in the air. The problem turned out to be a series of fundamental assumptions used in the models due to a lack of experimental data. The models assumed the particles were liquids that responded to changes in the surrounding atmosphere by rapid condensation or evaporation and in-particle mixing. The models predicted the particles, especially the small ones, were rather short-lived on their journey away from their sources. All of these assumptions and more were proven false by Dr. Alla Zelenyuk and her colleagues at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Imre Consulting, University of Washington, and University of California at Irvine.