School of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Ph.D. Thesis Defense Announcement

Observations of wildfire volatile organic compound emissions and urban ozone precursors

By Asher Paul Mouat

Advisor:

Dr. Jennifer Kaiser

Committee Members:

Dr. Armistead Russell (CEE), Dr. Greg Huey (EAS), Dr. Pengfei Liu (EAS), Dr. Talat Odman (CEE)

Date and Time:  July 19, 2024. 11:00 EST

Location: EST 3229

Anthropogenic emissions have and continue to degrade air quality and alter chemical regimes in the atmosphere. Emissions of greenhouse gases have increased global temperatures, contributed to increasingly arid conditions, and exacerbated wildfire seasonal lengths and intensities. Wildfires emit a wide array of carcinogenic, highly reactive volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Urban emissions of oxides of nitrogen lead to the formation of secondary pollutants like ozone and organic aerosols. Prediction and mitigation of pollution events requires the understanding of complex VOC oxidation pathways. This work employs ground observations to further constrain VOC emissions from wildfires, assess the accuracy of ground-monitoring network HCHO measurements and determine temporal changes in urban HCHO concentrations, and evaluate the accuracy of satellite products when monitoring NO2 over airports.