Ice Nucleation Studies of Mineral Dust Particles with a New Continuous Flow Diffusion Chamber

A new continuous flow diffusion chamber (CFDC) has been designed and constructed to study the ice nucleation efficiency of natural and anthropogenic aerosol particles over a range of temperatures and supersaturations. The CFDC system at Dalhousie University, Canada is based on the design of (CitationRogers et al. 1988, Citation1994) at Colorado State University, USA. A steady airflow (2.83 lpm) composed of sheath flows and an aerosol flow passes through the annular gap of the diffusion chamber. The walls of the chamber are ice-covered and are held at different temperatures. Aerosol particles are injected into the center of the gap near the location of maximum supersaturation. Particles greater than 5 μm in aerodynamic diameter are removed with impactors before entry to…