Atmospheric Chemistry, Carbon Cycle and Climate (AC4)

Dr. Sally Ng, an atmospheric scientist funded by CPO’s Atmospheric Chemistry Carbon Cycle and Climate (AC4) program, is featured in a NOAA Research “Meet Our Scientsits” profile as part of Women’s History Month.

Recent research suggests a more active carbon dioxide (CO₂) cycle in high northern latitude ecosystems as a result of Arctic climate change.

As air pollution from vehicle emissions decline, the response of pollutants from other sources to temperature is becoming an important factor in high-aerosol and high-ozone events in the Los Angeles megacity region. 

The NOAA GeoXO Atmospheric Composition (AC) Town Hall will be held on April 29, 2021, from 12-4 pm EST to introduce the GeoXO mission to the AC community and share potential AC capabilities from this next-generation NOAA geostationary satellite system. 

Using data sampled from wildfires across the US in the 2018 Western Wildfire Experiment for Cloud Chemistry, Aerosol Absorption, and Nitrogen (WE-CAN) campaign, this study is the first to quantify ice nucleating particles within wildfire smoke plumes in the free troposphere.

A research team funded in part by CPO’s Atmospheric Chemistry, Carbon Cycle, & Climate (AC4) program observed and summarized the evolution of reactive oxidized nitrogen species in sampled from wildfire plumes as part of the Western Wildfire Experiment for Cloud Chemistry, Aerosol Absorption, and Nitrogen (WE-CAN) field campaign.

Can semi-continuous carbon dioxide measurements taken from an instrument placed on top of a mobile light rail tram usefully improve urban emission estimates? Researchers, funded in part by CPO’s Atmospheric Chemistry, Carbon Cycle, & Climate (AC4) program, demonstrate not only that the measurements improve emission estimates but also that the measurements better capture spatial differences in emissions. 

A research team, funded in part by CPO’s Atmospheric Chemistry, Carbon Cycle, & Climate (AC4) program, participated in the 2018 WE-CAN field campaign and used resulting emission samples from 23 wildfires to better understand reactive nitrogen in wildfire plumes in order to improve air quality forecasts.

Funded in part by CPO’s Atmospheric Chemistry, Carbon Cycle, & Climate program, this study analyzed trends in two well-known precursors of ozone and their relationship to high ozone events in the Los Angeles basin over the last two decades. In particular, continued heat events will probably be associated with more high ozone events.