Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate Change
Susan Solomon Group
Within the Solomon group at MIT, we focus on interactions between chemistry and climate, at both poles of the Earth as well as the tropics. A selection of current projects includes:
• Probing heterogeneous chemistry in the tropical stratosphere.
• Evaluating and understanding the healing of the Antarctic ozone hole.
• Quantifying emissions of chlorofluorocarbons, hydrochlorofluorocarbons and hydrofluorocarbons, including those from “banks” in applications such as refrigeration, air conditioning, and insulation foam.
• Developing methods to include gravity wave impacts on temperature-dependent atmospheric chemical reactions.
• Determining whether the width of the Earth’s tropics are changing, and why.
• Ocean-atmosphere interactions.
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Image: Jake Belcher
• Influences of volcanoes on the chemistry, climate, and radiative properties of the Earth’s atmosphere.
• Evaluating the spatial variability of the onset, duration, and severity of anthropogenic climate change.
• Improving the understanding of Antarctic ozone changes using satellite and ground-based data.
• Exploring the behavior of the ice-age stratosphere.
• Documenting the emergences of significant changes in climate in the stratosphere and troposphere, and comparing these for models and measurements.
Featured Publications and News
Study: The ozone hole is healing, thanks to global reduction in CFCs
MIT News by Jennifer Chu, Link to Nature paper
Author Daniel James Brown and MIT atmospheric chemist Susan Solomon to receive honorary degrees at UW's 2024 Commencement.
University of Washington, by UW News Staff
Susan Solomon wins vinFuture award for Female Innovators
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Graduate student Peidong Wang wins the best oral presentation award by an early career scientist at the Stratospheric Processes And their Role in Climate (SPARC) general assembly.
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Celebrate Women's History Month with six inspiring women in atmospheric sciences.
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Washington Post, by Kerrin Jeromin, Becky Bolinger and Kasha Patel