Eiko Nemitz

Eiko Nemitz

Monitoring in a city

Atmospheric monitoring

Atmospheric monitoring

Dr Eiko Nemitz

Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
Bush Estate
Penicuik
Midlothian
EH26 0QB
T: +44 (0)131 4458543
F: +44 (0)131 4453943
E-mail: Dr Eiko Nemitz

Research interests

Surface / atmosphere exchange fluxes of reactive gases and aerosols

  • quantification of reactive trace gas fluxes including nitrogen components (NH3, HNO3, NO, NO2, PAN), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), ozone and sulphur dioxide
  • quantification of size- and composition resolved aerosol fluxes with micrometeorological techniques, including the measurement of fluxes of NH4+, NO3-, SO42- and CI- and organic aerosol
  • development of process understanding of emission / deposition rates and development of parameterisation for the inclusion into atmospheric transport models,
  • study of the effect of chemistry on fluxes and flux measurements
  • measurement of greenhouse gas fluxes (CO2, CH4, N2O)
  • quantification of aerosol emission factors

Atmospheric chemical processing and source apportionment

  • study and quantification of in-canopy inorganic and organic chemisty
  • source apportionment of particulate matter
  • behaviour of ammonium nitrate in the atmosphere
  • chemical interactions at leaf surfaces and their effect on deposition rates

Development of new approaches for flux measurements

  • the use of the Aerodyne Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (AMS) for flux measurements of sub-micron aerosol chemical components
  • application of chemical ionisation mass spectrometry for the flux measurements of reactive trace gas (PAN, HNO3)
  • extension of micrometeorological approaches for flux measurements in urban areas
  • development of low-cost approaches for long-term integrated measurements of deposition fluxes (COTAG)

Current projects

  • NERC OP3-Danum 2008: Oxidant and Particle Photochemical Processes above a South-East Asian tropical rain forest: study of biogenic emissions, aerosol fluxes and their transformation above tropical rain forest in Malaysian Borneo
  • NERC ACES 'Aerosol Coupling in the Earth System': Study of tropical landuse change on change in atmospheric chemistry, through measurement of surface/atmosphere exchange above oilpalm
  • NERC DIASPORA 'Determining the Atmospheric Sources, Sinks and Processing of Organic Aerosol: Study of organic aerosol fluxes through the development of a next-generation flux measurement system for aerosol components based on the Aerodyne HR-ToF-AMS
  • NERC QUAAC 'QUEST Atmospheric Aerosols and Chemistry' - Development of parameterisations of surface / atmosphere exchange for UKCA and the QUEST Earth System Model
  • NERC ClearfLo 'Clean Air For London' - Long-term measurements of pollutants above London
  • EU NitroEurope IP: Quantification of European terrestrial nitrogen balance and its effect on net greenhouse gas emissions. The emphasis of my contribution is on the development of low-cost and state-of-the-art techniques of measuring and interpreting nitrogen and greenhouse gas fluxes.
  • EU PEGASOS 'Pan-European Gas-Aerosols-Climate Interaction Studies': Investigation of the linkages between climate change and air pollution through measurements and modelling
  • EU Infrastructure Network ACTRIS 'Aerosols, Clouds, and Trace gases Research Infrastructure Network' European infrastructure network activity for advanced measurements of aerosols and trace gases
  • Defra EMEP Supersite - responsible for the advanced monitoring of gases and particles at the UK EMEP Supersite Auchencorth, using a MARGA monitor. Co-ordination and analysis of a European network of Aerosol Mass Spectrometer measurements within the framework of the EMEP Intensive Measurement Periods.
  • Defra Ammonium from Agriculture. Quantification of the response of (urban) particulate matter concentrations to changes in emissions of NH3, NOx and SOx and under agricultural ammonia abatement scenarios.

Membership of professional organisations

Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society.

Member of the European Geosciences Union (EGU).

Member of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).

Member of the UNECE/CLRTAP Task Force on Measurement and Modelling.

I am a Guest Editor for Atmospheric Chemistry Physics and regularly review for Atmospheric Chemistry Physics, Biogeosciences, Atmospheric Environment, Environmental Pollution, Agricultural and Forest Meteorology and other journals.

I work in collaboration with many UK NCAS institutions, and have links with researchers throughout Europe and the USA.

I have published on subjects from atmospheric chemistry to plant physiology, with over 70 papers published in peer-reviewed journals (h-index 20), and over 100 conference proceedings and contract reports.

Within CEH, I act as the Objective Champion for the research area "Long-term Monitoring of Concentrations and Fluxes" within the Biogeochemistry Programme.

Research career

  • 2003 to date: Senior Scientific Officer (Band 5) and Group Leader "Aerosols and Micrometeorology", CEH at Edinburgh
  • 2002 - 2003: Sabbatical - Project Scientist, Biosphere-Atmosphere Interactions Group, Atmospheric Chemistry Division, National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Boulder, USA
  • 2001: Senior Scientific Officer (Band 5), Centre for Ecology and Hydrology
  • 1998: Appointed HSO (Band 6) Environmental Physicist, Institute of Terrestrial Ecology (now Centre for Ecology & Hydrology)
  • 1994-1998: PhD in Physics, Thesis: "Surface/atmosphere exchange of ammonia and chemically interacting species", UMIST/CEH
  • 1993-94: BSc (Hons) Physics with Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST)
  • 1991-93: Physics 'Vordiplom', Philipps University Marburg, Germany.

 

Selected publications

See also the NERC Open Research Archive.

Key Special Issues

Pollutant fluxes in the urban environment

  • An eddy-covariance system for the measurement of surface / atmosphere exchange fluxes of submicron aerosol chemical species – first application above an urban area. Nemitz, E., Jimenez, J.L., Huffman, J.A., Ulbrich, I.M., Canagaratna, M.R., Worsnop, D.R., Guenther, A.B.; Aerosol Science Technology 42(8), 636-657, 2008. (pdf)
  • Mixing ratios and eddy covariance flux measurements of volatile organic compounds from an urban canopy (Manchester, UK). Langford, B., Davision, B., Nemitz, E., Hewitt, C.N. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 9, 1971-1987, 2009. (pdf)
  • Fluxes and concentrations of volatile organic compounds above central London, UK. Langford, B., Nemitz, E., House, E., Phillips, G.J., Famulari, D., Davison, B., Hopkins, J., Lewis, A. and Hewitt, C.N.; Atmos. Chem. Phys., 10, 627-645, 2010. (pdf)
  • Eddy-covariance measurements of nitrous oxide fluxes above a city. Famulari, D., Nemitz, E., Di Marco, C., Phillips, G.J., Thomas, R., House, E., Fowler, D. Agric. Forest Meteorol., 786-793, 2010. (link)
  • Micrometeorological measurements of the urban heat budget and CO2 emissions on a city scale. Nemitz, E.; Hargreaves, K.J.; McDonald, A.G.; Dorsey, J.R.; Fowler, D.; Environ. Sci. Technol. 36(14), 3139-3146, 2002. (link)

Surface / atmosphere exchange over vegetation

  • Eddy covariance fluxes of peroxyacetyl nitrates (PANs) and NOy to a coniferous forest. Turnipseed, A.A., Huey, L.G., Nemitz, E., Stickel, R., Higgs, J., Tanner, D.J., Slusher, D.L., Sparks, J.P., Flocke, F. and Guenther, A.; J. Geophys. Res. 111, D09304, doi:10.1.029/2005JD006631, 2006 (link)
  • Large estragole fluxes from oil palms in Borneo. P.K. Misztal, S. Owen, A.B. Guenther, R. Rasmussen, C. Geron, P. Harley, G.J. Phillips, A. Ryan, D. P. Edwards, C.N. Hewitt, E. Nemitz, J. Siong, M.R. Heal and J. N. Cape. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 10, 4343-4358, 2010. (pdf)
  • Measurements of ozone deposition to a potato canopy. Coyle, M., Nemitz, E., Storeton-West, R., Fowler, D., and Cape, J.N.; Agric. Forest Met. 149(3-4), 655-666, 2009. (pdf)
  • Gas-particle conversions above a Dutch heathland: I. Surface exchange fluxes of NH3, SO2, HNO3 and HCl. Nemitz E., Sutton M.A., Wyers G.P. and Jongejan P.A.C.; Atmos. Chem. Phys. 4, 989-1005, 2004. (pdf)
  • Micrometeorological measurements of particle deposition velocities to moorland vegetation. Nemitz E., Gallagher M.W., Duyzer J.H. and Fowler D.; Quart. J. Roy. Met. Soc. 128A(585), 2281-2300, 2002. (link)

Development of new instrumentation and approaches

  • Field inter-comparison of eleven atmospheric ammonia measurement techniques K. von Bobrutzki, C. F. Braban, D. Famulari, S. K. Jones, T. Blackall, M. Blom, H. Coe, W. Gallagher, M. Ghalaieny, M. R. McGillen, C. J. Percival, J. D. Whitehead, R. Ellis, J. Murphy, A. Mohacsi, A. Pogany, S. Rantanen, T. E. L. Smith, M. A. Sutton, E. Nemitz. Atmos. Measurement Techn., 3, 113-125, 2010. (pdf)
  • The use of disjunct eddy sampling methods for the determination of ecosystem level fluxes of trace gases. A. Turnipseed, S. Pressley, T. Karl, B. Lamb, E. Nemitz, G. Allwine, W. Cooper, S. Shertz, and A. Guenther; Atmos. Chem. Phys., 9, 981-994, 2009. (pdf)
  • Development of a low-cost system for measuring conditional time-averaged gradients of SO­2 and NH3. Famulari, D., Fowler, D., Storeton-West, R.L., Nemitz, E., Hargreaves, K.J., Rutherford, G., Tang, Y.S., Sutton, M.A., Weston, K.J.; Environmental Monitoring and Assessment. 161(1-4), 11-27, 2010. (link)
  • An Automated Analyser to Measure Surface-Atmosphere Exchange Fluxes of Water Soluble Inorganic Aerosol Compounds and Reactive Trace Gases. Thomas, R.M., Trebs, I., Otjes, R., Jongejan, P.A.C., ten Brink, H., Phillips, G., Kortner, M., Meixner, F.X., and Nemitz, E.; Environ. Science Technol. 43(5), 1412-1418, 2009. (link)
  • Inter-comparison of ammonia fluxes obtained using the relaxed eddy accumulation technique. Hensen, A., E. Nemitz, M. J. Flynn, A. Blatter, S. K. Jones, L. L. Sørensen, B. Hensen, S. Pryor, B. Jensen, R. P. Otjes, J. Cobussen, B. Loubet, J. W. Erisman, M. W. Gallagher, A. Neftel, and M. A. Sutton. Biogeosciences, 6, 2575-2588, 2009. (pdf)

Parameterisations of surface / atmosphere exchange processes

  • Review and parameterisation of bi-directional ammonia exchange between vegetation and the atmosphere. Massad, R.-S., Nemitz, E., Sutton, M.A.; Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., 10, 10335-10398, 2010. (pdf)
  • SURFATM-NH3: a model combining the surface energy balance and bi-directional exchanges of ammonia applied at the field scale. E. Personne, B. Loubet, B. Herrmann, M. Mattsson, J. K. Schjoerring, E. Nemitz, M. A. Sutton, and P. Cellier. Biogeosciences, 6, 1371-1388, 2009. (pdf)
  • A two-layer canopy compensation point model for describing bi-directional biosphere / atmosphere exchange of ammonia. Nemitz E., Sutton M.A. and Milford C.: Q. J. Roy. Met. Soc. 127, 815-834, 2001 (link)
  • Intercomparison and assessment of turbulent and physiological exchange parameters of grassland. Nemitz, E., K.J.Hargreaves, A.Neftel, B.Loubet, P.Cellier, J.R.Dorsey, M.Flynn, A.Hensen, T.Weidinger, R.Meszaros, L.Horvath, U.Dämmgen, C.Frühauf, F.J.Löpmeier, M.W.Gallagher, and M.A.Sutton. Biogeosciences, 6, 1445-1466, 2009. (pdf)
  • Resistance modelling of ammonia exchange above oilseed rape. Nemitz E., Sutton M.A., Fowler D., Schjørring J.K., Husted S. and Wyers G.P.; Agric. Forest Meteorol. 105(4): 405-425, 2000. (link)

Chemical interactions and atmospheric composition

  • Aerosol fluxes and particle growth above managed grassland. Nemitz, E., J.R.Dorsey, M.J.Flynn, M.W.Gallagher, A.Hensen, J.-W.Erisman, S.M.Owen, U.Dämmgen, and M.A.Sutton. Biogeosciences., 6, 1627-1645, 2009. (pdf)
  • Role of canopy-scale photochemistry in modifying biosphere-atmosphere exchange of reactive terpene species: results from the CELTIC field study. Stroud, C., Makar, P., Karl, T., Guenther, A., Geron, C., Turnipseed, A., Nemitz, E., Baker, B., Potosnak, M., Fuentes, J.D.; J. Geophys. Res. 110, D17303, doi:10.1029/2005JD005775, 2005. (link)
  • Contributions from transport, solid fuel burning and cooking to primary organic aerosols in two UK cities. J.D. Allan, P.I. Williams, W.T. Morgan, C.L. Martin, M.J. Flynn, J. Lee, E. Nemitz, G.J. Phillips, M.W. Gallagher and H. Coe; Atmos. Chem. Phys., 10, 647-668, 2010. (pdf)
  • Gas-particle conversions above a Dutch heathland: III. Modelling of size-dependent NH4+ fluxes as modified by the NH3-HNO3-NH4NO3 equilibrium. Nemitz E. and Sutton M.A.; Atmos. Chem. Phys. 4, 1025-1045, 2004. (pdf)