Atmospheric Composition

Driving climate change and governing air quality

Theme Leaders

	Dr Brian Kerridge Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
	Professor Martyn Chipperfield University of Leeds

Partners and Customers

By developing an integrated approach to the analysis of satellite measurements our goal is to provide new information on atmospheric composition and aerosols for air-pollution forecasting and testing climate models

There are large gaps in our understanding of the interactions between climate change and the trace gases and aerosols which are components of the atmosphere. These include the extent to which changes in climate will affect air pollution near the ground. Filling these gaps has been identified as a high priority for research by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The challenge is to use new EO data to investigate processes which determine the atmospheric distributions of trace gases and aerosols in the troposphere and lower stratosphere, their links to climate, pollution and air quality.

The goal of this part of the work is to provide new information on atmospheric composition for air-pollution forecasting and testing climate models through an integrated approach to the analysis of satellite measurements.

Our priorities include:

• To use satellite observations in a new, integrated approach to provide data on trace gases and aerosols in the troposphere and lower stratosphere
• To improve quantitative understanding of their distributions and emissions and the representation of relevant processes in global chemistry-transport models by exploiting the new data
• To contribute to national and European initiatives to establish new operational applications for satellite data to monitor pollution and forecast air quality.

Our current work includes:

• Development of individual sensor retrievals schemes, validation and intercomparisons focusing on MetOp satellite and ACE and MIPAS instrument on ENVISAT
• Use of chemical transport models (CTMs): TOMCAT and GEOS-Chem
• Initial comparisons of upper troposphere organics from CTM with limb-sounders
• Initial development of inverse modelling for CO, CH₄ and CO₂
• Development of Ensemble Kalman Filter assimilation tools for methane and shorter-lived gases
• Development of observation operators for MetOp and Envisat, initially for CTM comparisons on common basis and subsequently for assimilationFurther development of the nudged version of the coupled chemistry-climate model (CCM): UKCA
• Satellite observation operators for CCM comparisons on SCISAT-1/ACE, Envisat/MIPAS and ERS-2/GOME-1.