GESTAR II Seminar Series, September 8th at 11:00am
Join us for a virtual seminar by Dr. Vernon Morris, ASU Associate Director, GESTAR II, Foundation Professor of Chemistry and Environmental Sciences and the Director of the School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences, Arizona State University. His talk is titled "An Overview of the AERosols and Ocean Science Expeditions (AEREOSE): Research Cruises Integrating Inclusive Geoscience and Field-based Science."
Date and Time: Thursday, September 8, 2022 at 11:00am
Join us via Teams.
Abstract:
The Saharan Desert is one of the largest sources of natural atmospheric aerosols worldwide and this has numerous implications on climate, health, and regional weather systems. For well over a decade, the Saharan Dust Aerosols and Ocean Science Expedition (AEROSE) cruises have collected in-situ and remotely sensed observations of Saharan dust plumes as they enter the marine boundary layer above the tropical Atlantic Ocean and as they propagate towards the Caribbean. The AEROSE cruises seek to address three central scientific questions: (1) What is the nature of the chemical, physical, and microbial changes on the mineral dust and smoke aerosol distributions as they evolve during trans-Atlantic transport? (2) How do Saharan and sub-Saharan outflows affect the regional atmosphere and ocean during trans-Atlantic transport? and (3) What is the capability of satellite remote sensing and numerical models for resolving and studying the above processes? Along the way, we have taken advantage of the unique setting to perform a variety of satellite calibration/validation experiments, model verification, and testing of prototype instrumentation.
My aim in this presentation is to share some of the general findings from the AEROSE cruises as well as some specific insights regarding microphysical evolution and chemical variability within Saharan dust plumes as a function of particle size during transport across the Atlantic Ocean. While the AEROSE campaign has sampled in over 40 individual dust events, this talk will focus on several major episodes in 2004, 2007, 2015, and 2019. A secondary aim is to highlight some of my advocacy work in equity and inclusion in the Geosciences, how it is intertwined with the science, and some of the impacts thus far.
Biography:
Dr. Morris is a Foundation Professor of Chemistry and Environmental Sciences and the Director of the School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences at the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University. He has faculty affiliations with the School of Earth and Space Exploration, the Global Futures Laboratory, and the Center for Gender Equity in Science and Technology (CGEST). Previously, Dr. Morris was a Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Director of the Atmospheric Sciences Program at Howard University. At Howard, he was the Principal Investigator and Founding Director of the NOAA Cooperative Science Center in Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology (NCAS-M). Dr. Morris also founded the HU Graduate Program in Atmospheric Sciences (HUPAS). HUPAS is the first PhD-degree granting Atmospheric Sciences program at any minority-serving institution and is a national leader in the production of minority PhDs in its field. Under his leadership, over 50% of the African American and 30% of the Hispanic American PhDs in Atmospheric Sciences produced from 2006 to 2018 in the United States graduated from this program. Of the program’s alumni, 97% are working in their respective fields across federal agencies, the private sector, and academia.
Dr. Morris’ research focuses on the chemical evolution of atmospheric particulate during transport and residence times in the lower troposphere and the implications to aerobiology, climate, and cloud processes. To this end he has conducted field experiments in South America, North America, Africa, and Southeast Asia. He has served as Chief Scientist for twelve trans-Atlantic science expeditions (the AERosols and Ocean Science Expeditions – AEROSE) aboard the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) class-1 research vessel, the Ronald H. Brown. Each time, he led an international team of scientists in a multidisciplinary study of the influences and life cycle of atmospheric particles emitted from the Saharan Desert on the regional atmosphere and ocean. The AEROSE data represent the most extensive set of in situ observations of Saharan Air Layer in the Tropical Atlantic. These data have been used for improved satellite retrievals, data assimilation for hurricane and tropical storm forecasts, validation of NOAA, DoD, and European numerical weather prediction models, and improved parameterizations for global forecasts. His current research projects span tropospheric chemistry, environmental justice, aerobiology, and aerosol microphysics.
Dr. Morris’ honors include the AGU’s Presidential Citation for Science and Society (2020), election as a Fellow of the African Science Institute (2019), the AMS Charles Anderson Award (2017), and election as a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society (2016). He currently serves on the National Climate Security Roundtable, The NSF Committee for Equal Opportunities in Science and Engineering (CEOSE), the American Geophysical Unions Diversity and Inclusion Committee, the UCAR Board of Trustees, and as a Councilor of the American Meteorological Society.
For more information on the GESTAR II Seminar Series, click here.
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Posted: September 1, 2022, 4:15 PM
