Descrizione del progetto
Modellare la deposizione di ozono su una delle più grandi interfacce al mondo
Man mano che l’ozono (O3) scende dalla stratosfera sulla superficie terrestre, questa barriera ai raggi ultravioletti, causa di cancro, diventa il terzo più importante gas serra e un inquinante atmosferico dannoso per la salute umana, gli ecosistemi vegetali, la sicurezza alimentare e l’economia. L’O3 si sposta dall’aria alle superfici terrestri in un processo chiamato deposizione secca. Dal momento che gli oceani coprono il 70 % della superficie terrestre, la deposizione secca oceanica è il più grande serbatoio di deposizione, le cui dimensioni però restano incerte, soprattutto a causa della difficoltà di misurazione. O3-SML combina la modellazione e le innovative osservazioni sperimentali per quantificare con maggiore precisione il flusso globale di deposizione oceanica, riducendo l’incertezza della deposizione secca totale di O3 e fornendo informazioni ai modelli climatici per una migliore previsione dei cambiamenti futuri.
Obiettivo
Tropospheric ozone is a significant climate gas and has a major influence on air quality, public health, and food security. Ozone is lost to the Earth’s surface directly by “dry deposition”, which is an important loss process for this gas. Since the ocean represents 70% of the surface, uncertainties in the dry deposition to the “sea surface microlayer” (SML) of the ocean translate into large differences in the predicted global ocean dry deposition flux. There has been very limited experimental quantification of ozone deposition over the oceans, because making such measurements is technically very challenging, and estimates of oceanic ozone deposition velocities vary widely. The mechanistic details of the process are incomplete and parameterisations in models are untested against observations. This loss of ozone is acknowledged to be controlled predominantly by chemical reactions in the SML involving iodide and organic material, which not only determine how quickly ozone can be irreversibly taken up at the ocean surface, but may also constitute a source of trace gases to the marine atmosphere. Whilst there is a growing body of work on ozone interactions with oceanic iodide, the nature and reactivity of the organic material in the SML which interacts with ozone is completely unknown. This project will probe both the fundamental mechanisms on and in the SML involved in the loss of ozone and production of atmospherically important trace gases and, in a highly novel and agenda-setting approach, apply this mechanistic information to field observations of oceanic ozone fluxes and the corresponding biogeochemical properties of the SML. This highly interdisciplinary study involves aspects of physical chemistry, atmospheric chemistry, ocean chemistry and physics, and engineering. It transcends conventional boundaries by integrating across atmospheric and ocean science, reflecting the PIs world-leading expertise in field and laboratory science in these fields.
Campo scientifico
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencespublic health
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringair pollution engineering
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencesnutrition
- natural scienceschemical sciencesphysical chemistry
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesoceanographyocean chemistry
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
ERC-ADG - Advanced GrantIstituzione ospitante
YO10 5DD York North Yorkshire
Regno Unito