Research Themes

I seek to improve our understanding of aerosol-cloud interactions by better connecting field observations, laboratory experiments, and Earth System Modeling. My focus is primarily on sea spray aerosols and improving our understanding of their characteristics and processes through a variety of methods.

Laboratory Methods of Aerosol Production

Important for laboratory studies of sea spray aerosols, new methods must be developed to replicate key features of the marine boundary layer within the laboratory. This theme documents recent advancements that extend our abilities in the laboratory.

See Leibensperger et al. (under review) for more information.

Characterization of Primary Marine Aerosols

This theme is central to my involvement with researchers in the National Science Foundation Center for Aerosol Impacts on Chemistry of the Environment (CAICE). Together, we analyzed the physicochemical mixing states of SSA and began investigating the role of environmental variables on SSA production.

See Madawala et al. (2024), Tumminello et al. (2024), Moore et al. (2025), Madawala et al. (2025) for more information.

Simulation of Sea Spray Aerosols

Under this theme, I am seeking to improve our ability to simulate sea spray aerosols within Earth System Models. There are 2 primary projects:

1. Working with colleagues at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Scripps Institution of Oceanography, I am testing the sensitivity of the E3SM model to adjusted SSA emissions based on measurements in SOARS.

2. Working with colleagues at Heidelberg University, I am creating a new offline SSA representation based on optical depth measurements, which can be integrated into any model across scales.

Impacts of Marine Aerosols

Working within an interdisciplinary team of researchers from atmospheric science, oceanography, and the school of medicine, we characterized the transmission of harmful toxins via sea spray aerosols. Further, we quantified the effect of the toxins using a model organism.

See Hu et al. (2020) and Gaston et al. (2021) for more information.