That smell has a name . It ’s called petrichor . For decades , scientist have speculated on where this flavour come from , but the mechanism behind the phenomenon has remained subtle . Now , researchers at MIT studying high-pitched - speed television of raindrop reckon they ’ve found the answer : The smell is secrete in flyspeck aerosol clouds that raindrops give out upon impact .
https://gizmodo.com/48-names-for-things-you-didnt-know-had-names-1300120352
https://gizmodo.com/what-really-causes-that-amazing-after-the-rain-smell-1167869568
investigator , go by MIT mechanical railroad engineer Cullen R. Buie , used high - speed cameras to show that , when a raindrop make a porous surface , petite bubbles of melody are trapped at the breaker point of inter-group communication . A fraction of a 2d later , the bubble issue onward , rising up and out of the fall in the form of a o.k. nebulizer :
Via MIT :
Using gamy - stop number camera , the research worker take note that when a raindrop score a porous open , it trap flyspeck gentle wind bubble at the tip of contact . As in a glass of champagne , the bubbles then shoot upward , ultimately abound from the drop cloth in a fizz of aerosols .
The investigator suspect that in born environments , aerosol container may extend redolent ingredient , along with bacteria and virus stored in land . These aerosol may be released during light or moderate rainfall , and then spread via gusts of wind .
“ pelting happens every day — it ’s raining now , somewhere in the world , ” read Cullen R. Buie , an adjunct prof of mechanical engineering at MIT . “ It ’s a very plebeian phenomenon , and it was intriguing to us that no one had observed this mechanism before . ”
Youngsoo Joung , a post doc in Buie ’s lab , adds that now that the radical has identified a chemical mechanism for raindrop - induced aerosol bomb generation , the results may avail to explicate how certain territory - based diseases spread .
“ Until now , people did n’t acknowledge that spray can could be generated from raindrops on soil , ” Joung say . “ This determination should be a good reference for succeeding work , illuminating microbe and chemical be inside dirt and other natural material , and how they can be delivered in the surround , and perchance to humans . ”
Read the full report in the latest issue ofNature Communications .
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