Welcome to the BACCHUS Ice Nucleation DataBase
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The BACCHUS project aims to quantify the influence of anthropogenic aerosols on cloud properties and to advance the understanding of key cloud-aerosol interations and feedback mechanisms. As a part of the strategy for Ice Nucleating Particles (IN or INP), the creation of a database of field observations is included.
 

A schematic of the objectives of the BACCHUS project

 
The BACCHUS IN Database (INDB) is intended to become a tool for the Ice Nucleation community, not only to help inform observational campaign planning but also to facilitate the provision of data to modelling studies and comparison reviews. Database users will not be confined to BACCHUS scientists. For external users wishing to join the INDB, click here.
 
The INDB is designed such that each dataset has two entries - the first which details all the general information of the dataset such as location, instrumentation and sampling conditions, and a second containing the data itself. This design allows for flexibility in the format and location of contributed data, as the search process only accesses the first of these two sections. Therefore, the actual data file can be in any format or even absent if storage in a 3rd party archive is prohibited by funding bodies. Of course, accepting data in any format would quickly make a large database impractical so datasets will ultimately be stored in NETcdf format. The flexibility in data format also allows the INDB to take a wide range of data types. Currently, the only requirements for data contribution are that the data relate to atmospheric INP concentration and/or chemical composition observations with a known location. In the future, the INDB might be opened up to include laboratory studies of INP and also field observations of ice residuals.
 

Selected observations of INP concentrations up to the year 2010. DeMott et al., PNAS 2010. DOI:10.1073/pnas.0910818107	Geographical representation of some selected observations of INP concentrations up to the year 2013 (points), compared with a model simulation of INP (map contours). Atkinson et al., Nature 2013 Supplementary Information. DOI:10.1038/nature12278

 
All contributed data will be legally protected by a data protocol (see here), which will protect the data providers ownership of all data including unpublished data. Accepting the protocol is a prerequisite to accessing the INDB; this protocol has been included into the BACCHUS Consortium Agreement and explicitly agreed to by all BACCHUS partners.