Maria Cristina Facchini is a geoscientist and a research director at the National Research Council. Her studies focus on the physics and chemistry of aerosols and clouds, and their effect on our atmosphere and climate. [1]
Facchini was born in Lugo, in the province of Ravenna, Italy, on April 19, 1960.[ citation needed ] She graduated magna com laude in 1985 at the University of Bologna with a major in Chemistry.[ citation needed ]
Facchini's researches the chemical and physical processes of aerosols in the atmosphere, both natural (clouds) and man-made, and how these processes affect phenomena including regional air quality, ultraviolet radiation levels, and climate. These impact, as her group's website puts it, "the fundamental necessities of human existence", such as human health, food production, and water resources. [2]
Based at the University of Bologna in Italy since the 1980s, Facchini works at the Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate. She has published over 100 papers, many of which have been critically acclaimed. She is on multiple panels/boards, including, the Scientific Advisory Board of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, Germany since 2011. [3]
Facchini has received several honours and awards during her career:[ citation needed ]
The Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal is the highest award for atmospheric science of the American Meteorological Society.
Cloud condensation nuclei (CCNs), also known as cloud seeds, are small particles typically 0.2 μm, or one hundredth the size of a cloud droplet. CCNs are a unique subset of aerosols in the atmosphere on which water vapour condenses. This can affect the radiative properties of clouds and the overall atmosphere. Water vapour requires a non-gaseous surface to make the transition to a liquid; this process is called condensation.
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.
Sea spray are aerosol particles formed from the ocean, mostly by ejection into Earth's atmosphere by bursting bubbles at the air-sea interface. Sea spray contains both organic matter and inorganic salts that form sea salt aerosol (SSA). SSA has the ability to form cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and remove anthropogenic aerosol pollutants from the atmosphere. Coarse sea spray has also been found to inhibit the development of lightning in storm clouds.
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.
Veerabhadran "Ram" Ramanathan is Edward A. Frieman Endowed Presidential Chair in Climate Sustainability Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego. He has contributed to many areas of the atmospheric and climate sciences including developments to general circulation models, atmospheric chemistry, and radiative transfer. He has been a part of major projects such as the Indian Ocean Experiment (INDOEX) and the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE), and is known for his contributions to the areas of climate physics, Climate Change and atmospheric aerosols research. He is now the Chair of Bending the Curve: Climate Change Solutions education project of University of California. He has received numerous awards, and is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences. He has spoken about the topic of global warming, and written that "the effect of greenhouse gases on global warming is, in my opinion, the most important environmental issue facing the world today."
Sea salt aerosol, which originally comes from sea spray, is one of the most widely distributed natural aerosols. Sea salt aerosols are characterized as non-light-absorbing, highly hygroscopic, and having coarse particle size. Some sea salt dominated aerosols could have a single scattering albedo as large as ~0.97. Due to the hygroscopy, a sea salt particle can serve as a very efficient cloud condensation nuclei (CCN), altering cloud reflectivity, lifetime, and precipitation process. According to the IPCC report, the total sea salt flux from ocean to atmosphere is ~3300 teragrams (Tg) per year.
The Amazon Tall Tower Observatory or ATTO is a scientific research facility in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil. This includes a 325-metre-tall (1,066 ft) tower that extends far above the forest canopy and two 80-metre (260 ft) towers that allow researchers to collect samples from the soil surface to above the forest canopy. Additionally, there are climate-controlled containers for laboratory equipment and an office, a base camp and nearby sites for studying vegetation and soil processes. The tall research tower is one metre taller than the Eiffel Tower and is currently the tallest structure in South America. All towers are equipped with a broad range of instruments to measure chemical and physical properties of the atmosphere, such as greenhouse gas concentrations, aerosols and meteorological data.
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Kimberly A. Prather is an American atmospheric chemist. She is a distinguished chair in atmospheric chemistry and a distinguished professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and department of chemistry and biochemistry at UC San Diego. Her work focuses on how humans are influencing the atmosphere and climate. In 2019, she was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for technologies that transformed understanding of aerosols and their impacts on air quality, climate, and human health. In 2020, she was elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences. She is also an elected Fellow of the American Philosophical Society, American Geophysical Union, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Sonia Maria Kreidenweis is an American Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at Colorado State University. Her research considers aerosols and their impact on weather and the climate. She has previously served as President of the American Association for Aerosol Research and was a board member of the American Meteorological Society. She was elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 2019.
Meredith G. Hastings is an American atmospheric chemist and a professor of earth, environmental, and planetary sciences at Brown University. Her research focuses on the reactive nitrogen cycle and how atmospheric chemistry affects climate. She is also the founder and president of the Earth Science Women's Network (ESWN).
Mian Chin is a Chinese atmospheric chemist. She is a physical scientist in the atmospheric chemistry and dynamics laboratory in the earth science division at Goddard Space Flight Center. Her research includes aerosol-cloud-chemistry-climate interactions. She received the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal in 2005.
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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.
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.
Patricia K. Quinn is an atmospheric chemist working at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency's Pacific Marine Environmental Lab. She is known for her work on the impact of atmospheric aerosol particles on air quality and climate.
Ulrike Lohmann is a climate researcher and professor for atmospheric physics at the ETH Zurich. She is known for her research on aerosol particles in clouds.
Yafang Cheng is a Chinese geoscientist at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, in Mainz, Germany. She specialises in atmospheric chemistry and physics.
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