Research Statement
My group’s research seeks to answer fundamental questions about the chemistry that drives variability in concentrations of atmospheric gases and particle that influence climate change air pollution formation focusing on chemistry that takes place in the lowest level of the atmosphere, the troposphere, by fully exploiting new and existing datasets to improve models of atmospheric chemistry used by scientists and policy makes. The general themes of my research include halogens, oxidants, heterogeneous chemistry in the atmosphere, VOCs, and NOx. Broadly, my group’s research centers around understanding how continued anthropogenic emission decreases will impact air quality, how climate impacts like increasing temperatures, more frequent droughts, increasing water vapor, and land use changes will impact natural emissions of different chemical compounds and how those changes will impact which reactions are most important now and in the future, as they relate to atmospheric oxidant availability, air quality, and climate. Specifically, our group’s research is interested in better understanding the role of tropospheric halogen reactions as they relate to local air quality issues in Utah and in Asia, and in how they control atmospheric methane concentrations. But we also focus on research understanding how climate change will impact biogenic emissions and dust emissions, and how those changes will impact air quality of the future.
My group’s research sits at the intersection of atmospheric modeling and measurement, such that we utilize a variety of models of different scales, we make our own measurements in the field of particle composition, and we assimilate measurements from a variety of different sources from measurements made by others. My group uses the global Chemical transport model, GEOS-Chem as its primary global modelling tool and the Framework for 0-D Atmospheric Modelling as its primary box modelling tool. Unlike other atmospheric modeling centered groups, we do have a lab and make our own measurements at ground-based sites, and don’t use one specific model in scientific applications, but tend to utilize models of a variety of different scales for different problems.
Ongoing projects in my group include adding and assessing the impact of known halogen sources that GEOS-Chem does not include (e.g. road salt, salt from dust), improving the model’s representation of heterogeneous chemistry processes (e.g. reactions between compounds in different phases), and assessing and improving model representations of SOA production and loss. These projects typically focus on chemistry involving halogens in the atmosphere (Cl, I, Br), heavy metals (Fe, Hg), and organic compounds (isoprene/monoterpenes) and frequently focus on adding new sources of such compounds to the model, evaluating the emissions of these compounds and the accuracy of the chemistry they undergo in the model, developing and evaluating explicit and reduced form chemical mechanisms, and assessing the global importance and impact of new reactions and parameterizations shown through based on lab experiments or theoretical calculations to influence atmospheric oxidant concentrations and air quality.
Research Keywords
- Atmospheric Sciences
- Atmospheric Chemistry
- Air Pollution
- Climate Change
- Atmospheric nighttime chemistry
- oxidants
- halogens
- salt
- Atmospheric Aerosols
- particulate matter
- Marine Atmospheric Chemistry
Research Groups
- Shuying Zhao, Graduate Student. Atmospheric Sciences. 09/01/2023 - present. Awards/Scholarships/Stipends: GCSC Travel Fellowship 2023.
- Joey Bail, Graduate Student. Atmospheric Sciences. 09/01/2023 - present. Awards/Scholarships/Stipends: GCSC Travel Grant.
- Alfred Mayhew, Postdoc. Atmospheric Sciences. 07/15/2023 - present. Awards/Scholarships/Stipends: Wilkes Climate Center Postdoctoral Fellowship.
- Tyson Trimble, Undergraduate Student. 07/01/2023 - 09/01/2023.
- Sylvie Shaya, Undergraduate Student. REALM REU Student. 07/01/2023 - 09/01/2023.
- Todd Clark, Undergraduate Student. Chemical Engineering. 05/01/2023 - present. Awards/Scholarships/Stipends: Wilkes Climate Center Undergraduate Fellow.
- Lexy Miller, Undergraduate Student. 05/01/2023 - 09/01/2023.
- Andrew Coda, Undergraduate Student. Chemical Engineering. 05/01/2023 - 12/31/2023.
Presentations
- American Chemical Society Annual Meeting. (2023). Utilizing new lab insights & observational data to improve organic nitrate formation & loss mechanisms in global atmospheric chemistry models. Indianapolis, IL. INVITED. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 04/15/2023.
- Science for Solutions: Utah Dept. of Air Quality Meeting. (2023). Halogens & Local Air Quality: An Overview. Salt Lake City, UT. Talk. Conference Paper, Presented, 03/25/2023.
Research Equipment and Testing Expertise
- GEOS-Chem Global Chemical Transport Model. Contact: Jessica Haskins , 8015851414 , INSCC 486.