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Content archived on 2024-05-27

Role of Molecular Clusters in Atmospheric Particle Formation

Objective

Climate change is currently one of the central scientific issues in the world, and the ability to reliably forecast climate is crucial for making political decisions that affect the lives of billions of people. Aerosols remain the dominant uncertainty in predicting radiative forcing and future climate change, and also have adverse effects on human health and visibility. One of the least-well understood aerosol-related processes is nucleation: the formation of new particles from condensable vapours. While nucleation is related primarily to neutral clusters, state-of-the-art experimental methods measure only charged clusters.

The main scientific objectives of this project are 1) to understand the chemical composition of charged and especially neutral atmospheric clusters from molecular to multi-nanometre scale, and explain the mechanism by which they nucleate, and 2) to direct current intense instrument development and provide theoretical tools to maximize the information on neutral clusters that can be obtained from experimental results on charged clusters.

Our scientific plan consists of a multilevel computational effort to provide formation rates and properties of atmospheric clusters and particles to aerosol dynamic and climate modellers. To capture the properties of the smallest clusters, we need to perform quantum chemical calculations, combined with simulations on cluster formation kinetics. Unfortunately, these methods are computationally far too demanding to describe the entire nucleation process. Thus, we will feed quantum chemical results to classical thermodynamic models, the results of which in turn must be parameterized for efficient use in larger-scale models.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

ERC-2010-StG_20091028
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Funding Scheme

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ERC-SG - ERC Starting Grant

Host institution

HELSINGIN YLIOPISTO
EU contribution
€ 1 476 418,00
Address
FABIANINKATU 33
00014 HELSINGIN YLIOPISTO
Finland

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Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

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Beneficiaries (1)

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