Smithlab

We study aerosol optical properties and chemistry relevant to climate change.

Research

The Smith group studies how aerosol particles in the atmosphere interact with sunlight.  We design novel instruments, carry out laboratory experiments, sample ambient air and develop machine learning models for predicting aerosol optical properties.  What we learn about how particles scatter and absorb light helps improve understanding of air pollution and climate change.

Smithlab attends AAAR meeting in Albuquerque.

October 2024

Ryan, John and Geoff attended the annual meeting of the American Association for Aerosol Research (AAAR) where they each gave platform presentations: Ryan on interpreting the aethalometer DualSpot correction, John on coated black carbon particle analysis, and Geoff on clustering based on aerosol optical properties.

New paper on brown carbon from biomass burning is published in ACS ES&T: Air!

August 2024

Congratulations to Chase, Zach, Ryan and all of our G-WISE collaborators on the publication of their paper, entitled "Brown Carbon Emissions from Biomass Burning under Simulated Wildfire and Prescribed-Fire Conditions".

Zach's paper on biomass burning aerosol optical properties is published in ACS ES&T: Air!

August 2024

Congratulations to Zach and all of our G-WISE collaborators on the publication of our paper, entitled "Optical Properties of Biomass Burning Aerosols from Simulated Wildfires and Prescribed Fires with Representative Fuel Beds from the Southeast United States".

Sun's humic acid photolysis paper is published in ACS Earth & Space Chemistry!

July 2024

Sun explored how mass is lost and the UV-vis spectrum changes when humic acids are exposed to UV light. Read our paper: "Photolytic Mass Loss of Humic Substances Measured with a Quartz Crystal Microbalance".

Sun's G-WISE photolysis paper is published in ACS ES&T: Air!

July 2024

Congratulations to Sun and all of our G-WISE collaborators on the publication of our paper, entitled "Aqueous photolysis of water-soluble brown carbon from simulated prescribed and wildfire biomass burning".

Zach successfully defends his Ph.D. thesis!

June 2024

Congratulations to Zach, who defended his thesis entitled "Optical Characterization of Aerosol Particles using Ambient, in-situ Measurements and Biomass Burning Simulations".

Smithlab takes part in Skidaway campaign.

June 2024

The Smithlab participated in the aerosol sampling campaign at the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography led by Prof. Amanda Frossard (UGA) and her group. Aerosol optical properties of marine and continental air masses were sampled.

Sun successfully defends his Ph.D. thesis!

May 2024

Congratulations to Sun, who defended his thesis entitled "Characterization of Light Interaction with Atmospheric Aerosol: Scattering and Photo-reaction".

Zach and Ryan present at AAAR meeting.

October 2023

Zach and Ryan each presented talks at the AAAR meeting held in Portland, OR. Zach described his research on the optical properties of biomass burning aerosols produced under both wildfire and prescribed burning conditions from the G-WISE campaign. Ryan discussed his latest work on correcting the loading compensation of DualSpot aethalometers.