News & Events

Moyer group constrains isotopic fingerprint of cirrus cloud formation

May 12, 2017

University of Chicago graduate students Kara Lamb and Ben Clouser, postdoc Max Bolot, and Research Scientist Laszlo Sarkozy, working under the direction of Associate Professor Elisabeth Moyer, have carried out direct measurements of deuterium-hydrogen isotopic fractionation during ice deposition in simulated cirrus clouds at temperatures relevant to the polar regions of Earth and the near-surface atmospheric layers of Mars. The experiments used the Aerosol Interactions and Dynamics in the Atmosphere (AIDA) cloud chamber in Karlsruhe, Germany. The new data provide fundamental constraints that will improve confidence in the interpretation of deuterium isotopic variations in the atmospheres of both Earth and Mars. The results have been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.