The new ice nucleation assay AU-Micro-INC

Corina Wieber; Sigurd Agerskov Madsen; Mads Rosenhøj Jeppesen; Frederik Voldbirk; Peter Melvad; Andrey Chuhutin; Leendert Vergeynst; Lorenz Meire; Kai Finster; Claus Melvad; Tina Šantl-Temkiv

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-4323

[Back] [Session AS3.16]

EGU22-4323, updated on 19 Jan 2024

https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-4323

EGU General Assembly 2022

© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

The new ice nucleation assay AU-Micro-INC

Corina Wieber¹, Sigurd Agerskov Madsen², Mads Rosenhøj Jeppesen², Frederik Voldbirk², Peter Melvad², Andrey Chuhutin³, Leendert Vergeynst^4,5, Lorenz Meire⁶, Kai Finster^1,5,7, Claus Melvad^2,5, and Tina Šantl-Temkiv^1,5,7

Corina Wieber et al.

¹Department of Biology, Microbiology, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
²Department of Mechanical and Production Engineering, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
³Department of Ecoscience - Biodiversity and Conservation, Aarhus University, Rønde, Denmark
⁴Department of Biological and Chemical Engineering - Environmental Engineering, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
⁵Arctic Research Center, Department of Biology Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
⁶NIOZ Department of Estuarine & Delta Systems, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Netherlands
⁷iCLIMATE Aarhus University Interdisciplinary Centre for Climate Change, Roskilde, Denmark

The properties and formation of clouds are one of the largest sources of uncertainties in climate models. Hereby, ice nucleating particles (INPs) play a major role since they directly affect the ice formation in clouds. To better characterize the impact of INPs, measuring devices are necessary to reliably determine the freezing temperatures of various aerosols.

We have developed a new ice nucleation assay, AU-Micro-INC, to measure the freezing temperatures with high accuracy. 96-well and 384-well plates can be inserted into a gallium matrix which ensures good thermal contact to the underlying cooling system. A Peltier element in combination with a vapor chamber provide a homogeneous cooling of the system. The freezing temperatures are measured with an infrared thermal camera with high precision.

The setup is validated using well-studied samples such as Snomax^® and Illite NX. Further, the new setup is applied to sea water, sea surface microlayer, and sea ice samples previously collected in Kobbefjord and Nuup Kangerluaand in proximity of Nuuk, Greenland and preliminary data will be shown.

How to cite: Wieber, C., Madsen, S. A., Jeppesen, M. R., Voldbirk, F., Melvad, P., Chuhutin, A., Vergeynst, L., Meire, L., Finster, K., Melvad, C., and Šantl-Temkiv, T.: The new ice nucleation assay AU-Micro-INC, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-4323, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-4323, 2022.