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 natural sciencesphysical sciencesthermodynamicsnatural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesatmospheric sciencesclimatologyclimatic changes Programme(s) FP7-IDEAS-ERC - Specific programme: "Ideas" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013) Topic(s) ERC-SG-ID1 - ERC Starting Grant Interdisciplinary Panel Call for proposal ERC-2010-StG_20091028 See other projects for this call Funding Scheme ERC-SG - ERC Starting Grant Host institution HELSINGIN YLIOPISTO EU contribution € 1 476 418,00 Address YLIOPISTONKATU 3 00014 Helsingin Yliopisto Finland See on map Region Manner-Suomi Helsinki-Uusimaa Helsinki-Uusimaa Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Administrative Contact Satu Väisänen (Ms.) Principal investigator Hanna Vehkamäki (Prof.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data Beneficiaries (1) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all HELSINGIN YLIOPISTO Finland EU contribution € 1 476 418,00 Address YLIOPISTONKATU 3 00014 Helsingin Yliopisto See on map Region Manner-Suomi Helsinki-Uusimaa Helsinki-Uusimaa Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Administrative Contact Satu Väisänen (Ms.) Principal investigator Hanna Vehkamäki (Prof.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data