AGU’s social media feeds featured Charley’s JGR article presenting our GEUFE fire emission inventory.
Congratulations, Shiv!
Shiv successfully defended his MS Thesis on October 31. His research showed that computational chemistry methods can be used to estimate the global warming potential (GWP) of many commercially produced gases, more accurately than has been previously possible. He applied the technique to several gases that could be used in the future as inhalation anesthetics. The results suggest that GWP and climate impacts of potential commercial gases can be screened quickly and cheaply before the products reach the market, enabling informed decisions about which products are produced, sold, and used.
Congratulations, Aachal!
Aachal successfully defended her MS Thesis on October 3. Her Thesis “Projecting Future Arctic Tropospheric Ozone and Mercury” studied how warming temperatures and falling sea ice concentrations in the Arctic affect atmospheric chemistry and transport. She modified the GEOS-Chem model to simulate present-day and future (2040s) conditions and added model diagnostics to understand the causes of those changes.
Aachal’s results predict that reactive halogen concentrations are likely to decrease in the boundary layer, leading to increased near-surface ozone and reduced mercury deposition to the surface. The halogen changes are due to a complex interplay of surface sources and heterogeneous atmospheric chemistry. Decreases in sea ice reduce the halogen sources from snowpack photochemistry and blowing snow, while the increase in open water increases sea salt aerosol production, with reductions being more important overall.
Our Research Featured in NBC Documentary on Florida Sugarcane Burning
Our group’s research was highlighted in the NBC 6 South Florida documentary Bittersweet Muck. The film examines the environmental and public health impacts of pre-harvest sugarcane burning in the Everglades Agricultural Area, a practice that releases particulate pollution into the air during harvest season. The documentary explores longstanding concerns from residents about air quality and health effects associated with these fires, as well as the broader scientific and policy debates surrounding the practice.
Chris appears in the documentary to discuss our group’s research quantifying the contribution of sugarcane fires to fine particulate matter (PM₂.₅) and associated health risks. Our research showed that many lines of evidence from surface measurements, satellite data, and dispersion models all point to sugarcane fires being a significant source of smoke and PM2.5 in the Everglades Agricultural Area and surrounding counties. Through a health impact assessment, we quantified the likely effect on premature mortality (Nowell et al., 2022, Holmes and Nowell, 2024).
Chris receives University Teaching Award
In April, Chris received a Teaching Award for Foundational Course Excellence from FSU. The award recognized his teaching for General Meteorology (MET2700), particularly incorporating active learning exercises into classroom experiences. Due to reorganization of the meteorology curriculum, MET2700 is no longer offered, but Chris uses similar teaching approaches for other courses, such as Atmospheric Radiation and Remote Sensing (MET4450) and Atmospheric Composition, Chemistry, and Climate (MET5607).
Update on sugarcane research
Chris and Holly published a short update on sugarcane research yesterday in Environmental Health Perspectives.
The article explains how criticism of our study published last summer has ignored the evidence that we provided, misrepresents the methods that we used, and fails to identify any errors in our work. The critique of our research, referenced in link above, was paid for by Florida Sugar Cane League. We stand behind the analysis and findings of our article and nothing in the critique changes these conclusions. Further details are provided in Environmental Health Perspectives.
Health effects of sugarcane burning
Our new study in Environmental Health Perspectives quantified the impact of smoke from sugarcane fires on mortality in South Florida. As we reported in the paper, these fires likely cause 1-5 deaths per year due to the fine particulate matter (PM2.5) that they produce. The mortality risk is highest for people that live in the sugar growing region, while most of the deaths occur in coastal and inland cities that have high populations.
Our work combined well-established tools to derive these mortality numbers. We synthesized satellite data, surface air quality monitors, state burn permit data, and a 3-D smoke dispersion model to quantify the contribution of sugarcane fires to PM2.5. We then used population and health data from the State of Florida and relative risk functions from peer-reviewed literature to quantify the health impacts. These mortality estimates are based on risk associated with 6 causes of death that are linked to PM2.5 exposure in the general public age 25 and older.
Nowell, H.K., Wirks, C.K., Val Martin, M., van Donkelaar, A., Martin, R.V., Uejio, C.K., Holmes, C.D. (2022) Impacts of prescribed fire on public health in South Florida, Environmental Health Perspectives 130, 087004, https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP9957
Media attention
- EHP Science Selection
- FSU Press Release
- Palm Beach Post
- CBS 12 News, Palm Beach
- Palm Beach Post (Jan 2023)
- WLRN radio (Miami) (Jan 2023)
- NBC News (May 2023)
ProPublica event on sugarcane
ProPublica hosted a video screening and panel discussion on March 2 of “How One Country Sought to Combat the Harm of Burning Sugar Cane.” Chris was one of the panelists and he shared the group’s research on sugar cane fires in Florida. Other panelists included agronomists, regulators, and health experts from Brazil who spoke about the transition to green harvesting around Sao Paulo.
Anxhelo’s research recognized at AGU and AMS meetings
Anxhelo presented his research “Forecasting Prescribed Fires Using Weather Forecasts, Satellite Data, and Machine Learning” at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in December 2021 and at the American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting in January 2022. His oral talk at AGU won an Outstanding Student Presentation Award and his AMS poster received an Outstanding Poster Presentation Award. This makes the 3rd consecutive year that Anxhelo has won an award for this growing research. Congratulations!
Kelly’s Outstanding Presentations
Kelly Graham received an Outstanding Student Presentation Award at the 2020 AGU Fall Meeting for her presentation “Modeling inter-annual variations and spatial gradients of atmospheric CO2 over the Arctic Ocean.” Her talk used GEOS-Chem to interpret CO2 observations from the O-Buoy network over the Arctic Ocean.
Closer to home, Kelly also won an award in the FSU Three Minute Thesis competition.
Congratulations, Kelly!