Watching ice nucleation in real-time

Dr. Devendra Pal, Research Associate in McGill’s Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, has published a new Tools of the Trade article, “Watching ice nucleation in real-time,” in Nature Reviews Chemistry. The article highlights the McGill Real-Time Ice Nucleation Chamber (MRINC) platform, which combines a controlled ice-nucleation environment with the optical detection capability of Nano-Digital In-line Holographic Microscopy (Nano-DIHM) to directly visualize aerosol particles as they undergo condensation, freezing, and ice-crystal growth. The platform can distinguish supercooled droplets from ice crystals down to submicron scales while retrieving particle size, three-dimensional morphology, ice habit, and surface roughness in real time. These measurements address an important experimental challenge in atmospheric chemistry: directly observing the physicochemical evolution from ice-nucleating particle activation to ice-crystal formation. Such information can improve process-level understanding of cloud formation and how ice-cloud properties influence Earth’s radiative balance and climate.