Airborne particles modify climate by blocking the sun’s radiation and by changing clouds. Through the development of miniaturized technologies like the ACCESS, Brechtel is helping to supply the tools to better understand the roles of particles in our future climate.

The COVID pandemic has opened our eyes to the key role airborne droplets play in transmitting diseases. Tools like the PILS  and GCVI can sample large, COVID-containing droplets and other chemical species directly from the air and maintain viable virus samples for on-line analysis or off-line studies using vial collection.

Clouds generally cool the atmosphere and supply the water to grow our food. The CVI  and GCVI allow detailed measurements (SEMS, MCPC, PILS) differentiating cloud nuclei from unactivated particles in real clouds.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) sample high in the atmosphere. UAV size limitations require portable solutions like the ACCESS line.

What if rain patterns change so much due to climate change that some people do not get enough water to grow their food? It may be possible to seed clouds with ice nuclei or other aerosol to induce rain. Our tools (GCVI, CVI, HTDMA, SEMS) are used to determine which particles act as nuclei in real clouds, and to measure their key properties.