Center for Atmospheric Chemistry and the Environment

An interdisciplinary center, the Center for Atmospheric Chemistry and the Environment (CACE) aims to facilitate collaborative laboratory and field research projects with faculty members across campus, addressing the roles of atmospheric chemistry in fundamental chemical processes, environmental threats resulting from climate change, the exploration of new technologies and mitigation strategies to reduce the impacts of climate change, as well as chemical aspects of air quality and human health.

CACE also now houses a state-of-the-art micro-pulse LIDAR that is available to the campus science community for on and off campus field measurements. LIDAR, which stands for Light Detection and Ranging, uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to generate vertical maps of aerosol and cloud properties. The Sigma Space Mini Micropulse LiDAR (MPL) is operated by the Texas A&M University Center for Atmospheric Chemistry and Environment (CACE), and is located on the roof of the Eller Oceanography and Meteorology Building. The MPL is a highly efficient Single Photon LiDAR (SPL) system that does atmospheric monitoring of aerosols, gases, pollutants, cloud vertical structure, and boundary layer heights. It is an ultra portable LiDAR scanning system that operates unattended 24/7/365, and can also be deployed in a mobile setting. The real-time atmospheric mapping data from the MPL, empowers scientists, academia, meteorologists, and air quality professionals with an understanding of the small particles in our atmosphere that make a big impact on our environment and health. The MPL uses eye safe lasers, precision photon counting electronics, and built-in data analysis to deliver a rich source of atmospheric feature information for uncovering changes in our environment