New Model Provides Never-Before-Seen Views of Atmospheric Aerosols

Sea spray aerosols, which form when ocean waves fling particles into the atmosphere, can impact climate in a variety of ways. But their small size and chemical complexity make them hard to study or model. Reporting in ACS Central Science, scientists designed new computer simulations to better represent the real conditions of newly formed sea spray aerosols. The researchers hope this “computational microscopy” will help scientists better understand and predict climate impacts of sea spray aerosols.