Airborne nano-sized particles play key roles in Earth's climate, air pollution, and transmission of communal diseases. With ultra-brilliant X-rays available at synchrotron radiation facilities, we have been able to directly see how atmospheric molecules, such as water, attach to the surfaces of nano-particles and change their properties. This knowledge is necessary to understand the effects of nano-particles in the atmosphere, but the experiments are too rare and costly to make timely progress on urgent societal challenges. We have recently developed new artificial intelligence methods that can predict the structures and resulting experimental signatures of atmospheric molecules, when they attach to a surface. In this project, we will adapt these methods to study atmospheric nano-particles and greatly amplify the utility of each rare synchrotron experiment. This will accelerate the exploration and impact of new scientific discoveries.

2022

2026