The development and utilization of a new droplet freezing assay

Abstract

A droplet freezing assay (DFA) was developed for the testing of ice nucleation of various atmospheric particles. The primary focus within this thesis is on the development, calibration, and testing of bacterial samples; there is a particular interest given to finding a standard operating procedure for testing bacteria with DFAs, especially between the atmospheric and biological communities. Results showed that current methods create a clear bias in experimental data, and has implications for the treatment of bacteria as IN in global and regional climate models.