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Centre for Atmospheric Science

University Lecturer

Environmental and climatic effects of volcanic gases and aerosols

I am an Interdisciplinary Lecturer in Climate Modelling jointly affiliated with the Departments of Chemistry and Geography. I combine expertise in atmospheric science, climate modelling, and volcanology to advance the current understanding of volcanic impacts and hazards. In particular, I investigate the impact of volcanism on atmospheric chemistry, climate, air quality, human health, ecosystems and aviation using a wide range of atmospheric models and volcanological datasets. I am particularly interested in continuously degassing volcanoes and effusive Icelandic volcanic eruptions and their effects on air quality and climate. I am convinced that these eruptions serve as a perfect natural lab and can help better understand and quantify aerosol-cloud interactions.

Recent research

I have extensively studied the most recent Icelandic eruption at Holuhraun (Bárðarbunga volcano). Starting in August 2014, Holuhraun erupted effusively for 6 months and emitted up to nine times as much sulphur dioxide per day as all European industry combined, which led to a measureable episodic degradation of air quality across Northern Europe in September 2014 (see Schmidt et al., 2015). Combining satellite observations with numerical modelling, we were also able to demonstrate that the eruption had a discernable effect on the brightness of low-level clouds over the North Atlantic (Gettelman et al., 2015; Malavelle et al., 2017).

Publications

Machine learning reveals climate forcing from aerosols is dominated by increased cloud cover
Y Chen, J Haywood, Y Wang, F Malavelle, G Jordan, D Partridge, J Fieldsend, J De Leeuw, A Schmidt, N Cho, L Oreopoulos, S Platnick, D Grosvenor, P Field, U Lohmann
– Nature Geoscience
(2022)
15,
609
Reckoning with the Rocky Relationship Between Eruption Size and Climate Response: Toward a Volcano-Climate Index
A Schmidt, BA Black
(2022)
50,
627
Impact of climate change on volcanic processes: current understanding and future challenges
TJ Aubry, JI Farquharson, CR Rowell, SFL Watt, V Pinel, F Beckett, J Fasullo, PO Hopcroft, DM Pyle, A Schmidt, JS Sykes
– Bulletin of Volcanology
(2022)
84,
58
Volcanic effects on climate: recent advances and future avenues
LR Marshall, EC Maters, A Schmidt, C Timmreck, A Robock, M Toohey
– Bulletin of Volcanology
(2022)
84,
54
Impacts of erupted and resuspended volcanic ash from the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption, Iceland, on atmospheric ice-nucleating particle concentrations
E Maters, J de Leeuw, F Beckett, A Sanchez-Marroquin, C Witham, B Murray, K Carslaw, A Schmidt
(2022)
Effects of forcing differences and initial conditions on inter-model agreement in the VolMIP volc-pinatubo-full experiment
D Zanchettin, C Timmreck, M Khodri, A Schmidt, M Toohey, M Abe, S Bekki, J Cole, SW Fang, W Feng, G Hegerl, B Johnson, N Lebas, AN Legrande, GW Mann, L Marshall, L Rieger, A Robock, S Rubinetti, K Tsigaridis, H Weierbach
– Geoscientific Model Development
(2022)
15,
2265
The 2019 Raikoke volcanic eruption – Part 2: Particle-phase dispersion and concurrent wildfire smoke emissions
MJ Osborne, J De Leeuw, C Witham, A Schmidt, F Beckett, N Kristiansen, J Buxmann, C Saint, EJ Welton, J Fochesatto, AR Gomes, U Bundke, A Petzold, F Marenco, J Haywood
– Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
(2022)
22,
2975
Effectiveness of low-cost air quality monitors for identifying volcanic SO₂ and PM downwind from Masaya volcano, Nicaragua
RCW Whitty, MA Pfeffer, E Ilyinskaya, TJ Roberts, A Schmidt, S Barsotti, W Strauch, LR Crilley, FD Pope, H Bellanger, E Mendoza, TA Mather, EJ Liu, N Peters, IA Taylor, H Francis, XH Leiva, D Lynch, S Nobert, P Baxter
– Volcanica
(2022)
5,
33
Opportunistic experiments to constrain aerosol effective radiative forcing
MW Christensen, A Gettelman, J Cermak, G Dagan, M Diamond, A Douglas, G Feingold, F Glassmeier, T Goren, DP Grosvenor, E Gryspeerdt, R Kahn, Z Li, P-L Ma, F Malavelle, IL McCoy, DT McCoy, G McFarquhar, J Mülmenstädt, S Pal, A Possner, A Povey, J Quaas, D Rosenfeld, A Schmidt, R Schrödner, A Sorooshian, P Stier, V Toll, D Watson-Parris, R Wood, M Yang, T Yuan
– Atmospheric chemistry and physics
(2022)
22,
641
Volcanic emissions, aerosol processes, and climatic effects
A Schmidt, S Carn
(2022)
707
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Centre Highlights

• January 2024: The CCPG have successfully submitted a proposal for PACESETTERS!

• September 2nd 2023: Dr Annela Anger-Kraavi has co-authored a paper analysing just transition narratives in European coal regions. Read the paper here

• December 13th 2022: The CCPG have co-authored a paper on game-changing innovations towards net-zero, published in Energy Strategy Reviews. Read the open access paper here.

• November 15th 2022: The final conference of PARIS REINFORCE is taking place today in Sorbonne. Read more about the event here

• October 24th 2022: The CCPG have successfully submitted a proposal for the Cambridge-Tsinghua joint research initiative! 

• May 5th 2022: We've submitted to the UNFCCC's Global Stocktake (GST). More information is available on our news page. 

• March 23rd 2022: Multiple CAS academics have published a paper investigating the future role of anthropogenic methane emissions. Read the open access paper here.

• Feb 18th 2022: Dr Parris and Dr Anger-Kraavi have co-authored a paper that develops a tool to support co-designed transformative change. Read the open access paper here.

• Dec 16th 2021: Dr Parris has co-authored a paper that introduces a tool to support plastic pollution policy. Read the open access paper here.

• Nov 22nd 2021: Dr Anger-Kraavi has co-authored a paper with Paris Reinforce. Read the open access version here


Want to know more about our high-profile publications? Check out our Publication Highlights!


 

Group leader

Research Interest Group

Telephone number

01223 336369

Research Interests