Abstract
The impact that aerosols have on air quality and climate relies on their chemical and physical properties. Due to the high diversity and large number of aerosol particles in the atmosphere, analysis of physiochemical properties has historically been simplified by utilizing bulk chemical techniques that treat all aerosols equally in order to extract information about the total aerosol loading. However, the use of bulk chemical techniques results in oversimplification of aerosols in the atmosphere. To capture the full chemical and physical diversity of aerosol, and to accurately determine their impacts, an understanding of the distribution of physical and chemical properties across individual particles, called aerosol mixing state, is needed. However, analyses exploring aerosol mixing state are currently lacking, creating uncertainty in the roles that aerosols play on air quality and climate. In this dissertation, several studies demonstrate the utility of single particle techniques to capture aerosol mixing state in comparison to bulk chemical techniques that often do not capture the complex roles that aerosols play on air quality and climate.