Facilities at CACP
CACP’s research facilities include a dedicated field observatory, several specialist laboratories and a High Performance Computing Cluster.
Bayfordbury Atmospheric Observatory
CACP operates a remote sensing observatory at the Bayfordbury field station six miles from the University. The Bayfordbury Atmospheric Observatory is a NASA AERONET site and is equipped with micropulse lidar, robotic sun and lunar photometers, radiometers and all-sky cameras. Polarimeters have been installed consisting of an infra-red spectropolarimeter with a view angle of 60° and an ultra-sensitive sun polarimeter. The latter is a portable version of the PlanetPol polarimeter (previously used in the detection of the alignment of atmospheric dust), capable of measuring fractional polarization down to one part per million.
Laboratories
Our laboratories include:
- two Laser Scattering Research Laboratories equipped at state-of-the-art equipment and instrumentation for light scattering research and particle optical characterisation
- two Instrumentation Research Laboratories equipped with precision machining and fabrication facilities
- a JOEL scanning electron microscope suite with Energy-dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy
- instruments for the generation, control and characterisation of aerosols and individual airborne particles
- an ‘Objet 30’ 3D-printer facility for rapid prototyping of precision plastic parts used in both fundamental experimental research and instrument development
- a High Performance Computer Cluster supporting atmospheric and climate modelling and astronomy research
- a dedicated Atmospheric Analysis Laboratory equipped with Energy Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence for multi-elemental analysis, Gas Chromatography with Mass Spectrometer, Ion Chromatography, Inductively Coupled Plasma Spectrometry and number of traceable air quality sampling instruments
- instrumentation for real-time measurement of ultrafine to coarse aerosol number and mass size distributions.
High Performance Cluster and Software Tools
In addition to the high-specification desktop or laptop machine provided to researchers, we benefit from a University Linux cluster with around 1400 computing cores. Over 500 Tb of fast central storage. This includes: optical, electronic, and mechanical design and simulation software tools including Zemax™, Cadstar™, Inventor™ and other computer tools.
CACP also operates an Atmospheric Observatory at the Bayfordbury field station six miles from the University. The Bayfordbury Atmospheric Observatory is a NASA AERONET site and is equipped with a range of field instruments including micropulse lidar, robotic sun and lunar photometers, radiometers and all-sky cameras. Find out more details of research conducted at the Bayfordbury Observatory.
