The Centre for Atmospheric and Instrumentation Research (CAIR) at the University of Hertfordshire has been active for more than twenty years in the development of techniques and instruments for the detection, characterisation, and potential identification of airborne particles. This work, based on light scattering and related phenomena, has embraced areas such as the detection of airborne asbestos fibres, the monitoring and classification of particulates emitted from stacks in power stations, incinerators, etc., and source apportionment of airborne particulate pollutants in urban environments.

More recently, our work has focused on two key areas: the detection and classification of airborne biological particles in ambient environments, and the measurement and classification of atmospheric cloud particles, especially cloud ice crystals.