When the air turns brown: Scientists discover reactions that create climate-changing brown carbon aerosol
Monday, April 12, 2010 - 05:42
in Physics & Chemistry
(PhysOrg.com) -- A recent study led by Drs. Julia and Alexander Laskin from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Prof. Sergey Nizkorodov from the University of California, Irvine revealed atmospheric chemistry processes that turn white organic carbon aerosol into brown carbon particles. The white aerosol has no warming effect, but brown does. Also, this research presents the first application of a new analytical approach for studying transformations of organic aerosols developed at EMSL.