Advancing scientific understanding of climate, improving society’s ability to plan and respond
Advancing scientific understanding of climate, improving society’s ability to plan and respond
CPO attended an open house with media representatives at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio on August 3 showcasing three research aircraft used in the NOAA- and NASA-led research campaigns as part of a coordinated nationwide effort to study air quality this summer.
Using the “natural experiment” created by the significant reduction in emissions during mandated COVID-19 lockdown measures, researchers funded by AC4 and COM, two programs at the NOAA Climate Program Office, quantified human impacts on the urban atmosphere in Salt Lake City and evaluated the stationary and mobile monitoring systems in place.
This week, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) held a hybrid meeting to launch and celebrate the newly established Air Quality and Community Health Research (ACRS) Subcommittee of the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), led jointly by NOAA, EPA and NIEHS and co-chaired by CPO’s Atmospheric Chemistry, Carbon Cycle and Climate (AC4) Program Manager Monika Kopacz.
AC4-supported research team provides an essential evaluation of laser-based analyzing instruments needed to investigate sources and impacts of atmospheric methane emissions in cities affected by COVID-19 shutdowns.
Nitrogen reacts with oxygen and other chemical compounds to form atmospheric oxides, which significantly impact the chemical composition of our atmosphere, human and environmental health, and broader climate processes. These gases can be produced by a range of natural and anthropogenic sources including fossil fuel combustion and wildfires. The atmospheric chemistry research community has developed new methods to track the emission sources of these gases and their key chemical reactions by analyzing the stable isotopes of nitrogen and oxygen in the gas compounds. However, there is a lack of a well-established method to simultaneously differentiate and quantify the concentration and isotopic composition of multiple groups of nitrogen oxides.
The newly approved Air Quality and Community Health Research Subcommittee (ACRS) under the OSTP will be led jointly by NOAA, EPA and NIEHS and co-chaired by CPO’s Atmospheric Chemistry, Carbon Cycle and Climate (AC4) Program Manager Monika Kopacz.
An AC4-funded research study finds model bias related to aerosol concentrations compared to global aircraft field data, and corrects the bias using improved precipitation representation.
AC4-supported research uses controlled chamber experiments to study the atmospheric formation of secondary organic aerosols.
Researchers funded by AC4 advance modeling and prediction of black carbon using machine learning techniques.
Researchers funded by AC4 sample wildfire smoke in the Western US and characterized sources of atmospheric nitrous acid.