News | WashU Center for Aerosol Science and Engineering (CASE)

Researchers at WashU determined the concentration of submicron particulate matter over the United States, with the darker red areas holding higher concentrations. These are the smaller particles of air pollution, which could make them more detrimental to human health. (Image: Atmospheric Composition Analysis Group).

Tiny and toxic: Researchers track smaller air pollution particles across U.S. skies

To help understand air pollution health effects, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis quantify how the amount of submicron particles in the air has changed over the past 25 years.

06.12.2025

High intensity wildfires can produce pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) clouds pictured here that contain black carbon particles, a potent climate warming agent. Washington University researchers are measuring sunlight absorption associated with these particles in the fireclouds to understand its impact. (Photo: 2024 UCAR)

WashU researchers quantify solar absorption by black carbon in fire clouds

New findings from Chakrabarty lab will help make climate models more accurate as massive wildfires become more common.

07.25.2024

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have discovered a new mechanism by which particles are formed around the globe, often high up in the troposphere. (Photo: Shutterstock)

Scientists find new way global air churn makes particles

Wang’s atmospheric science and engineering lab discovers new mechanism of particle formation when stratosphere, troposphere air mix.

07.12.2024

Stratospheric aerosol injection, a geoengineering technology that could offset the warming caused by human-made greenhouse gas emissions, works by seeding aerosols into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun’s rays before they can warm the planet. (Image: iStock)

Chakrabarty, collaborators win Simons Foundation International grant for geoengineering

Rajan Chakrabarty, Rohan Mishra and Lu Xu will explore stratospheric aerosol injection with a $1.5 million grant from the Simons Foundation International.

05.15.2024

Martin, O’Sullivan receive Outstanding Faculty Awards from Graduate Student Senate

The McKelvey Engineering faculty were among eight faculty, five staff who received awards.

04.25.2024

Jenna Ditto and her team plan to combine indoor dust samples with chemicals such as motor vehicle exhaust and fumes from cooking or from burning biomass, then determine how the chemicals transform within the dust with a grant from the National Science Foundation. (Credit: iStock photo)

Role of indoor dust on indoor environmental air quality gets closer look

Jenna Ditto to study dust chemistry transformations, impact of exposure to humans.

04.18.2024

Urban areas in Dhaka, Bangladesh, have concerning levels of airborne arsenic pollution. (Photo by Shafiqul Islam on Unsplash)

Global study reveals health impacts of airborne trace elements

Researchers led by Randall Martin investigate global particulate matter, revealing health risks from trace elements.

04.16.2024

COVID-19, RSV and influenza A are the most predominant of seasonal viruses, each transmitted through aerosols and droplets that are easily spread indoors. A team of researchers at Washington University in St. Louis is developing an inexpensive, handheld breathalyzer that could make rapid screening a step closer to reality. (Image: iStock)

Team to develop breathalyzer test for COVID, RSV, influenza A

Rajan Chakrabarty, John Cirrito to develop test with $3.6 million grant from Flu Lab.

12.08.2023

A tethered balloon system is flown at Guy, Texas, as part of the Tracking Aerosol Convection Interactions Experiment (TRACER). The TRACER field campaign collected data on the evolution of convective clouds and the environment at locations around Houston from Oct. 2021 through Sept. 2022. (Photo by Brent Peterson, Sandia National Laboratories. Image courtesy of the U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility.)

Chakrabarty to study vertical distribution of aerosol properties

The research project by Rajan Chakrabarty and collaborators Rohan Mishra and Alexander Laskin is supported by the DOE’s FICUS program.

10.27.2023

Data collected by the MOSAiC expedition to the central Arctic (shown) and analyzed by McKelvey engineers revealed blowing snow as a previously unaccounted for source of sea salt aerosols, impacting Arctic climate models. Photo by Matthew Shupe, University of Colorado

Blowing snow contributes to Arctic warming

Atmospheric scientists led by Jian Wang discovered abundant fine sea salt aerosol production from wind-blown snow in the central Arctic, increasing seasonal surface warming.

09.04.2023

To conduct a comprehensive analysis of what makes up wildfire smoke plumes, Rajan Chakrabarty’s team spent 45 days traveling to different wildfire locations in the western United States where they sampled gaseous smoke and aerosol species and analyzed their chemical and optical properties. This research was conducted as part of the Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality (FIREX-AQ) field campaign, a joint venture led by NOAA and NASA. (Photo: Steve Brown/NOAA)

Fanning the flames: Wildfires emit potent climate-warming organic particles

Chakrabarty, Mishra team up to reveal wildfires’ unexpected impact on climate change.

08.07.2023

Benjamin Sumlin, a senior scientist at Washington University in St. Louis, blows into a device designed by researchers at the university. The device — a breath test that uses a biosensor — could become a tool for use in doctors’ offices to quickly diagnose people infected with the virus that causes COVID-19. (Chakrabarty lab)

Scientists develop breath test that rapidly detects COVID-19 virus

Test results available in less than a minute.

07.31.2023