Join us for a CGA get-together over breakfast this coming Monday, September 12th from 9-11am in CIRES' Fellows Room (S274), next to the south central staircase).  RSVPs are not required, so please feel free to swing by between those hours to grab some food and drinks from Panera Bread and/or socialize before your week gets going. You will have a chance to meet our CGA creator (Christine Wiedinmyer), along with the current CGA co-chairs (Garima and Sarah) and others that create our interesting and diverse CIRES postdoc/graduate student community.

Chemistry of Volatile Organic Compounds in the Atmosphere
Joost de Gouw,
ANYL faculty, CU Boulder

"Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are released from many different natural and man-made sources to the atmosphere. VOCs are removed by different oxidants on time scales of minutes to months with oxidized VOCs, ozone and fine particles as a result. These processes affect air quality and climate and are a challenge to understand due to the large number of different VOCs that are released to the atmosphere and the analytical difficulties in measuring all of these compounds as well as their oxidation products.

In our laboratory, we make measurements of VOCs by proton-transfer-reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometry (PTR-TOF) and gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS). PTR-TOF allows measurements of many different VOCs with high time resolution and without the need for pre-separation or sample treatment. GC-MS allows higher chemical detail, but at the cost of time resolution. We also combine these methods to better understand the compounds that are detected by PTR-TOF in different environments.

Several different ongoing and future projects will be presented in this seminar. First, we use PTR-TOF for measurements of VOCs in indoor environments to better understand their sources and fate. One particular study involves the impact of the Marshall Fire in Boulder County on indoor air in homes that were near the burnt area. Second, we are working on the emissions and chemistry of VOCs in urban air. One study that will be highlighted involved field measurements in Los Angeles in the Summer of 2022. Third, we are working on a chamber study to better understand the formation of secondary organic aerosol from biogenic VOCs. Finally, we are also using data from satellite remote sensing instruments to measure the pollutants from oil and natural gas production, and from wildfires."

and

Understanding aerosols for pollution, climate change, and disease transmission
Jose Jimenez,
ANYL faculty, CU Boulder

"Our group’s research focuses on understanding the sources, properties, transformations, and sinks of aerosols (and of the gases that interact with them), which have major effects on human health and climate. In this talk I will briefly present results from different projects over the last year, as well as some future directions for our group. (1) I will introduce our aircraft research program, including results from recent projects, and how they set up scientific questions for the upcoming NASA ASIA-AQ project on multiple megacities (if politics allows: Tokyo, Seoul, Manila, Bangkok, Kolkata, Dhaka, Hanoi, Singapore, and Kuala-Lumpur). (2) I will present preliminary results from the CalNexT-2022 field study in the Los Angeles area, where we returned (along with Prof. de Gouw’s group and other colleagues) to the Caltech campus 12 years after CalNex-2010. Analysis so far suggests that ½ of the SOA potential in ambient air is due to species less volatile than sesquiterpenes and aromatics (c* < 1e4 ug m-3). (3) I will discuss recent results on COVID airborne transmission, as well as the indoor chemistry due to germicidal ultraviolet (GUV) air disinfection and other commercial “air cleaners”.

For those interested in COVID-19 aerosol transmission, you can find a summary of the evidence supporting airborne transmission of COVID-19 at https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00869-2/, a review for airborne transmission of all respiratory diseases at https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abd9149, an overview of how airborne transmission really works at https://doi.org/10.1111/ina.13025, and an overview of the historical reasons for the confusion on this topic at https://doi.org/10.1111/ina.13070."

ESOC coffee hour occurs weekly from 9-10am Wednesdays in the ESOC Reading Room (Ekeley W230). Please email Claire Waugh (waughc@colorado.edu) for information.

ESOC researchers, post-docs and graduate students gather for conversation and to discuss research. Occasional guest speakers are invited to give short presentations on topics of interest.

Each week has a different host, this week will be hosted by visiting fello, Lingcao Huang.

Particle formation and growth
Eleanor Browne,
ANYL faculty, CU Boulder

"The Browne group uses a combination of laboratory experiments and field measurements to understand the sources and transformations of trace gases in the atmosphere with the ultimate goal of understanding the impacts of this chemistry on air quality, climate, and nutrient delivery to ecosystems. Here, I will discuss some of our recent work investigating particle formation and growth in an agricultural setting."

Please join the CMC for their monthly meeting. Join by Google Meet or phone: (US) +1 413-438-2196  (PIN: 863071092).

ESOC coffee hour occurs weekly from 9-10am Wednesdays in the ESOC Reading Room (Ekeley W230). Please email Claire Waugh (waughc@colorado.edu) for information.

ESOC researchers, post-docs and graduate students gather for conversation and to discuss research. Occasional guest speakers are invited to give short presentations on topics of interest. Each week has a different host.

This inaugural Center for Social and Environmental Futures (C-SEF) Get Serious* Seminar will take place in the CIRES Auditorium (CIRES 338) at 3 pm. A reception will follow in the CIRES Map Room (CIRES 340) at 4 pm. Everyone is welcome.

Join Environmental Studies Assistant Professor Cassandra Brooks and award-winning photographer, filmmaker, and author John Weller as they tell the inspiring story of the Ross Sea. Weller and Brooks worked alongside a global coalition of organizations, scientists, diplomats, and more than a million people, which eventually entrained the attention of world leaders from the White House to the Kremlin. The process took five years of intense international negotiations and more than ten years of scientific planning and public outreach. But the work paid off: on October 2016, the international community made history by adopting the world’s largest marine protected area in the Ross Sea, Antarctica – by consensus. This demonstrated international leadership and inspired hope that despite political tensions in other parts of the world, the Antarctic continues to be a great global commons dedicated to peace, science, and conservation.

*Conversations about environmental problems too often focus on sweeping and vague solutions. In contrast, C-SEF's Get Serious seminars will highlight people working on important but often-overlooked details of solving environmental problems. They will give students a sense of the many different possible ways to make a difference in sustainability.