Kimberly Strong

Last updated
Kimberly Strong
Alma mater Memorial University of Newfoundland,
University of Oxford
Scientific career
FieldsExperimental Atmospheric Physics
Institutions University of Toronto
Thesis Spectral parameters of methane for remote sounding of the Jovian atmosphere  (1992)
Doctoral advisor F. W Taylor
Website Research website

Kimberly "Kim" E. Strong is an atmospheric physicist and the first woman to serve as chair of the Department of Physics at the University of Toronto. [1] Her research involves studying stratospheric ozone chemistry, climate, and air quality using ground-based, balloon-borne and satellite instruments. [2]

Contents

Early life and education

Strong received a Bachelor of Science in physics from the Memorial University of Newfoundland in 1986. Strong was interested in fields that applied physics to larger problems, eventually deciding to focus on atmospheric physics for graduate studies. [1] Supervised by Fred Taylor at the University of Oxford, she performed near-infrared spectroscopy in the lab, mimicking conditions in the atmosphere of Jupiter, in preparation for the Galileo spacecraft's arrival at Jupiter in 1995. [3] She received a D.Phil. in 1992 from the Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Planetary Physics Group at the University of Oxford. During her time at Oxford, she was a student at the first International Space University Summer Session Program in 1988 and then returned as a staff member in 1990. [4]

Career

After graduating with a doctorate, Strong moved to the University of Cambridge, where she was a postdoctoral research associate from 1992 to 1994. In 1994, she returned to Canada, becoming a postdoctoral research associate at the Centre for Atmospheric Chemistry at York University in Toronto. One year later, she joined the faculty at York, becoming an assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Science. In 1996, she moved to the University of Toronto Department of Physics. She was the only female faculty member in the department at the time. [1] She was promoted to associate professor in 2001 and full professor in 2006. [4]

After her graduate studies, Strong's research interests turned to Earth's atmosphere. Strong was the principal investigator of the Middle Atmosphere Nitrogen TRend Assessment (MANTRA) project from 1998 to 2006. This collaboration used a series of high-altitude balloon flights to measure trace gasses in the stratosphere over North America, including mid-latitude stratospheric ozone and compounds of nitrogen and chlorine that interact with ozone in the upper atmosphere. [5] [6]

Strong has traveled to Eureka, Nunavut since 1999 to conduct research in the Canadian high arctic. She was one of the founders of the Canadian Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Change (CANDAC) which established the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory (PEARL) on Ellesmere Island in 2005. [1] [7] The PEARL station provides long-term monitoring of the Arctic atmosphere and data to track its evolution and variability. [8] She was the director of the NSERC CREATE Training Program in Arctic Atmospheric Science, which ran from 2010 to 2016. This program provided students and postdoctoral fellows with training in Arctic atmospheric science. [9]

Strong founded the University of Toronto Atmospheric Observatory (TAO) in 2001, which monitors trace gasses in the stratosphere and troposphere from the roof of the McLennan Physical Laboratories Burton Tower at the University of Toronto. [10] She is also the principal investigator of the Canadian Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer Observing Network (CAFTON), which uses several monitoring stations across Canada, including TAO, to measure gasses and monitor changes in the atmosphere. [11]

In 2010, she was a visiting fellow at the Centre for Atmospheric Chemistry at the University of Wollongong in Australia.

Strong was the director of the School of the Environment at the University of Toronto from 2013 to 2018. [12] [8] She also served as vice-president (2018-2019) and is the current president of the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society. [13] In July 2019, she began a 5-year term as the chair of the Department of Physics at the University of Toronto, the first woman to hold the position. [1] She joined the board of directors of the SNOLAB Institute in July 2019. [14]

Strong is a member of the Centre for Global Change Science and the Graduate Faculty of the School of the Environment at the University of Toronto. [15] [16]

Honours and awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ozone layer</span> Region of the stratosphere

The ozone layer or ozone shield is a region of Earth's stratosphere that absorbs most of the Sun's ultraviolet radiation. It contains a high concentration of ozone (O3) in relation to other parts of the atmosphere, although still small in relation to other gases in the stratosphere. The ozone layer contains less than 10 parts per million of ozone, while the average ozone concentration in Earth's atmosphere as a whole is about 0.3 parts per million. The ozone layer is mainly found in the lower portion of the stratosphere, from approximately 15 to 35 kilometers (9 to 22 mi) above Earth, although its thickness varies seasonally and geographically.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ozone depletion</span> Atmospheric phenomenon

Ozone depletion consists of two related events observed since the late 1970s: a steady lowering of about four percent in the total amount of ozone in Earth's atmosphere, and a much larger springtime decrease in stratospheric ozone around Earth's polar regions. The latter phenomenon is referred to as the ozone hole. There are also springtime polar tropospheric ozone depletion events in addition to these stratospheric events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stratosphere</span> Layer of the atmosphere above the troposphere

The stratosphere is the second-lowest layer of the atmosphere of Earth, located above the troposphere and below the mesosphere. The stratosphere is composed of stratified temperature zones, with the warmer layers of air located higher and the cooler layers lower. The increase of temperature with altitude is a result of the absorption of the Sun's ultraviolet (UV) radiation by the ozone layer, where ozone is exothermically photolyzed into oxygen in a cyclical fashion. This temperature inversion is in contrast to the troposphere, where temperature decreases with altitude, and between the troposphere and stratosphere is the tropopause border that demarcates the beginning of the temperature inversion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ground-level ozone</span> Constituent gas of the troposphere

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 as such contribute to global warming. as reported in IPCC reports. Actually, tropospheric ozone is considered the third most important greenhouse gas after CO2 and CH4, as indicated by estimates of its radiative forcing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eureka, Nunavut</span> Research station in Canada

Eureka is a small research base on Fosheim Peninsula, Ellesmere Island, Qikiqtaaluk Region, in the Canadian territory of Nunavut. It is located on the north side of Slidre Fiord, which enters Eureka Sound farther west. It is the third-northernmost permanent research community in the world. The only two farther north are Alert, which is also on Ellesmere Island, and Nord, in Greenland. Eureka has the lowest average annual temperature and the lowest amount of precipitation of any weather station in Canada.

Jerry Mahlman was an American meteorologist and climatologist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atmospheric chemistry observational databases</span> Aspect of atmospheric sciences

Over the last two centuries many environmental chemical observations have been made from a variety of ground-based, airborne, and orbital platforms and deposited in databases. Many of these databases are publicly available. All of the instruments mentioned in this article give online public access to their data. These observations are critical in developing our understanding of the Earth's atmosphere and issues such as climate change, ozone depletion and air quality. Some of the external links provide repositories of many of these datasets in one place. For example, the Cambridge Atmospheric Chemical Database, is a large database in a uniform ASCII format. Each observation is augmented with the meteorological conditions such as the temperature, potential temperature, geopotential height, and equivalent PV latitude.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susan Solomon</span> American atmospheric chemist

Susan Solomon is an American atmospheric chemist, working for most of her career at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In 2011, Solomon joined the faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she serves as the Ellen Swallow Richards Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry & Climate Science. Solomon, with her colleagues, was the first to propose the chlorofluorocarbon free radical reaction mechanism that is the cause of the Antarctic ozone hole. Her most recent book, Solvable: how we healed the earth, and how we can do it again (2024) focuses on solutions to current problems, as do books by data scientist Hannah Ritchie, marine biologist, Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tropospheric ozone depletion events</span>

Tropospheric ozone depletion events are phenomena that reduce the concentration of ozone in the earth's troposphere. Ozone (O3) is a trace gas which has been of concern because of its unique dual role in different layers of the lower atmosphere. Apart from absorbing UV-B radiation and converting solar energy into heat in the stratosphere, ozone in the troposphere provides greenhouse effect and controls the oxidation capacity of the atmosphere.

Murry Lewis Salby was an American atmospheric scientist who focused on upper atmospheric wave propagation for most of his early career, and who more recently argued against aspects of the scientific consensus that human activity contributes to climate change. He has written two textbooks, Fundamentals of Atmospheric Physics (1996), and Physics of the Atmosphere and Climate (2011). The latter textbook, building on his first book, offers an overview of the processes controlling the atmosphere of Earth, weather, energetics, and climate physics.

Darin W. Toohey is an American atmospheric scientist. He is a professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences and of environmental studies at the University of Colorado Boulder since 1999. Toohey's research addresses the role of trace gases and aerosols on Earth's climate, atmospheric oxidation, and air quality. He was a Jefferson Science Fellow at the United States Department of State, 2011-2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ted Shepherd</span> Canadian climatologist (born 1958)

Theodore Gordon Shepherd is the Grantham Professor of Climate Science at the University of Reading.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dr. Neil Trivett Global Atmosphere Watch Observatory</span> Observatory

The Dr. Neil Trivett Global Atmosphere Watch Observatory is an atmospheric baseline station operated by Environment and Climate Change Canada located about 6 km (3.7 mi) south south-west of Alert, Nunavut, on the north-eastern tip of Ellesmere Island, about 800 km (500 mi) south of the geographic North Pole.

Sabine Stanley is a Canadian physicist, currently at Johns Hopkins University in the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences Morton K. Blaustein Department of Earth And Planetary Sciences and the Applied Physics Laboratory. She was awarded a Bloomberg Distinguished Professorship in 2017. She was previously a Canada Research Chair of Planetary Physics at University of Toronto. She was awarded the William Gilbert Award by the AGU in 2010 and was awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship in 2011.

Jennifer G. Murphy is a Canadian environmental chemist and an associate professor at the University of Toronto. She is known for her research how air pollutants such as increased reactive nitrogen affect the global climate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory</span>

The Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory (PEARL) is an atmospheric research facility in the Canadian High Arctic, located on Ellesmere Island, Nunavut. Considered one of the most important Arctic research labs in the world, it was the subject of international media attention when it almost closed due to funding cuts by the Canadian Federal Government in 2012.

Dylan Jones is a professor of physics and atmospheric scientist at the University of Toronto.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julia Schmale</span> German atmospheric chemist

Julia Yvonne Schmale is a German environmental scientist. She is a specialist in the micro-physical makeup of the atmosphere, in particular aerosols and their interaction with clouds. She is a professor at EPFL and the head of the Extreme Environments Research Laboratory (EERL). She is a participant in the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expeditions.

Anne Ritger Douglass is atmospheric physicist known for her research on chlorinated compounds and the ozone layer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John W. Birks</span> American professor at the University of Colorado Boulder

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.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "'I hope that I can bring a new perspective to the role and provide encouragement for others': Meet physics' chair Kimberly Strong". Faculty of Arts & Science. 2019-11-14. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
  2. ↑ "Panelists2015 | Women in Physics Canada" . Retrieved 2019-12-17.
  3. ↑ Strong, K.; Taylor, F. W.; Calcutt, S. B.; Remedios, J. J.; Ballard, J. (1993-10-01). "Spectral parameters of self- and hydrogen-broadened methane from 2000 to 9500 cm-1 for remote sounding of the atmosphere of jupiter". Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer. 50 (4): 363–429. doi:10.1016/0022-4073(93)90072-P. ISSN   0022-4073.
  4. 1 2 "Home Page: Kimberly Strong". www.atmosp.physics.utoronto.ca. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
  5. ↑ "MANTRA (Middle Atmosphere Nitrogen TRend Assessment) - The balloon encyclopedia". stratocat.com.ar. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
  6. ↑ "Home Page". www.atmosp.physics.utoronto.ca. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
  7. ↑ "PEARL". www.candac.ca. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
  8. 1 2 "Meet Kim Strong, director of the new School of the Environment". University of Toronto News. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
  9. ↑ "CREATE Arctic Homepage". www.candac.ca. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
  10. ↑ "University of Toronto Atmospheric Observatory (TAO)". www.atmosp.physics.utoronto.ca. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
  11. ↑ "CAFTON". www.atmosp.physics.utoronto.ca. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
  12. ↑ Toronto, University of. "Atmospheric physicist named inaugural director of University of Toronto's new School of the Environment". www.newswire.ca. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
  13. ↑ "Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society - President's Welcome - Message du président". www.cmos.ca. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
  14. ↑ "SNOLAB Institute and Board | SNOLAB". www.snolab.ca. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
  15. ↑ "Membership of U of T Centre for Global Change Science". www.cgcs.utoronto.ca. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
  16. ↑ "Graduate Faculty". School of the Environment - University of Toronto. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
  17. ↑ "Royal Society of Canada - Fellows" . Retrieved 2019-12-17.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.