[ES_JOBS_NET] Fully-funded PhD studentship opportunity at the University of Edinburgh on “Exploring a new mechanism in global Earth system models: Impacts of co-condensing semi-volatile compounds on clouds globally”, starting from Oct. 2024 [Open for home and intern...

[Yu Wang]

Fully-funded PhD studentship opportunity at the University of Edinburgh on “Exploring a new mechanism in global Earth system models: Impacts of co-condensing semi-volatile compounds on clouds globally”, starting from Oct. 2024 [Open for home and international students]

Summary
The project combines field observational data, global earth system modelling, and statistical emulators, to quantify the impacts of semi-volatile compounds on clouds globally. The project will involve collaborating with Claudia Marcolli at ETH Zurich in Switzerland and Ying Chen at University of Birmingham. It is expected that the student will spend some time at the ETH Zurich and University of Birmingham.

Project background
Clouds play a critical role in global climate. Just a 6% increase in cloud reflectivity can offset the warming from CO2 doubling. Cloud droplets originate from aerosol particles. Semi-volatile compounds are abundant in the air. They are moderately volatile and can partition between gas and particle phases. Gaseous semi-volatiles can co-condense with water vapour, enhancing aerosol hygroscopic growth and facilitating cloud droplet formation. These processes can deteriorate air quality and affect clouds and radiation. Yet, this co-condensation effect is not well constrained as the semi-volatiles loss during drying and heating in traditional aerosol measurements is poorly understood, and quantifying the co-condensing mass in cloud formation processes is challenging.

To address these challenges, our recent developed method uses open-access data to estimate aerosol hygroscopic growth, considering the co-condensation effect (Wang and Chen, 2019). Applying this method in Delhi, India, we found that the co-condensation of hydrogen chloride causes 50% of visibility reduction and can halve the activation critical supersaturation needed to form cloud droplets, significantly influencing local air quality and climate (Gunthe et al., 2021). A similar significant effect is observed in Chinese megacities (Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shanghai), but with nitric acid (Wang et al., 2019, and in prep.). Collaborating with the ETH team, we are developing a cloud parcel model (to be completed by 2023) to quantify this effect in various environments, including urban, rural, and boreal forest, as case studies.

The PhD project will build on the newly developed parcel model and established prior knowledge, continuing collaboration with the ETH team to deepen our understanding from case studies to global scale, targeting all inorganic and organic species from different emission sources. In this project, we will design a minimal runs of parcel models and use the outputs to train a Gaussian process emulator to build up a surrogate model. This model enables us to perform sensitivity analysis of input parameters on co-condensation effect in a computationally efficient way. Combining sensitivity data with a state-of-the-art earth system model will allow us to quantify the impact of co-condensation effect on clouds globally.

Further details: https://www.ed.ac.uk/e4-dtp/how-to-apply/supervisor-led-projects/project?item=1587
Application deadline: 4 Jan 2024, 12:00 UK time
If you are interested, please feel free to contact me (y.w at ed.ac.uk<mailto:y.w at ed.ac.uk>)!


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Yu Wang (she/her)
School of GeoSciences, The University of Edinburgh, King’s Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3FF
Web: https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/en/persons/yu-wang-2
Email: y.w at ed.ac.uk<mailto:y.w at ed.ac.uk>

The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336. Is e buidheann carthannais a th’ ann an Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann, clàraichte an Alba, àireamh clàraidh SC005336.
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