The Impact of Asian Pollution on the Stratosphere

About the NASA Postdoctoral Program

The NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) offers unique research opportunities to highly-talented scientists to engage in ongoing NASA research projects at a NASA Center, NASA Headquarters, or at a NASA-affiliated research institute. These one- to three-year fellowships are competitive and are designed to advance NASA’s missions in space science, Earth science, aeronautics, space operations, exploration systems, and astrobiology.

Description

Rapid economic growth in Asia since the last three (3) decades has had profound societal and environmental impacts. Air quality has reached catastrophic levels leaving millions of people exposed to dangerous life-threatening pollutants often causing premature death for the most vulnerable. During the Summer Asian Monsoon, pollutants are redistributed throughout the atmosphere and can in turn affect monsoon precipitation from which 1/3 of the world population relies on.

Through space-borne satellite observations, in situ airborne measurements and numerical simulations, our group studies how Asian pollution is transported into the stratosphere during the Summer Asian Monsoon.

The Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) and the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiments (SAGE) provided unique sets of space-based observations since more than three (3) decades to study the impacts of Asian pollution on aerosol distribution in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. They revealed the presence of a recurrent summertime aerosol layer named the Asian Tropopause Aerosol Layer coincident with enhanced pollution markers such as Carbon Monoxide (CO) and Hydrogen Cyanide (HCN).

Satellite observations have been validated through a series of balloon campaigns organized since 2014 in India and Saudi Arabia. The Balloon measurement campaigns of the ATAL (BATAL) provides a unique set of in situ measurements to assess the optical, physical and chemical properties of ATAL and understand its nature, origin and impacts. The BATAL project is under an International Agreement between two major space organizations, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and NASA.

The origin of air masses sampled during the BATAL campaigns are studied with a combined approach using trajectory calculations and observations of deep convective clouds using geostationary satellites. Finally, numerical simulations with the state-of-the-art GEOS-chem model are analyzed to assess the contribution of Asian countries on the aerosol budget in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere and the role of anthropogenic versus natural emissions.

Location

Langley Research Center
Hampton, Virginia

Field of Science

Earth Science

Advisors

Jean-Paul Vernier
jeanpaul.vernier@nasa.gov
757-759-0835

Qualifications

• Degree: Doctoral Degree.

Eligibility

• U.S. Citizens;
• U.S. Lawful Permanent Residents (LPR);
• Foreign Nationals eligible for an Exchange Visitor J-1 visa status; and,
• Applicants for LPR, asylees, or refugees in the U.S. at the time of application with 1) a valid EAD card and 2) I-485 or I-589 forms in pending status

Questions

Please email npp@orau.org if you have questions about this opportunity.