My research explores how the chemical and microphysical properties of atmospheric aerosols interact with water vapor to form clouds. Clouds are an important climate driver that can alter the balance between incoming shortwave radiation (sunlight) and outgoing longwave radiation (heat) to/from the Earth. Understanding these processes is important because aerosol-cloud interactions remain the single largest uncertainty associated with current global climate model predictions (IPCC, 2013), and improvements in our understanding in this area will improve our ability to predict how the climate may change in the future.

To explore this area, I use a variety of tools including instrumented aircraft to directly observe the atmospheric distribution of aerosols and trace gases; remote sensors from NASA satellites, high-altitude aircraft, and ground stations; and, detailed chemistry models spanning process-level to global scales.