The Principal Investigator of the SPICE project is Dr Matthew Watson (Bristol University). The Work Package Leaders are Dr Matthew Watson (Bristol University), Dr Lesley Gray (Oxford University) & Dr Hugh Hunt (Cambridge University). The project involves specialists in many fields including Volcanology, Climate Science, Atmospheric Physics and Engineering to name but a few. Those involved in this research at Bristol Earth Sciences are Dr Matthew Watson (PI), Dr Pru Foster and Tanya Gray (Project Coordinator).
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Don Grainger is an Oxford Physicist whose main interest is in the measurement of atmospheric properties from space. He has done novel work measuring stratospheric aerosols and detecting climatically relevant greenhouse gases such as SF6. In SPICE, Don is using his background in aerosol scattering and atmospheric radiative transfer to identify the optical properties of a stratospheric particle that optimises the reflection of solar radiation into space.
Dan Peters' research is currently focussed on measuring the optical properties of "solid" atmospheric aerosols, (such as volcanic ash and Saharan dust,) using the NERC Molecular Spectroscopy Facility at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. The main motivation for these measurements is to aid the extension of current retrieval algorithms to include atmospheric aerosols. This is currently an important contribution to climate change uncertainty. Other interests include the HIRDLS instrument radiometric calibration and high accuracy space based thermometry.
Markus Kalberer’s research aims are to gain more detailed insights into the chemical composition of organic aerosols, using a number of state-of-the-art analytical-chemical techniques, including ultra- high resolution mass spectrometry, NMR and chromatographic methods. Changes in the organic composition of the aerosols due to atmospheric oxidation reactions are investigated, and the corresponding changes in the climate forcing and toxicity of the aerosol are explored. We are generating and reacting aerosol particles in laboratory experiments or analyse particles collected from the ambient atmosphere.
Laylla Rkiouak is a PhD student working with James McGregor and Markus Kalberer investigating the uptake of ozone on candidate particles.
Robert McPheat works at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the Molecular Spectroscopy Facility, where he works at on Fourier Transform spectroscopy of dispersed aerosols.
