INSIDE THIS ISSUE

ICAS RESEARCH MAKES A

DIFFERENCE

KIT-LEEDS PARTNERSHIP

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: SEVERE

OZONE DEPLETION AVOIDED

PROJECT NEWS: ICE-D & MISSION

TO RULE THE WINDS

WELCOME: CATHRYN BIRCH &

AMANDA MAYCOCK

OUTREACH: THE AIR IN SALTAIRE

RESEARCH IMPACT

This month we highlight how ICAS’s research makes a difference outside academia.

In 2014 the nationwide assessment of the quality of research in Higher Education Institutions included an assessment of the impact of research. Impact is defined as "an effect on, change or benefit to the economy, society, culture, public policy or services, health, the environment or quality of life, beyond academia". We highlight three cases submitted by ICAS to the assessment.

Photo: Story—Mission to rule the winds . The LC-130 that brought the lidar and Ryan to Summit. It was the first flight of the Season. Credit: Ryan Neely.

ICAS Newsletter Issue 4 June 2015

Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science SCHOOL OF EARTH AND ENVIRONMENT

www.see.leeds.ac.uk/research/icas/ Twitter@ICASLeeds

To subscribe: http://lists.leeds.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/icas-newsletter

In 2014, the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) announced the results of the latest nationwide assessment of the quality of research in Higher Education Institutions; the Research Excellence Framework (REF). For the first time, institutions were assessed on the impact of their work as well as the quality of their research outputs. Impact is defined by HEFCE as "an effect on, change or benefit to the economy, society, culture, public policy or services, health, the environment or quality of life, beyond academia". ICAS was responsible for three out of the nine case studies submitted by the School of Earth and Environment. They underline the breadth and strength of research within our Institute and the importance of our partnerships, both with external organisations and with researchers from different disciplines.

Volcanic Hazard Recognised in UK National Risk Register The disruption to aviation caused by volcanic ash from the Eyjafyallajökull eruption of 2010, focused global attention on our vulnerability to volcanic hazards. Less well recognised are the toxic gases emitted by volcanoes, which have the potential to cause deterioration in air quality and consequently, a risk to human health.

ICAS researchers, working with colleagues from the Institute of Geophysics and Tectonics, studied

the case of the 1783-1784 Laki eruption in Iceland. Whilst an eruption of this type might be expected to occur only once every 200-500 years, the consequences are likely to be severe. Historical records, although sparse at that time, indicate that mortality rates increased significantly during the Laki eruption. Using the Global Model of Aerosol Processes (GLOMAP), developed in ICAS, researchers considered how the particles and gases from a future Laki-type eruption could spread and change within the atmosphere, and what effect this might have on air quality across Europe. The study revealed that concentrations of small

ICAS RESEARCH MAKES A DIFFERENCE

Figure: Illustrative comparison of pollution-induced visibility reductions with (a) showing typical particulate matter con-centrations (PM2.5) on a clean day and (b) on a polluted day in April 2011. For the Laki model simulation, daily mean particulate matter concentrations across Northern Europe during the first 3 months are of about the same magnitude as in (b). Note that the comparison is for illustrative purposes only because visibility reductions for the same change in par-ticulate matter concentrations will depend on relative humidity and chemical composition of the aerosol particles. Photo-graphs were taken by K.S. Carslaw (University of Leeds) in April 2011 near Burley in Wharfedale (United Kingdom).

Figure: Number of premature cardiopulmonary deaths in Europe due to long-term exposure to volcanic air pollution in the first year following the onset of a Laki-type eruption.

airborne particles could double during the first three months of an eruption, affecting cloud formation and the climate. The implications for health were examined using calculations of concentration response from health literature. It was estimated that up to 140,000 additional fatalities could occur across Europe within 12 months of a Laki-type eruption.

The work was the first to quantify the potential impact of this type of eruption on air quality and health, through innovative use of atmospheric modelling, volcanological data and epidemiological methods. The research team, working closely with the UK Met Office, were invited to advise the Cabinet Office on the risk to the UK of a similar Icelandic eruption. Following presentation of the research, gas-rich volcanic eruptions were included within the UK National Risk Register for Civil Emergencies with an impact classification of 4 out of 5, and a relative likelihood of occurrence in the next 5 years of between 1 in 200 and 1 in 20. Contingency planning has followed with the aim of preparing the UK for this type of event in future. The work has also served to raise the profile of large-scale gas-rich eruptions to wider government and the general public.

This work was led by Dr Anja

Influencing Forest Protection and Biofuel

Policy

Forests influence climate through complex physical, biological and chemical processes. Large areas of the world’s forests have been cleared to make way for agriculture, contributing to climate change. Research in ICAS has improved understanding of the climate impacts of forests and land-use change leading to international action to improve forest management.

Biofuels are often seen as an attractive option to mitigate anthropogenic climate change. However, replacing even a small fraction of global petrol or diesel consumption with liquid biofuels would require biofuel crops to be grown over very large areas of land. Researchers found that if forests are cleared to make way for biofuel crops, the resulting emissions of carbon outweigh the emissions avoided by use of the biofuel. The research demonstrated that protecting and restoring forests sequesters more carbon than using the same land to grow biofuels. In light of this work, researchers from ICAS provided expert advice to the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee and through this influenced the UK’s policy on biofuels. In 2011, the UK Government amended its biofuel policy to include mandatory sustainability criteria. Under the

ICAS RESEARCH MAKES A DIFFERENCE

Schmidt an Academic Research Fellow working in the ICAS Atmospheric Chemistry and Aerosols group. Her work focuses on quantifying the hazards and risks associated with volcanic eruptions. She collaborates with volcanologists in the School’s Institute of Geophysics and Tectonics and the National Centre for the Observation and Modelling of Earthquakes, Tectonics and Volcanoes (COMET). Dr Schmidt continues to provide expert advice to the UK government on volcanic hazards through work with the Met Office, Cabinet Office and Civil Contingencies Secretariat.

Photo: The vents and fissure of the 1783-1784 CE Laki eruption. Note the cars for scale. Photo taken by Alan Robock (Rutgers University).

Influencing Forest Protection and Biofuel

Policy (cont)

amendment, biofuel suppliers must account for land-use change emissions and be able to demonstrate that cultivation of biofuel crops do not result in deforestation. This policy amendment will help to ensure that biofuel use in the UK does not result in the clearance of natural forests across the world.

Research in ICAS has also focused on other ways that forests can impact climate. The work found that emissions of organic vapours from forests form tiny atmospheric particles that can alter the reflectivity of clouds, cooling the climate. Researchers also explored the impact of forests on rainfall patterns and found that rainfall increases downwind of forested areas in the tropics. The wide-range of research undertaken indicates that different approaches to forest management may have large implications for carbon emissions and regional climate.

As a result of this work significant

efforts have been made to improve

forest management and reduce

deforestation. Research studying

carbon storage in mountain forests in

Ecuador enabled the development of

a climate mitigation scheme by the

World Land Trust. This scheme

encouraged investment in forest

protection and reforestation. In 2009,

the research team co-established the

United Bank of Carbon with Betty’s

and Taylors Group and Delloite LLP.

The United Bank of Carbon is now a

registered charity, which brings

together researchers, businesses

and non-governmental organisations

to develop projects that help protect

the world’s forests. It has worked in

partnership with over 20 UK

businesses, led to significant

investments in forest protection,

improved management of large

areas of tropical forest and greatly

reduced the amount of carbon that

would otherwise have been released

into the atmosphere.

This work was led by Dr Dominick

Spracklen who is an Associate

Professor of Biosphere, Aerosol and

Climate. His research aims to

understand interactions between the

biosphere, atmosphere and climate

and the ways that these interactions

are influenced by human activity. Dr

Spracklen works with the

Atmospheric Chemistry and Aerosols

Group and the Climate Impacts

Group within ICAS. He is a member

of the steering group of the United

Bank of Carbon.

Improving Forecasts of Turbulence at Airports

Strong winds passing over and around hills and mountains can generate pockets of atmospheric turbulence. The localised effects can be difficult to forecast and present a significant hazard for aircraft. A new, innovative approach to predicting turbulence effects was developed by researchers at ICAS and the National Centre for Atmospheric Science, in partnership with the UK Met Office.

Certain airports, especially those located in the lee of a hill or a mountain can be affected by a particular type of atmospheric turbulence known as ‘rotor streaming’. When it occurs, conditions can be unsafe for aircraft to land. Research was undertaken over many years to improve understanding and prediction of this phenomenon. Extensive field campaigns using ground and aircraft observations in the Falkland Islands and Scotland provided data that allowed researchers to identify the key physical processes causing the localised turbulence. This work formed the basis for the development of a new numerical prediction model known as 3D Velocities Over Mountains or 3DVOM.

The model was used to forecast hazardous turbulence at Mount Pleasant Airport in the Falkland

ICAS RESEARCH MAKES A DIFFERENCE

KIT-LEEDS PARTNERSHIP The partnership aims to foster scientific collaboration between the ICAS (including NCAS researchers at Leeds) and the Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research (IMK, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology).

IMK has four sub-institutes studying:

Atmospheric Processes of the

Troposphere (TRO), Atmospheric

Trace Gases and Remote Sensing

(ASF), Atmospheric Aerosol

Research (AAF) and Atmospheric

Environmental Research (IFU, in

Garmisch). This remit gives many

synergies with ICAS spanning

aerosol science, cloud microphysics,

planetary boundary-layer dynamics,

atmospheric dynamics, convection,

land-surface processes, biosphere-

atmosphere interactions, climate and

climate impacts. Frequently IMK and

ICAS have access to different

laboratory, field and modelling tools

allowing complementary or joint

studies. Past and ongoing projects

include CSIP, COPS, AMMA,

DACCIWA, Desert Storms,

StratoClim and BACCHUS, as well

as other less formal collaborations.

As well as activities such as

formalised exchange of speakers

within each others seminar series,

the partnership facilitates more ad-

hoc visits by PhDs, PDRAs and

academic staff. For example, this

summer three IMK students will visit

Leeds (Ullrich Romy working on ice

nucleation and Konrad Deetz and

Marlon Mararan for DACCIWA).

Please ensure that they are made

welcome. Anyone from ICAS wishing

to visit IMK please discuss the

potential with your supervisor and

John Marsham (Leeds co-ordinator

of the partnership).

Islands. The airport often suffers from severe turbulence which can prevent incoming aircraft from landing. If conditions are considered unsafe then the consequences are significant, as flights must be redirected to South American airports at least 3 hours away. The diversions incur significant costs in additional aviation fuel, airport charges and accommodation. The implementation of the new 3DVOM model helped to avoid approximately five diversions per year, saving up to £1.25 million pounds.

Following the successful deployment of 3D VOM in the Falklands it was subsequently integrated into the Met Office suite of forecasting models. The model was further developed through the study of wind hazard at airfields across North Yorkshire and in Switzerland, demonstrating that the techniques developed for the Falkland Islands could be adapted to other sites. Operational use was extended to four mountainous regions of the UK and following this to areas of Ireland. Forecasters use

the model to produce warnings of hazardous turbulence for both the Ministry of Defence and national civil aviation authorities in order that flight plans can be adjusted. The model is also used to assess the risk of overturning to high-sided vehicles on exposed roads. This research innovation is now a crucial tool for UK forecasters and has resulted in transport cost savings and improvements to public safety.

This work was led by Professor Stephen Mobbs Director of the National Centre for Atmospheric Science and Professor of Atmospheric Dynamics. He is a member of the Natural Environmental Research Council’s Executive Board and a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society.

Photo: Mount Pleasant Airport. Credit Donald Morrison

ICAS RESEARCH MAKES A DIFFERENCE

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Doug Parker picked up the Vaisala Award on behalf of the AMMA Radiosonde

Team.

"The Professor Vilho Väisälä Award was established in 1985. It is administered by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and awarded to stimulate interest in meteorological research that involves meteorological observation methods and instruments. The Award recognizes outstanding research papers and it comprises cash, a medal and a diploma.”

The first Professor Vilho Väisälä Award presentation ceremony took place in 1986 at the Vaisala headquarters in Vantaa. The presentation of the very first award coincided with the 50th anniversary of the founding of Vaisala Oy. Since 1986, the call for papers eligible for the Professor Vilho Väisälä Award has been made annually to the permanent representatives of the WMO in each country.

In 2004, the WMO Executive Council decided to establish a second Professor Vilho Väisälä Award. The main focus of this new award is meteorological instrument work in developing countries and countries with economies in transition. At the

aerosol-cloud radiative forcing (the change in energy in the atmosphere due to GHG emissions which contributes to climate change) from the pre-industrial. This uncertainty hampers efforts to constrain climate sensitivity to man made emissions and hence projections of future climate change. Douglas is currently using the Global Model of Aerosol Processes (GLOMAP) here at Leeds and the Unified Model, incorporating the dedicated UK Chemistry and Aerosol model (UKCA), at the Met Office to identify climate relevant natural feedback regimes across the industrial period and into the future. His current research interests involving natural aerosol interactions with the Earth system and Climate; covering such questions as: Where natural aerosols are still the dominant fraction of the atmosphere? What impacts have anthropogenic emissions had on natural emissions? What natural aerosol feedbacks are potentially important in a future changing climate? Erin Dawkins (ICAS) - Dawkins, E.C.M., J.M.C. Plane, M.P. Chipperfield, W. Feng, J. Gumbel, J. Hedin, J. Hoffner and J. S. Friedman, First global observations of the mesospheric potassium layer, Geophys. Res. Lett., 41, 5653-5661, doi:10.1002/2014GL060801, 2014. Erin’s PhD examined satellite observations of metal layers in the mesosphere a layer of Earth's atmosphere. The mesosphere is directly above the stratosphere and below the thermosphere. It extends from about 50 to 85 km (31 to 53 miles) above our planet.

same time, the WMO Executive Council adopted new guidelines for granting the Professor Vilho Väisälä Awards. Both awards are granted biannually in connection with the WMO TECO/METEOREX conference and carry a cash prize of US$ 10,000."

The 2014 Awards and Prizes were

presented following the Royal

Meteorological Society’s Annual

General Meeting on Wednesday 20

May 2015.

Postgraduate

Researcher

Publication Prize

2014/15

Congratulations to Douglas Hamilton and Erin Dawkins on being awarded the School 2014/15 Postgraduate Researcher Publication Prize and Leighton Regayre for his commended paper.

This event is now in its 5th year and

the Committee continues to be impressed with the quality of the nominations. A high number of nominations were received and it is encouraging to have so many researchers taking part and making such a great contribution to the success of the School.

Details of the winning papers and their authors can be found below.

Prize winners Douglas Hamilton (ICAS) - Hamilton, D. S., Lee, L. a, Pringle, K. J., Reddington, C. L., Spracklen, D. V and Carslaw, K. S. (2014). Occurrence of pristine aerosol environments on a polluted planet. PROC. NATL. ACAD. SCI. U.S.A. 111(52), pp18466–18471. doi:10.1073/pnas.1415440111 Uncertainty in natural aerosol emissions is at the core of the uncertainty in the magnitude of

used a state-of-the-art 3D computer model of atmospheric chemistry to investigate what would have happened to the ozone layer if the Montreal Protocol had not been implemented.

Professor Chipperfield said: “Ozone depletion in the polar regions depends on meteorology, especially the occurrence of cold temperatures at about 20km altitude – colder temperatures cause more loss. Other studies which have assessed the importance of the Montreal Protocol have used models to predict atmospheric winds and temperatures and have looked a few decades into the future. The predictions of winds and temperatures in these models are uncertain, and probably underestimate the extent of cold winters.”

“We have used actual observed meteorological conditions for the past few decades. This gives a more accurate simulation of the conditions for polar ozone loss.”

The researchers suggest that the hole in the ozone layer over the Antarctic would have grown in size by an additional 40% by 2013. Their model also suggests that had ozone-

Severe ozone

depletion avoided

We are already reaping the rewards of the Montreal Protocol, with the ozone layer in much better shape than it would have been without the UN treaty, according to a new study in Nature Communications.

Study lead author Professor Martyn Chipperfield, from the School of Earth & Environment at the University of Leeds, said: “Our research confirms the importance of the Montreal Protocol and shows that we have already had real benefits. We knew that it would save us from large ozone loss 'in the future', but in fact we are already past the point when things would have become noticeably worse.”

Although the Montreal Protocol came into force in 1987 and restricted the use of ozone-depleting substances, atmospheric concentrations of these harmful substances continued to rise as they can survive in the atmosphere for many years. Concentrations peaked in 1993 and have subsequently declined.

In the new study, the researchers

depleting substances continued to increase, the ozone layer would have become significantly thinner over other parts of the globe.

Professor Chipperfield said he undertook this study because of the exceptionally cold Arctic winter of 2010/11.

“We could see that previous models used to predict the impact of the Montreal Protocol in the future would not have predicted such extreme events and we wondered how much worse things could have been if the Montreal Protocol had not been in place,” he said.

Without the Montreal Protocol, the new study reveals that a very large ozone hole over the Arctic would have occurred during that cold winter and smaller Arctic ozone holes would have become a regular occurrence.

The Montreal Protocol has been strengthened over time through amendments and adjustments, supported by ongoing research. The researchers behind the new study say that scientists must continue to monitor the situation to ensure all potential threats to the ozone layer

Photo: Arctic ozone without the Montreal Protocol (left) and following its implementation (right) on 26 March 2011. Credit: Sandip Dhomse

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

playing a major part in the project principally because it can measure the raindrops that are expected to be lifted above the 0 degree level in the updrafts. These supercooled raindrops are believed to play a crucial role in the initiation of ice and the subsequent production of secondary ice splinters.

The FAAM BAe 146 aircraft will be flying within the clouds and in their environment. Measurements will be made of the aerosol particles with several instruments and filters which will then be processed to determine the ice nucleating properties of the particles. The cloud particle size distribution will be measured optimally as the cloud top ascends. The hope is to make observations when dust is present in high concentrations at appropriate altitudes and when almost no dust is present. In addition, the convective clouds in the region are known to be important since they can form clusters that lead to storms and hurricanes in the tropical Atlantic.

Model results will be compared with the observations of the initiation temperatures and rates of growth and development. A spectrum of models ranging from climate through regional NWP to explicit bin-microphysical process-based models

ICE-D

A group of NCAS and ICAS scientists will be participating in the Ice in Clouds Experiment – Dust (ICE-D), based in Praia, Cape Verde, during July and August this year. The project is being led jointly by scientists in NCAS, ICAS and the Met Office and also involves the University of

Manchester.

The Leeds people are Alan Blyth, Ryan Neely, Lindsay Bennett, Paul Field, Ben Murray, Jim McQuaid, Hannah Price, James Groves and Dan Walker. The goal is to determine how desert dust affects primary nucleation of ice particles in convective and layer clouds and the subsequent development of precipitation and glaciation of the clouds. Dust is thought to be an important aerosol particle in the Earth system mainly because the dust particles themselves, and particles that are chemically and possibly biologically modified as they are transported from their source, are believed to be the most important ice nuclei in a global sense and because dust particles are transported to many parts of the globe. Predicting the initiation and subsequent evolution of the size distribution of ice particles in clouds from a distribution of aerosol particles is one of the key problems in atmospheric science.

The lack of understanding of the processes causes significant uncertainty in the way global models treat the interaction of radiation with ice and mixed-phase clouds and the development of precipitation. They also cause uncertainty in Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models. ICE-D will address this problem by making measurements of aerosols and cloud particles close to one of the largest sources of desert dust in the world.

The dual-polarisation NCAS-AMF X-band radar based within ICAS will be

will be compared with the data, used as forecasting tools, and as tools to interpret the data and to develop or improve parameterizations in NWP and global climate models.

The logistics of shipping the NCAS radar to Cape Verde, its first major expedition abroad, and deploying it in Praia have been formidable. The antenna had to be taken off and packed in a large crate to protect it, and the trailer itself placed on a flat-rack, since the whole system is just too wide and tall for a shipping container.

Mission to rule the

winds

The NCAS Lidar “Flossy” has been helping a European Space Agency (ESA) Earth Explorer Core Mission, ADM-Aeolus. See

photo back page.

The mission ADM-Aeolus, named after the ruler of the winds in Greek mythology is a new satellite designed

PROJECT NEWS

NCAS radar in action in Cape Verde

to improve the accuracy of global wind profiles and so improving the accuracy of climate and weather forecasting and our knowledge of climate dynamics.

Ryan Neely (Lecturer of Observation Atmospheric Science in NCAS and ICAS) has been at Summit Station (72° 36'N, 38° 25'W, 3250m), with Flossy atop the Greenland Ice Sheet helping the DLR, ESA and NASA scientists validate a satellite test instrument that is flown on aircraft for this campaign. The NCAS lidar is providing” truth” for them.

While doing this they are also making the first continuous measurements of the entire boundary layer over the Greenland Ice sheet with a Doppler Aerosol Wind lidar. This should provide us with new insights on the dynamics of the boundary layer. It is in coordination with the ICECAPS project.

ICECAPS Observatory at Summit:

In the spring of 2010, the ongoing measurements at Summit Station (72° 36'N, 38° 25'W, 3250m), atop the Greenland Ice Sheet, were significantly enhanced with new capabilities to observe cloud and atmosphere properties.

These upgrades were made by the Integrated Characterisation of

Energy, Clouds, Atmospheric state, and Precipitation at Summit (ICECAPS) project, which is collaboratively-lead by the Universities of Colorado, Idaho, Wisconsin, and Oklahoma. New instruments at the site include: cloud radar, depolarization lidar, micropulse lidar, infrared spectrometer, two microwave radiometers, ceilometer, precipitation occurrence sensor, and a twice-daily radiosonde program. The ICECAPS program will continue through summer of 2019 at a minimum. Overall programmatic and logistical support for these operations is provided by the National Science Foundation. Additional instrumental

PROJECT NEWS support is provided by the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, the DOE Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program, and Environment Canada.

Summit Station:

Summit Camp is located at the peak of the Greenland Ice Sheet at 72°35'46.4"N 38°25'19.1”W and 10,530 ft elevation (~3.2km above mean sea level). Summit is a scientific research station sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The population of the station is typically five in wintertime, and has peaked at 55 in the summer.

Summit Camp was originally established in April 1989 in support of the Greenland Ice Sheet Project Two (GISP2) deep ice coring effort. Now Summit is a world renown research station with instruments from around the world that measure the atmosphere, surface and ice year round.

Front page photo: The LC-130 that brought the lidar and Ryan to Summit. It was the first flight of the Season. Credit: Ryan Neely.

A close up of the lidar on the roof in the afternoon sun. Credit: Ryan Neely.

Using heavy equipment to put the lidar on the roof. Credit: Ryan Neely.

Cathryn Birch

Cathryn joins ICAS as a tenure track Academic Research Fellow. Cathryn completed her degree in Environmental Science, with focus on Meteorology, within SEE in 2006 and went on to do a PhD in Arctic Meteorology that included

field work in the high Arctic.

She made a transition to warmer climates during her post-doc in SEE, where she utilised state-of-the-art high-resolution weather models to assess the predictability of tropical weather systems and to diagnose key biases in climate models.

Cathryn developed strong links to the Met Office during her PhD and post-

doc that then led to a joint Leeds-Met Office Senior Scientist position, which was designed to facilitate closer collaboration between the two institutions. During this position Cathryn received two prestigious prizes for her research in Tropical Meteorology: the Royal Meteorological Society L F Richardson Prize, which is awarded annually for a meritorious paper published by an early career researcher and the European Meteorology Society Young Scientist Award, which is awarded annually to acknowledge excellence in research.

Cathryn will begin a prestigious University Academic Fellowship within SEE on 1st July 2015. This is a landmark recruitment for ICAS, since she is the first person from the ICAS undergraduate degree programme to gain an academic staff position within the school.

Cathryn brings expertise to SEE in process study within dynamical meteorology and in high-resolution modelling of weather and climate. During the fellowship Cathryn will work to better understand the drivers of high impact weather on a range of timescales and develop links with flood forecasters and hydrologists through links with the Met Office and industry. Such events are likely to increase under climate change and this work is crucial for improving our capacity to forecast severe weather and flooding on timescales of a few days and to understand how the risk of these events will change in the future. In addition to the UK, developing countries, where the impact of severe weather is generally greater, will also benefit from this research.

WELCOME

Amanda Maycock

Amanda joins ICAS as a tenure track University Academic Fellow. Amanda is a global climate modeller with expertise in the interactions between the stratosphere and troposphere. After studying physics in Manchester, she completed an MSc and PhD in Atmospheric Science at the University of Reading before undertaking a brief post-doc at the University of Oxford.

Amanda will join ICAS from the University of Cambridge, where she has most recently held an AXA Postdoctoral Fellowship, a Junior Research Fellowship at St Catharine’s College, and a position as NCAS Research Associate.

Amanda’s PhD work focused on the climate impacts of stratospheric water vapour trends. She has a broader interest in the chemical, radiative and dynamical impacts of stratospheric composition trends on the troposphere. She has spent much of her time at Cambridge interacting with atmospheric chemical modellers to understand coupled chemistry-climate processes. Some recent work highlighted an important climate feedback mechanism involving circulation driven ozone trends in the tropical upper troposphere/lower stratosphere. She has active research collaborations with the UK Met Office, NOAA in Boulder, and GEOMAR in Kiel.

Having been awarded a prestigious NERC Independent Research Fellowship, Amanda will take up this appointment in ICAS in September jointly with a position as University Academic Fellow (UAF) in Climate Dynamics.

WELCOME

Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science

School of Earth and Environment

Institute Director, Professor Ken Carslaw

Earth and Environment Building

Leeds LS2 9JT, UK

Telephone: 0113 343 2846

www.see.leeds.ac.uk/research/icas/

Twitter@ICASLeeds

THE AIR IN SALTAIRE

This summer Kirsty Pringle is running a citizen science experiment to measure the amount of particulate matter air pollution in Saltaire, Bradford. They are equipping local residents with low cost particulate monitors so they can take measurements around the town. This community-led approach allows people to examine the air quality issues that they are most interested in. The team will then use their scientific experience to collate and interpret the data so they can inform residents about the levels of pollution, and where it's coming from. They will also use the results to examine how their research helps us to understand and predict the level of particulate matter pollution.

The project will present its results at the British Science Festival in Bradford on the 8th September and the Saltaire Festival of Science Fair on the 12th September. All welcome!

More details are available on the project web page (https://theairinsaltaire.wordpress.com/).

The lidar being tested outside at -45C for the first

time ever on Greenland Ice Sheet. Credit: Ryan Neely