The climate feedbacks involved with these changes, which are key in understanding the climate system as a whole, include: + the
importance of
aerosol absorption on climate + the impact of
aerosol deposition which affects biology and, hence, emissions of
aerosols and
aerosol precursors via
organic nitrogen,
organic phosphorus and iron fertilization + the
importance of land use and land use changes on natural and anthropogenic
aerosol sources + the SOA sources and impact on climate, with special attention on the impact human activities have on natural SOA formation In order to quantitatively answer such questions I perform simulations of the past, present and future atmospheres, and make comparisons with measurements and remote sensing data, all of which help understand, evaluate and improve the model's parameterizations and performance, and our understanding of the Earth system.
In particular, we evaluate non-sea-salt sulfate (nss - SO4 =), ammonium (NH4 +), nitrate (NO3 --RRB-, black carbon (BC), sea - salt, dust, primary and secondary
organics (POA and SOA) with a focus on the
importance of secondary
organic aerosols.
Topics that I work on or plan to work in the future include studies of: + missing
aerosol species and sources, such as the primary oceanic
aerosols and their
importance on the remote marine atmosphere, the in - cloud and
aerosol water aqueous formation of
organic aerosols that can lead to brown carbon formation, the primary terrestrial biological particles, and the
organic nitrogen + missing
aerosol parameterizations, such as the effect of
aerosol mixing on cloud condensation nuclei and
aerosol absorption, the semi-volatility of primary
organic aerosols, the
importance of in - canopy processes on natural terrestrial
aerosol and
aerosol precursor sources, and the mineral dust iron solubility and bioavailability + the change of
aerosol burden and its spatiotemporal distribution, especially with regard to its role and
importance on gas - phase chemistry via photolysis rates changes and heterogeneous reactions in the atmosphere, as well as their effect on key gas - phase species like ozone + the physical and optical properties of
aerosols, which affect
aerosol transport, lifetime, and light scattering and absorption, with the latter being very sensitive to the vertical distribution of absorbing
aerosols +
aerosol - cloud interactions, which include cloud activation, the
aerosol indirect effect and the impact of clouds on
aerosol removal + changes on climate and feedbacks related with all these topics In order to understand the climate system as a whole, improve the
aerosol representation in the GISS ModelE2 and contribute to future IPCC climate change assessments and CMIP activities, I am also interested in understanding the
importance of natural and anthropogenic
aerosol changes in the atmosphere on the terrestrial biosphere, the ocean and climate.