Thesis supervisor: Ágnes Molnár
Location of studies (in Hungarian): PE Föld-és Környezettudományi Intézeti Tanszék Abbreviation of location of studies: PEFKT
Description of the research topic:
Aerosol particles play a key role in the atmosphere due to their contribution to numerous atmospheric processes. Particles influence air quality, they control different optical and microphysical processes, such as visibility regulation, haze and cloud formation. Aerosol particles are complex mixtures of inorganic and organic compounds, and as a result they are more or less hygroscopic. The hygroscopicity of the particles (interaction with atmospheric water vapor) influences most of the processes. This is due to that water uptake controls the size, phase state, chemical and optical properties of the particles.
It is well known, that hydration (water uptake when relative humidity (RH) increases) and dehydration (water release due to decreasing RH) processes follow different pathways, the difference between them is called hysteresis. It is assumed that the retained water by the particles (hysteresis) is influenced by several parameters such as chemical composition, the minimum and maximum relative humidities the particles exposed to, formation and ageing processes.
This research focusses on the interaction of aerosol particles with water vapor. The aerosol water uptake and release will be studied under ambient conditions as well as in laboratory.
Research plan:
1. Hystheresis based on parallel monitoring of ambient and humidity controlled aerosol mass concentration is planned to study. These data are partly available from aerosol monitoring campaigns of 2018/19 and 2019/2020 but further data could be also involved, if necessary.
2. Aerosol hygroscopicity as a function of size is measured by a microbalance placed into a humidity controlled chamber. During the measurements ambient samples collected during the monitoring campaigns (and if necessary, model aerosols) are considered. In the evaluation of the results the aerosol chemical composition is also regarded.
Required language skills: angol Number of students who can be accepted: 1
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