Homepage | Michael J. Cubison

Dr Michael J Cubison

Postdoctoral Researcher
Jimenez Group
Co-operative Institute for Research in Environmental Science

Room 318 CIRES Bldg
UCB 216 Univ. of Colorado
Boulder
CO 80309
USA
T +1-303-492-1351
F +1-303-492-1149

michael.cubison@colorado.edu

Mike is a scientist working in the complex field of atmospheric chemistry as a member of the research group of Prof. Jose-Luis Jimenez at the University of Colorado, Boulder, USA. After studying for his Ph.D. in the group of Hugh Coe at the University of Manchester, UK, he had the fortune to be in the right place at the right time and join Jose as a post-doc in 2005. His intial focus of research was investigating the physical and chemical parameters influencing cloud activation, in collaboration with colleagues worldwide. The award of NSF funding to build an FAA-approved flight-version of the Aerodyne Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (AMS) brought a gradual transition into the field of atmospheric composition, working both on hardware construction and software development. His professional highlight thus far came in 2008, when NASA funded Jose and Mike to fly the AMS aboard their DC-8 aircraft as part of the ARCTAS mission. He is currently working on the mammoth data-analysis task resulting from ARCTAS, whilst involving himself with ongoing analysis-software development and offering a logistical and teaching capacity on group projects.

Recent and Current Directions

Arctic Aerosols | The NASA-sponsored mission Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites took place in April and July of 2008 aboard the DC-8 research aircraft. The University of Colorado deployed a mass spectrometer (Aerodyne HR-ToF-AMS) to study the chemistry of the particulate matter in the Arctic atmosphere. Extensive ongoing analysis on the dataset is focusing on the boreal forest fire plumes which were observed both at source and after long-range transport to the polar region.

HIAPER AMS | As part of the NCAR High-Performance Instrumented Platform for Airbourne Research directive, CU and Aerodyne research collaborated to design and construct the smallest, lightest AMS in existence for deployment on the NCAR G-V aircraft. The instrument has already been successfully tested on numerous ground campaigns and on the DC-8 during ARCTAS.

Field Campaigns with the Jimenez Group

FLAME-3 | September 2009 | Missoula, Montana, USA
The J-group were back at the USFS fire lab in Missoula for a third time, monitoring the emissions from a raft of different fuels.

SHARP | April 2009 | Houston, Texas, USA
The beauty of Spain was counter-balanced with the concrete landscape of Houston, where Mike was briefly on-hand to help Amber setup her study of the formation of particles owing to the intense industrial pollution plumes.

DAURE | March 2009 | Montseny National Park, Spain
Mike was quite content spending 6 weeks in the beautiful surroundings of northern Spain, principally in an instrumental- and teaching-capacity during deployment of several instruments measuring the unique atmospheric conditions of the Catalan region.

ARCTAS-1 | April 2008 | Fairbanks, Alaska, USA
With much-appreciated help from Ed and Donna, Mike and Jose thoroughly exhausted themselves with the deployment of the mass spec. aboard the NASA DC-8 research aircraft. The snow-laden "spring" mission focused on the chemistry of the pollutants which build up in the polar region during that time of year.

ARCTAS-2 | July 2008 | Cold Lake, Sasketchewan, Canada
The crew were back in the summer, this time up in Canada flying a raft of sorties to study the boreal forest fires which were burning strongly in the region.

BEARPEX | September 2007 | Blodgett Forest, California, USA
The J-group were present in deepest, darkest Cali. as participants in a study of fluxes above the forest canopy led by UC-Berkeley.

INTEX-B | April 2006 | Whistler Peak, British Columbia, Canada
Mike did not complain about the commute home from Whistler Peak, where he was present to deploy an aerosol concentrator to aid colleagues at SUNY and Environment Canada study the chemistry of the clean high-mountain atmosphere.

MILAGRO-MCMA | March 2006 | Mexico City, Mexico
Bringing the term pollution new meaning, a huge contingent of scientists converged on Mexico in March 2006 to study the outflow from the Mexico City region. Mike was among many J-group colleagues working in the thick of it all downtown.

SOAR-1 | July 2005 | Riverside, California, USA
The Study of Organic Aerosols at Riverside campaign deployed a raft of instrumentation to study this incredibly polluted desert region of southern California. Mike was there working with instruments to montior particulate density and hygroscopicity.

SOAR-2 | November 2005 | Riverside, California, USA
A sick mass spectrometer provided plenty of work for the J-group as they worked to sample the autumn atmosphere above Riverside, east of Los Angeles, as a clean contrast to the summer campaign...

MASE | June 2005 | Point Reyes National Park, California, USA
The climate monitoring group of John Ogren at NOAA, with Mike acting as deck-hand, were on the coast of northern California in June 2005 studying the climatic impacts of the incessant fog and drizzle that the Brits know quite well.

Peer-Reviewed Publications
Ervens, B. et al., CCN predictions using simplified assumptions of organic aerosol composition and mixing state: A synthesis from six different locations. submitted to Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., 2009.
Huffman, J.A. et al., Chemically-Resolved Aerosol Volatility Measurements from Two Megacity Field Studies. Atmos. Chem. Phys., in press 2009.
Leaitch, W.R. et al., Evidence for Asian dust effects from aerosol plume measurements during INTEX-B 2006 near Whistler, BC. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 2009.
Huffman, J.A. et al., Chemically-Resolved Volatility Measurements of Organic Aerosol from Different Sources. Env. Sci. Technol., 2009.
Aiken, A. et al, Mexico City Aerosol Analysis during MILAGRO using High Resolution Aerosol Mass Spectrometry at the Urban Supersite (T0). Part 1: Fine Particle Composition and Organic Source Apportionment. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 2009.
Sun, Y. et al., Size-resolved aerosol chemistry on Whistler Mountain, Canada with a high-resolution aerosol mass spectrometer during INTEX-B. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 2009.
Mohr, C. et al., Characterization of Primary Organic Aerosol Emissions from Meat Cooking, Trash Burning, and Motor Vehicles with High-Resolution Aerosol Mass Spectrometry and Comparison with Ambient and Chamber Observations. Env. Sci. Technol., 2009.
Cubison, M.J. et al., The influence of chemical composition and mixing state of Los Angeles urban aerosol on CCN number and cloud properties. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 2008.
Gysel, M. et al., Closure study between chemical composition and hygroscopic growth of aerosol particles during TORCH2. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 2008.
Ervens, B. et al., Prediction of cloud condensation nucleus number concentration using measurements of aerosol size distributions and composition and light scattering enhancement due to humidity. J. Geophys. Res., 2007.
Sjoegren, S. et al., Hygroscopic growth and water uptake kinetics of two-phase aerosol particles consisting of ammonium sulphate, adipic and humic acid mixtures. J. Aerosol Sci., 2007.
Cubison, M.J. et al., The characterisation of pollution aerosol in a changing photochemical environment. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 2006
Heard, D.E. et al., The North Atlantic Marine Boundary Layer Experiment (NAMBLEX). Overview of the campaign held at Mace Head, Ireland, in summer 2002. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 2006.
McFiggans, G. et al., Simplification of the representation of the organic component of atmospheric particulates. Faraday Discuss., 2005.
Cubison, M.J. et al., A modified hygroscopic tandem DMA and a data retrieval method based on optimal estimation, J. Aerosol Sci., 2005.
McFiggans, G. et al., Direct evidence for coastal iodine particles from Laminaria macroalgae - linkage to emissions of molecular iodine. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 2004.

Extra-Curricular Adventures

Jimenez Group - CIRES - University of Colorado

		Arctic Aerosols \| The NASA-sponsored mission Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites took place in April and July of 2008 aboard the DC-8 research aircraft. The University of Colorado deployed a mass spectrometer (Aerodyne HR-ToF-AMS) to study the chemistry of the particulate matter in the Arctic atmosphere. Extensive ongoing analysis on the dataset is focusing on the boreal forest fire plumes which were observed both at source and after long-range transport to the polar region.
		HIAPER AMS \| As part of the NCAR High-Performance Instrumented Platform for Airbourne Research directive, CU and Aerodyne research collaborated to design and construct the smallest, lightest AMS in existence for deployment on the NCAR G-V aircraft. The instrument has already been successfully tested on numerous ground campaigns and on the DC-8 during ARCTAS.

		FLAME-3 \| September 2009 \| Missoula, Montana, USA The J-group were back at the USFS fire lab in Missoula for a third time, monitoring the emissions from a raft of different fuels.
		SHARP \| April 2009 \| Houston, Texas, USA The beauty of Spain was counter-balanced with the concrete landscape of Houston, where Mike was briefly on-hand to help Amber setup her study of the formation of particles owing to the intense industrial pollution plumes.
		DAURE \| March 2009 \| Montseny National Park, Spain Mike was quite content spending 6 weeks in the beautiful surroundings of northern Spain, principally in an instrumental- and teaching-capacity during deployment of several instruments measuring the unique atmospheric conditions of the Catalan region.
		ARCTAS-1 \| April 2008 \| Fairbanks, Alaska, USA With much-appreciated help from Ed and Donna, Mike and Jose thoroughly exhausted themselves with the deployment of the mass spec. aboard the NASA DC-8 research aircraft. The snow-laden "spring" mission focused on the chemistry of the pollutants which build up in the polar region during that time of year.
		ARCTAS-2 \| July 2008 \| Cold Lake, Sasketchewan, Canada The crew were back in the summer, this time up in Canada flying a raft of sorties to study the boreal forest fires which were burning strongly in the region.
		BEARPEX \| September 2007 \| Blodgett Forest, California, USA The J-group were present in deepest, darkest Cali. as participants in a study of fluxes above the forest canopy led by UC-Berkeley.
		INTEX-B \| April 2006 \| Whistler Peak, British Columbia, Canada Mike did not complain about the commute home from Whistler Peak, where he was present to deploy an aerosol concentrator to aid colleagues at SUNY and Environment Canada study the chemistry of the clean high-mountain atmosphere.
		MILAGRO-MCMA \| March 2006 \| Mexico City, Mexico Bringing the term pollution new meaning, a huge contingent of scientists converged on Mexico in March 2006 to study the outflow from the Mexico City region. Mike was among many J-group colleagues working in the thick of it all downtown.
		SOAR-1 \| July 2005 \| Riverside, California, USA The Study of Organic Aerosols at Riverside campaign deployed a raft of instrumentation to study this incredibly polluted desert region of southern California. Mike was there working with instruments to montior particulate density and hygroscopicity.
		SOAR-2 \| November 2005 \| Riverside, California, USA A sick mass spectrometer provided plenty of work for the J-group as they worked to sample the autumn atmosphere above Riverside, east of Los Angeles, as a clean contrast to the summer campaign...
		MASE \| June 2005 \| Point Reyes National Park, California, USA The climate monitoring group of John Ogren at NOAA, with Mike acting as deck-hand, were on the coast of northern California in June 2005 studying the climatic impacts of the incessant fog and drizzle that the Brits know quite well.