Alma Hodzic

	Alma Hodzic

Alma Hodzic (ACD), is working on the development and evaluation of meso-scale chemistry-transport models used for forecasting air quality. In particular, her research is aimed at understanding and improving the representation of the interactions between atmospheric aerosol particles, regional photochemistry and meteorology. Among several projects that Alma is presently pursuing, one is aimed at quantifying the effects of smoke aerosols originated from wildfires in Portugal on air quality in Europe during the summer 2003 heat-wave. For that purpose, Alma uses the meso-scale aerosol model CHIMERE (developed at Institute Pierre-Simon Laplace, France) and chemical and optical aerosol measurements from ground stations and satellites. Alma has added new parameterizations in order to account for the emissions, transport and radiative impact of smoke particles. She is currently working on coupling the radiative transfer model TUV (developed at NCAR by Sasha Madronich) with the aerosol model CHIMERE which will account for the aerosol radiative impact on photochemistry and ozone formation. The preliminary results show that the presence of elevated smoke layers over Europe during summer 2003 considerably altered atmospheric radiative properties and are responsible for a 10 to 35% decrease in photolysis rates throughout a large part of Europe . The fire emissions resulted in an increase in atmospheric radiative forcing that may have increased atmospheric stability and contributed to the persistence of the extremely dry and hot conditions during summer 2003. Recently, Alma started participating in the MIRAGE-Mex project which is aimed at studying the chemical and physical transformations of gases and aerosols in the polluted outflow from Mexico City . Alma is working on the WRF-Chem model in collaboration with scientists from the Atmospheric Chemistry Division at NCAR and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and is interested in examining the interactions between gaseous and aerosol pollutants.

Alma also helped in organizing the Junior Faculty Forum held at NCAR on August 1-3, 2006 (http://www.nsa.ucar.edu/jff/app.html). Specifically, she was in charge of the third topic focused on air quality management. The purpose was to discuss current and future challenges in air pollution research and to encourage further collaboration among junior scientists. Group discussions centered on three themes related to air quality monitoring, meso-scale modeling and aerosol effects on health. Main knowledge gaps and unresolved scientific questions were identified and discussions were aimed to determine how present and future air quality models and observations could be better integrated to address these issues.

Funding Sources

This research is supported by the National Science Foundation.