Description of the NRL isothermal haze chamber

In the IHC the critical supersaturation is inferred from the measurement of the size of particles which have grown to their equilibrium size at exactly 100 percent RH. The largest size channel corresponds to a critical supersaturation of 0.014 percent. The growth time required for particles of this size to reach their equilibrium size exceeds the 110 second residence time in the IHC. Since the supersaturation spectrum is always very steep in this region, the contribution of these larger particles which have not yet attained their equilibrium size to smaller size channels is negligible. However, failure of these particles to reach their equilibrium size could result in a significant lowering of the count in the size channel corresponding to the smaller critical supersaturation.