Active Research Projects
Air quality and climate change in Africa
With support from the National Science Foundation and the US State Department, we have started an air quality monitoring network in Kinshasa, DR Congo, a megacity with population over 11 million which suffers from poor air quality yet has no monitoring infrastructure. Other projects include air quality knowledge capacity building in Accra, Ghana (partner with Ghana EPA), sensor deployments in Nairobi, Kenya, Kampala, Uganda, and Lomé, Togo, and using models and remote sensing techniques in India, China, and sub-Saharan Africa.
Regional climate response to changes in regional aerosol emissions
We are key members of the Regional Aerosol Model Intercomparison Project, or RAMIP as well as the Heterogeneous Climate Forcing project or HETCLIF. Some topics we have worked on in the past include: 1) The impact of changes in emissions in specific regions on local and remote climate, 2) Aerosol impacts on clouds and precipitation and 3) The effect of absorbing aerosols on tropical monsoon systems.
News
Westervelt group at AGU
We had a huge successful showing at AGU 2024 in Washington DC this year! Everyone had a talk or a poster (in some cases several posters!) and had a lot of visitors at their talks and posters. We forgot to take a photo at group dinner, but some photos are below. A list of presentations from group members can be found here.
Visit to Accra and Kumasi, Ghana
Prof. Westervelt travled to Accra, Ghana this week for two purposes: 1) checking in on field work with EPA Ghana and visiting the Afri-SET site and 2) participating in the KNUST West Africa Air Quality program. Thanks to the hosts and organizers for facilitating the trip! Some photos below.
New group members!
We are welcoming several new group members to the Westervelt aerosol group:
1. Dr. Abhishek Anand joins as a postdoctoral research scientist. He completed his PhD in August with Prof. Albert Presto from Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Anand will work on the new Clean Air Fund project on satellite-derived estimates of PM2.5 in Africa. His website is here.