Chakrabarty receives grant to measure aerosol absorption associated with atmospheric warming

Rajan Chakrabarty, associate professor of energy, environmental and chemical engineering at the McKelvey School of Engineering, has received a $577,685 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy for research to help improve existing measurement methodologies and algorithms for estimating aerosol light absorption and associated atmospheric warming.

Chakrabarty’s lab will take a two-pronged approach: first, they’ll conduct laboratory-based controlled experiments to develop improved correction factors and algorithms for measurement technologies utilized by the energy department’s Atmospheric Research Measurement (ARM) program.

Part two of the study will begin next year with field tests in Texas as part of the larger TRACER field campaign. The Chakrabarty lab’s updated algorithms should help improve the quality of ARM’s data, which is used worldwide.