Small & Mighty

Collisions and chemical reactions are constantly occurring in our atmosphere, forming aerosols and cloud condensation nuclei even on what seems like a beautiful, clear day. Our sun, as a powerful source of light (electromagnetic radiation), can dramatically affect this chemistry. In the formation of aerosols or even clouds, can we start from a single atom or molecule and build up to these larger clusters just by adding more and more molecules? In this talk, we will explore the formation of clusters and how the interaction of sunlight with condensation nuclei can affect this process.

At 7 times the size of the UK, the Greenland Ice Sheet is the largest continuous expanse of ice in the northern hemisphere. In recent decades, the Greenland Ice Sheet has been experiencing increasingly faster melt rates, especially in what is known as the “dark zone” on its southwest margin. I will talk about our recent expeditions to Greenland where we have been studying what makes the dark zone dark, what this means for the future of the Greenland Ice Sheet, and implications for the global climate.