• 47.539°N 8.229°E 335 m a.s.l.

Atmospheric simulation chamber

Switzerland

• Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI)

https://www.actris.ch/

• David Bell
  Facility PI
• Imad El Haddad
  PI deputy

PSI Atmospheric Simulation Chamber: PSI Atmospheric Chemistry Simulation Chamber: PACS-C2 can span from -10 °C – 30 °C with a relative humidity range from 0 – 90%. The main experiments taking place in the PACS-C2 chamber are focused on understanding aerosol formation from volatile organic compounds (VOCs) or various aging pathways that aerosols under go in the atmosphere. A specific strength of the PACS-C2 chamber is the ability to couple the chamber to a complex emission platform with many sources of primary emissions available (e.g residential wood burning, coal combustion, open burning emissions, vehicular idle emissions). It is possible to design experiments to remove volatile organic compounds from complex emissions or the primary aerosols emitted from the complex emission sources prior to injection into the chamber.
PSI has a full suite of state of the art instrumentation for gas phase or aerosol chemical or optical characterization.

The research at PACS focuses on studying submicron atmospheric aerosols including those generated from complex real-world emissions, and their formation and aging, through oxidation mechanism studies of gaseous pollutants and secondary organic aerosol (SOA). One of the main strengths of PACS is the instrumentation around the chamber, providing state-of-the-art chemical characterization of volatile organic compounds and organic aerosol chemical composition. PACS is equipped to study the most relevant aging processes occurring in the atmosphere across relevant temperature ranges within the troposphere.