Abstract:

Atmospheric composition is affected by emissions from multiple sources at different spatial and temporal scales. Traditional methods for quantifying these emissions rely on surface-based survey or observation data, and the results are often called “bottom-up” estimates. In contrast, in part driven by the routine measurements of atmospheric states and surface properties from space, satellite data is now increasingly used to constrain emissions; these so-called “top-down” estimates have several advantages when it comes to spatial coverage and timely updates.

 In this talk, I will present the progress that my team (in collaboration with others) has made in top-down estimates of emissions from human activities, soils, and fires. I will show that multi-sensor data can provide coherent insights on the change in emissions and can be used as strong constraints to improve the forecasting of atmospheric composition. I will end the talk by highlighting recent developments of geostationary satellite constellation for atmospheric composition monitoring and the new opportunities to characterize the vertical distribution of aerosols from passive remote sensing techniques.   

Bio:

Jun Wang is James E. Ashton Professor in Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, and assistant director for Iowa Technology Institute in the University of Iowa.  His research focuses on the satellite remote sensing of atmosphere and fires as well as Earth System modeling. He received B.S. in atmospheric dynamics from NUIST in 1996, M.S. in meso-scale meteorology from IAP/CAS in 1999, and Ph.D. degree in atmospheric sciences in 2005 from University of Alabama –Huntsville under the support of NASA’s Earth System Sciences graduate fellowship. In 2005-2007, he was a postdoctoral researcher in Harvard University under the support of NOAA’s Climate and Global Change postdoctoral program. He received NASA’s New Investigator award in 2007, and his research has been funded by the NASA, NOAA, USDA, NSF, ONR, state agencies, and private sectors. He serves the research community through his role as an associate editor for journals such as Atmospheric Measurement Technique and Journal of Geophysical Research – Atmosphere and as an editor for Earth Sciences Reviews. He has authored 160+ research articles. He is also an editor for two books published in 2018: “Remote Sensing of Atmospheric Pollution” and “Remote Sensing of Aerosols, Clouds, and Precipitation”. More about his research team’s work can be found at: http://arroma.uiowa.edu