Johannes "Jos" Lelieveld | |
---|---|
Born | The Hague, Netherlands | July 25, 1955
Alma mater | Leiden University |
Awards | Vilhelm Bjerknes Medal 2019 |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Atmospheric chemistry, Atmospheric physics |
Institutions | Free University of Amsterdam Utrecht University Stockholm University University of California, San Diego Wageningen University and Research Max Planck Institute for Chemistry Mainz University The Cyprus Institute |
Thesis | The role of clouds in tropospheric chemistry (1990) |
Doctoral advisor | Paul J. Crutzen |
Website | www |
Johannes "Jos" Lelieveld (born July 25, 1955) is a Dutch atmospheric chemist. Since 2000, he has been a Scientific Member of the Max Planck Society and director of the Atmospheric Chemistry Department at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz. He is also professor at the University of Mainz and at the Cyprus Institute in Nicosia.
Lelieveld studied biology at the Leiden University, the Netherlands. He graduated at the University of Leiden from the faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, and the Free University of Amsterdam, in 1984 and received his Ph.D. from the faculty of Physics and Astronomy at the Utrecht University in 1990. His doctoral supervisor was Nobel laureate Paul J. Crutzen and his thesis was entitled "The role of clouds in tropospheric chemistry".
From 1984 until 1987 he worked as a research assistant at Geosens B.V. in Rotterdam to investigate transboundary air pollution. Subsequently, he became research scientist at the Atmospheric Chemistry Department of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (MPIC) in Mainz from 1987–1993.
In 1991, he was visiting scientist at the International Meteorological Institute at the University of Stockholm, followed by a stay at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego in 1992. In 1993 Lelieveld returned to the Netherlands, accepting a professorship in “Air Quality” at Wageningen University. From 1996 to 2000 he was professor in “Atmospheric Physics and Chemistry” at University of Utrecht. In 1997 he became founding director of the international research school COACh (Cooperation on Oceanic, Atmospheric and climate Change studies).
In 2000, Jos Lelieveld returned to the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz as scientific member of the Max Planck Society and director, succeeding Paul J. Crutzen as director of the Atmospheric Chemistry Department. Since 2000 he is spokesperson of the Paul Crutzen Graduate School (PCGS) on Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics in Mainz and since 2008 he is co-affiliated at the Cyprus Institute in Nicosia. He is co/author of over 400 publications, co-editor of several scientific journals, as well as member of various international committees. In 2015 he was elected as member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina., [1] in 2016 he received an honorary doctorate and professorship from the University of Crete, [2] and was elected as member of the International Silk Road Academy of Sciences, China. In 2017 he was appointed Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and in 2018 Fellow of the American Geophysical Union. [3] In 2019, he was awarded the Vilhelm Bjerknes Medal of the European Geosciences Union. [4]
Jos Lelieveld's department focuses on photo-oxidation mechanisms, which play a central role in the self-cleaning capacity of the atmosphere. With the help of self-developed highly sensitive instrumentation to measure trace gases, including reactive radicals that occur in minute amounts in ambient air, to uncover the photochemical reaction chains. He and his group have specialized in the construction of new instrumentation for application on aircraft. Fast laser-optical, mass spectrometric and relatively fast gas chromatographic techniques, for example, are used to determine the key oxidants and breakdown products of hydrocarbons. The studies include laboratory investigations, field measurements on aircraft and ships, and the use of satellite observations. Also developing computer models to simulate the interactions of chemical and meteorological processes, and investigating the impact of atmospheric composition changes on climate and planetary health in the Anthropocene.
Jos Lelieveld coordinated major field measurement campaigns on atmospheric chemistry and climate ‘hot spot’ regions like the Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean, the Amazon and the Middle East. [5] [6] [7] [8] He found that the atmosphere's natural self-cleaning mechanism is effectively stabilized through the rapid recycling of highly reactive radicals, buffering the changes caused by natural and anthropogenic emissions. [9] [10] [11] To study the interplay between atmospheric composition and climate, Lelieveld introduced the dynamic coupling of atmospheric chemistry in general circulation models. [12] [13] [14] He showed that the increase of methane not only directly causes climate warming, but also indirectly through chemical reactions in the troposphere and stratosphere. [15] [16] His research uncovered how clouds and aerosols influence the chemistry of the troposphere, and showed that cloud convection has a major impact on tropospheric ozone. [17] [18] [19] Lelieveld quantified the global impact of air pollution emission sectors on human health, identifying agriculture and residential energy use as important anthropogenic sources of particulate matter, next to the use of fossil fuels. [20] Further, he showed the co-benefits of air pollution control on improving human health, reversing anthropogenically perturbed rainfall patterns and limiting global warming. [21] [22] His work on the Middle East and North Africa showed that the region is a global hotspot of climate change, weather extremes and air pollution, which could ultimately compromise human habitability [23] [24]
Lelieveld has an h-index of 108 (Google scholar, As of May 2022 [update] ) [25]
The nitrogen cycle is the biogeochemical cycle by which nitrogen is converted into multiple chemical forms as it circulates among atmospheric, terrestrial, and marine ecosystems. The conversion of nitrogen can be carried out through both biological and physical processes. Important processes in the nitrogen cycle include fixation, ammonification, nitrification, and denitrification. The majority of Earth's atmosphere (78%) is atmospheric nitrogen, making it the largest source of nitrogen. However, atmospheric nitrogen has limited availability for biological use, leading to a scarcity of usable nitrogen in many types of ecosystems.
The Indian Ocean brown cloud or Asian brown cloud is a layer of air pollution that recurrently covers parts of South Asia, namely the northern Indian Ocean, India, and Pakistan. Viewed from satellite photos, the cloud appears as a giant brown stain hanging in the air over much of the Indian subcontinent and the Indian Ocean every year between October and February, possibly also during earlier and later months. The term was coined in reports from the UNEP Indian Ocean Experiment (INDOEX). It was found to originate mostly due to farmers burning stubble in Punjab and to lesser extent Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. The debilitating air quality in Delhi is also due to the stubble burning in Punjab.
Ground-level ozone (O3), also known as surface-level ozone and tropospheric ozone, is a trace gas in the troposphere (the lowest level of the Earth's atmosphere), with an average concentration of 20–30 parts per billion by volume (ppbv), with close to 100 ppbv in polluted areas. Ozone is also an important constituent of the stratosphere, where the ozone layer (2 to 8 parts per million ozone) exists which is located between 10 and 50 kilometers above the Earth's surface. The troposphere extends from the ground up to a variable height of approximately 14 kilometers above sea level. Ozone is least concentrated in the ground layer (or planetary boundary layer) of the troposphere. Ground-level or tropospheric ozone is created by chemical reactions between NOx gases (oxides of nitrogen produced by combustion) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The combination of these chemicals in the presence of sunlight form ozone. Its concentration increases as height above sea level increases, with a maximum concentration at the tropopause. About 90% of total ozone in the atmosphere is in the stratosphere, and 10% is in the troposphere. Although tropospheric ozone is less concentrated than stratospheric ozone, it is of concern because of its health effects. Ozone in the troposphere is considered a greenhouse gas, and may contribute to global warming.
Atmospheric chemistry is a branch of atmospheric science in which the chemistry of the Earth's atmosphere and that of other planets is studied. It is a multidisciplinary approach of research and draws on environmental chemistry, physics, meteorology, computer modeling, oceanography, geology and volcanology and other disciplines. Research is increasingly connected with other areas of study such as climatology.
Paul Jozef Crutzen was a Dutch meteorologist and atmospheric chemist. He and Mario Molina and Frank Sherwood Rowland were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1995 for their work on atmospheric chemistry and specifically for his efforts in studying the formation and decomposition of atmospheric ozone. In addition to studying the ozone layer and climate change, he popularized the term Anthropocene to describe a proposed new epoch in the Quaternary period when human actions have a drastic effect on the Earth. He was also amongst the first few scientists to introduce the idea of a nuclear winter to describe the potential climatic effects stemming from large-scale atmospheric pollution including smoke from forest fires, industrial exhausts, and other sources like oil fires.
Non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs) are a set of organic compounds that are typically photochemically reactive in the atmosphere—marked by the exclusion of methane. NMVOCs include a large variety of chemically different compounds, such as benzene, ethanol, formaldehyde, cyclohexane, 1,1,1-trichloroethane and acetone. Essentially, NMVOCs are identical to volatile organic compounds (VOCs), but with methane excluded. Methane is excluded in air-pollution contexts because it is not toxic. It is however a very potent greenhouse gas, with low reactivity and thus a long lifetime in the atmosphere. An important subset of NMVOCs are the non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHCs).
The Max Planck Institute for Chemistry is a non-university research institute under the auspices of the Max Planck Society in Mainz, Germany. It was created as the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry in 1911 in Berlin.
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Stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) is a proposed method of solar geoengineering to reduce global warming. This would introduce aerosols into the stratosphere to create a cooling effect via global dimming and increased albedo, which occurs naturally from volcanic winter. It appears that stratospheric aerosol injection, at a moderate intensity, could counter most changes to temperature and precipitation, take effect rapidly, have low direct implementation costs, and be reversible in its direct climatic effects. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concludes that it "is the most-researched [solar geoengineering] method that it could limit warming to below 1.5 °C (2.7 °F)." However, like other solar geoengineering approaches, stratospheric aerosol injection would do so imperfectly and other effects are possible, particularly if used in a suboptimal manner.
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Arlene M. Fiore is an atmospheric chemist whose research focuses on issues surrounding air quality and climate change.
Mark G. Lawrence is an American atmospheric scientist whose research focuses on a range of sustainable development topics at the science policy and science-society interface. He is scientific director at the Research Institute for Sustainability (RIFS) in Potsdam (former Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies in Potsdam.
Nadine Unger is a Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry at the University of Exeter. She has studied the role of human activities and forests on the Earth's climate.
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John W. Birks is an American atmospheric chemist and entrepreneur who is best known for co-discovery with Paul Crutzen of the potential atmospheric effects of nuclear war known as nuclear winter. His most recent awards include the 2019 Haagen-Smit Clean Air Award for his contributions to atmospheric chemistry and the 2022 Future of Life Award for discovery of the nuclear winter effect.
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