Atmospheric scientists are concerned about physical objects and phenomena on spatial scales ranging from nanometers to megameters and timescales from fractions of a second to centuries. Because atmospheric processes are often nonlinearly coupled across scales, many of the physical phenomena of major scientific and social interest (e.g. How much light propagates through a cloud? How much erosion will be induced by a major storm? Is it feasible to geoengineer to change regional climate? How can air quality be improved? How are weather patterns changing due to human influence?) often can only be fully addressed by better understanding interactions between individual atmospheric particulates.
At the College of Charleston we have developed a laboratory that focuses on experimental, observational, computational, and theoretical studies of the objects and phenomena in the atmosphere that exist and interact on small (<1 meter and <5 minute) scales. The laboratory has studied a large variety of phenomena within the realm of aerosol, cloud, and precipitation microphysics and has also helped to train dozens of undergraduate students as they prepare for their future careers.
In this presentation, we will present some of our recent experimental results in cloud and precipitation microphysics.