Welcome
Join us in London in February 2025 for the latest addition to our Faraday Discussion series, with their unique format allowing for in-depth discussions of research manuscripts. We invite you to submit an oral or poster abstract to share your contribution alongside leaders in the field. This meeting is aimed at scientists working in the disciplines of atmospheric science, physics, chemistry, sea-ice science, meteorology, and oceanography, to discuss their results from field campaigns, laboratory experiments, atmospheric modeling, and computational work.We are looking forward to welcoming you, in person or online, in Central London at the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Format
Faraday Discussions remain amongst the only conferences to distribute the speakers’ research papers in advance, allowing the majority of each meeting to be devoted to discussions in which all delegates can participate. Following each meeting, a written record of the discussions is published alongside the papers in the Faraday Discussion journal. The discussions will be moderated by the session chair.Themes
The discussions will centre around wintertime and cold region atmospheric chemistry and its impacts on health, geochemical cycles, and climate. Central to this discussion are aspects that make gas- and multiphase atmospheric science in cold environments unique, including but not limited to the presence of ice clouds, snow, and sea ice.Multiphase chemistry in aerosol, ice/mixed-phase clouds, and snow
Multiphase processes have long been identified as key contributors to air quality and the chemical cycling between the atmosphere and hydrosphere. A key challenge lies in constraining the physical chemistry, such as rate coefficients and solubility data, to the conditions present in the often dry and cold wintertime atmosphere. This meeting addresses the formation and processing of airborne aerosol in wintertime atmospheres and at higher altitudes in the troposphere where cold temperatures prevail year-round, as well as the chemistry of deposited aerosol and brine patches in snow and sea ice. Furthermore, liquid aerosol will solidify as temperatures drop in these regions as part of daily or seasonal cycles. As such, interfacial chemistry at these solid aerosol particles and nucleation processes for complex mixtures is another topic of this conference.Role of trace gases in particle and ice nucleation and growth
Cloud formation in cold regions of the atmosphere, such as the Southern and Arctic Oceans, wintertime cities, or the upper troposphere, is another key topic. Uncertainties in the concentrations and chemistry of precursor trace gases and vapors that contribute to particle growth, including biogenic components, pose key research questions. Further challenges lie in the interplay of gas-phase chemistry with particle nucleation and growth at cold temperatures. Of additional interest is the study of substances such as fluorinated persistent organics whose atmospheric abundance is driven by innovation in consumer products, changes in traffic routes, etc.Exchange processes through/in snow and sea-ice
Sea ice and snow are key media at the ocean-atmosphere interface, where chemicals from the ocean accumulate, or are produced. On land, snow covers soil, a chemically and biologically active surface. We invite contributions on this topic, including but not limited to: trace gas fluxes, the description of the permeability of these matrixes for gases, the role of wind and wind-induced pressure fields, aerosol transport through snow, and changes of sea ice and snow with time and space. Further topics also include the impact of snow on the ground and sea ice, providing reactive surfaces for heterogeneous chemistry.Emissions of trace gases and aerosol and atmospheric mixing/transport
Both biogenic and anthropogenic emissions differ significantly under varying atmospheric temperature ranges. For example, in the winter or in colder regions, homes need to be heated more extensively, which is typically done by the combustion of wood, oil, coal, or natural gas, and can be a large contributor to local emissions. We invite contributions on this topic, including those focusing on source apportionment, and the role of meteorology and transport on observed pollution levels. Furthermore, biogenic emissions by soil and plants show distinct changes with temperature that are still a challenge to account for. Additionally, considerable efforts so far have focused on wind-driven sea spray aerosol and trace gas emission in the Southern Ocean and as such, we invite contributions on the composition of trace gas emissions from sea ice and from the open ocean.
