Kerri Pratt
University of Michigan, MI·Chemistry
Pollutants released into the air do not stay the same. Sunlight drives reactions, called oxidation, that convert them into new gases and particles.
- Fields
Chemistry
Earth & Environmental Science
- Topics
atmospheric chemistry
air quality
halogen chemistry
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Aug 2027
What they work on
- Measure bromine- and chlorine-containing gases, aerosols and cloud residual particles above and downwind of Arctic sea-ice leads, stretches of open water within ice cover, using the Wyoming King Air and Purdue ALAR research aircraft.
- Determine how emissions from North Slope of Alaska oilfields alter springtime Arctic chemistry, sampling reactive gases such as nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide from near the surface up into the free troposphere.
- Use photochemical box models and a cloud parcel model to evaluate reactions occurring across gas, particle and cloud water phases, and to trace how Arctic halogen chemistry propagates vertically and horizontally.
- Identify which volatile organic compounds, including those from volatile chemical products such as solvents, drive ozone and secondary organic aerosol formation over New York City, using samples from the NSF C-130 aircraft in summer.
- Characterize oxidant levels and nighttime chemistry in the greater New York region from vertical profiles obtained by aircraft descents over the ocean and missed approaches at airports, comparing results with a 2015 winter campaign.
More about the research
Some products harm health or climate; others dissolve in water and wash out with rain or snow. Two airborne field campaigns measure this chemistry in contrasting places: the rapidly changing Arctic and the polluted New York City region. In both, instrumented research aircraft sample gases, particles and clouds at many altitudes, and the measurements are paired with computer models that explain how ozone and fine particles form.
Why it matters
Ozone pollution in the New York City region affects more than 20 million people, and better knowledge of how ozone and fine particles form could sharpen air quality forecasts and help communities cut harmful exposure. The Arctic measurements show how sea-ice loss and oilfield emissions reshape the chemistry of the air, and the openly released models could carry that understanding to other regions, including air over the oceans.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
John Mak
Stony Brook University, NY·Earth & Environmental Science
Measure the specific volatile organic compounds over greater New York, including those from volatile chemical products, using instruments aboard the NSF C-130 aircraft.
Jesse Kroll
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MA·Chemistry
Measure how ozone, formaldehyde and secondary organic aerosol form, and in what amounts, when isoprene, monoterpenes and aromatics are oxidized in chambers across the full range of atmospheric organic peroxy radical (RO2) conditions.
Rodney Weber
Georgia Institute of Technology, GA·Earth & Environmental Science
Quantify how the switch to lower-sulfur fuel oil changes wintertime PM2.5 sulfate, hydroxymethanesulfonate and related sulfur species in Fairbanks, Alaska, using real-time monitoring instruments.
The school
University of Michigan: 124 labs on PI Pages, $2.1B a year on research, 963 research doctorates a year.
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