MODELING NUCLEATION AND DROPLET GROWTH FOR ION-INDUCED NUCLEATION EXPERIMENTS IN-DIFFUSION CLOUD CHAMBERS

A model of ion-induced nucleation, droplet growth and motion processes in a diffusion cloud chamber is presented. The model predicts the arr ival time of the droplets with an accuracy greater than 95%. The model also explains the increase in the time corresponding to the maximum o f the nucleation pulse with increasing carrier gas pressure. Using thi s model it is possible to correlate the arrival time of the droplets w ith the height (temperature and supersaturation) where the nucleation events take place. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.