Sulfuric acid formation from atmospheric sulfur trioxide and disulfur oxide: is one water molecule enough?

Sulfate aerosols significantly affect the amount of solar radiation reaching the Earth, influencing the nett energy balance and helping to counterbalance global warming. A major source of these aerosols is sulfuric acid. Understanding the sources and formation rates of sulfuric acid production is of considerable importance for global climate models. A unique world-leading apparatus, which probes molecular arrangements through photoelectron imaging, will investigate sulfur trioxide and disulfur oxide, and their interaction with water molecules. The nature of these clusters will be characterized. The optimum number of water molecules and their arrangement required for sulfuric acid formation, known to be more than one, will be determined.