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Professor Lucy Carpenter

01904 324588
E-mail: lucy.carpenter@york.ac.uk

Atmospheric chemistry

Atmosphere-ocean interactions play a key role in regulating atmospheric composition and climate. We study the controls and mechanisms responsible for the release of a wide range of oceanic trace gases, with a focus on volatile halogens and their influence on atmospheric chemistry. The photo dissociation of reactive halogens initiates a complex series of atmospheric reactions that can deplete ozone and lead to the formation of fine aerosol in the lower atmosphere. Relatively stable organic halogens such as bromoform (CHBr₃) and dibromomethane (CH₂Br₂) emitted predominantly from the oceans, can be transported to the lower stratosphere and make a significant contribution there to total bromine levels and thus to stratospheric ozone depletion. We investigate the chemical transformations of organic and inorganic halogens in seawater, so that their emission rates to the atmosphere may be better known, and employ models to probe rates and mechanisms. Potential mechanisms for release of halogens to the polar atmosphere have been demonstrated by recent fieldwork in the Arctic COBRA campaign and in experiments mimicking a sea-ice environment.  Such mechanisms are likely to be of increased importance in the near future as Arctic sea ice thins and retreats, impacting atmospheric chemistry and climate.

Most of our research involves field work to directly probe the atmosphere; we deploy our instruments on ship, ground-based and airborne platforms.  Experimental techniques for both laboratory and field research include thermal desorption (TD)-GC-MS (both EI and CI, with fast GC), LC-ion trapMS, PTR-ToF and UV-vis spectroscopy. We have set up and now run the Cape Verde Atmospheric Observatory  (CVAO) in the tropical east Atlantic:  this is now a global WMO/GAW monitoring station and plays a key role in global monitoring of the tropical atmosphere. 

Cape Verde Atmospheric Observatory (left), COBRA campaign, Hudson Bay (right)

Selected Publications

• Quantifying the contribution of marine organic gases to atmospheric iodine.
  C E Jones, K E Hornsby, R Sommariva, R M Dunk, R von Glasow, G McFiggans and L J Carpenter, Geophys. Res. Lett., 2010, 37, L18804, doi:10.1029/2010GL043990.
• Extensive halogen-mediated ozone destruction over the tropical Atlantic Ocean.
  Nature, 2008, 453, 1232-1235 doi: 10.1038/nature07035
• Iodide accumulation provides kelp with an inorganic antioxidant impacting atmospheric chemistry.
  Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. (USA), 2008, 105, 6954-6958.
• Abiotic source of CH₂I₂ and other reactive organic halogens in the sub-Arctic atmosphere?.
  Environ. Sci. Tech., 2005, 39, 8812-8816.
• Uptake of methanol to the North Atlantic ocean surface.
  Global Biogeochem. Cycles, 2004, 18, 4027.
• Iodine in the Marine Boundary Layer.
  Chemical Reviews,2003, 103, 4953-4962.
• Bromoform as a source of bromine to the stratosphere.
  Geophys. Res. Lett., 200, 27, 2081-2084.
• Short lived alkyl iodides and bromides at Mace Head: Links to macroalgal emission and halogen oxide formation.
  J. Geophys. Res, 1999, 104, 1679-1689.