LOC-NIPI: Atmospheric Ice-Nucleating Particle Measurements in Continuous Flow

A microfluidic platform, LOC-NIPI, generated and analyzed thousands of water-in-oil droplets to study atmospheric ice-nucleating particles (INPs). Mark D. Tarn from the University of Leeds validated the instrument using pollen and Snomax® samples, with over 10,000 droplets used to study homogeneous freezing. The continuous-flow system provides a potential route for automated atmospheric INP monitoring at field sites.

Use Cases

• Benchmarking new ice-nucleating particle measurement instruments based on the LOC-NIPI platform described.
• Studying homogeneous freezing of purified water based on data from over 10,000 droplets with 0.1 °C temperature increments.
• Analyzing the reproducibility of INP measurements based on results described as independent of flow rate in tested ranges.
• Comparing field measurements from different instruments based on the Eastern Mediterranean field campaign benchmark mentioned.

Strengths

• Validation involved hundreds of droplets analyzed per temperature step and thousands per experiment.
• Homogeneous freezing was studied using a large sample of over 10,000 droplets.
• The platform allows user-defined analysis duration by running for as long as required.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

University of Leeds

Collection Method

Data generated using the LOC-NIPI (Lab-on-a-Chip Nucleation by Immersed Particle Instrument) microfluidic platform.

Geography

Includes data from a field campaign in the Eastern Mediterranean.