Atmospheric Chemistry Program Seminar: Valentina Osorio, and Maxim Muter (CU ANYL 1st years)

Rainy with a Chance of Sea Salt: Sourcing the Sulfur in Houston’s Rainfall

Valentina Osorio, 
CU ANYL 1st year

As one of six criteria air pollutants monitored by the US Environmental Protection Agency, sulfur dioxide (SO2) negatively affects human and environmental health. Upon entering the atmosphere, SO2 is oxidized and dissolved in water as sulfuric acid; consequently, sulfate anions rain out and can act as a tracer for the atmospheric processing of sulfur compounds. Precipitation data were taken in Houston and compared to the Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge in order to compare sources of sulfur in atmospheric deposition within urban and rural regions. Houston rain exhibits chemical signatures that suggest the influence of seawater and dust on the cycling of sulfur but leaves uncertainty in these attributions and points toward the need for more analytical techniques. This project evaluates the degree to which solute and water isotope analysis can be used to source sulfate in rainfall both within the major city of Houston and outside of its large suburban area.

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TDAmapper: An Exploratory Method for Big Dataset Analysis

Maxim Muter, 
CU ANYL 1st year

Over the last decade, we have witnessed the emergence of "big data". A key - and often overlooked - feature of big data is its complexity, or interdependency among variables. Atmospheric chemistry data fits this definition, and new approaches are needed to deal with its intricate structure. Topological Data Analysis (TDA) comprises a suite of methods that study the "shape" of datasets to extract insights. For instance, TDAmapper is an exploratory technique that generates simplified visual representations of datasets, helping to identify topics for future study. In this work, TDAmapper is evaluated as a method for analyzing big datasets, including in-situ and modeling data collected from NASA's Atmospheric Tomography Mission (A-Tom), with the ultimate goal to provide a new method for model evaluation and offer insights for future atmospheric chemistry research.