Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year. (2017-2018 to 2022-2023)

The chemical composition of the Earth’s atmosphere is changing due to the influence of human activity. These changes are affecting, and will continue to affect, the quality of life on Earth. Currently, three of the most important issues in atmospheric science are ozone layer recovery, emission and transport of air pollutants and climate change because of their negative effects on human health and ecosystems. Measurements of atmospheric gases are necessary to understand these issues and to monitor atmospheric gases as part of international treaties and protocols. To address these issues, my research group makes measurements from the ground to study the chemical makeup of the Earth's atmosphere and how it is changing with time. To further this research program, we will undertake the following projects over the next five years.
1) Portable instruments provide atmospheric information that is complementary to that collected from satellites and permanent observatories. These movable instruments can be used to create a temporary observatory or to augment the capabilities of an existing observatory. Using a portable instrument (PARIS-IR), this project will build on past measurements of the high Arctic atmosphere in springtime to create a fifteen-year long data set of key chemicals involved in climate change, air pollution and depletion of the ozone layer. Along with measurements made in Ontario, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia, these observations will be used to investigate how different instruments on the ground "see" what is happening in the atmosphere. These results will be used to determine how a portable instrument can be best used to calibrate measurements made at different permanent observatories and to further our understanding of the changing atmosphere.
2) Depletion of the ozone layer occurs each spring when sunlight returns to the Arctic. However, the amount of depletion that occurs varies significantly from year-to-year due to differences such as atmospheric temperature. Thus, to have a more complete picture of how ozone losses occur, year-round measurements of ozone as well as the gases involved in ozone destruction reactions are required. The useful millimeter-wave radiometry technique provides measurements of atmospheric gases during both day and night. Because these instruments do not require sunlight to operate, year-round measurements can be collected in the high Arctic, the region that experiences extended periods of darkness during winter. This project will develop the data processing methods needed to turn measurements of the atmosphere into profiles of how chemical concentrations change with height. This data processing method will be used to extract data from a new instrument that is being developed to study ozone depletion at the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory in Eureka, Nunavut (80 N, 1100 km from the North Pole).