Laura Iraci

The Earth Science Division at NASA Ames includes researchers with a wide variety of interests in biomass burning – from remote sensing of land cover changes, to in-situ measurements of the influence of fires on tropospheric composition and chemistry, to model studies of chemical and radiative effects throughout the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. My interests are currently split between a laboratory focus on improving the community's understanding of the chemical and optical properties of biomass burning aerosol and a new NASA-funded program to examine several satellite data records and develop a "climatology" of boreal forest fire emissions delivered to the lower stratosphere through pyrocumulus events. Resources are available for a Fellow to participate in either, or ideally both, studies. My laboratory is presently equipped for mass spectrometric and infrared studies of liquid-phase chemistry, and we are designing a new system to explore aerosol photochemical processes. A high-vacuum chamber designed for the growth of solids from the vapor phase has been installed this month, and our preliminary observations for Mars water ice cloud formation have been obtained.