Reactivit'Air

An important part of my Academy Research Fellow project (2017-2022) funded by Academy of Finland was the development of an instrument to measure total ozone (O3) reactivity. The paper describing the method we use, based on an idea by Dr. Detlev Helmig, and developed together with his group, has just been published in Atmospheric Measurement Techniques . At the time of my proposal submission in 2016, there had been only one publication on the topic of total O3 reactivity measurement by Prof. Jun Matsumoto (Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan). I was also aware of measurements that had been done by Dr. Helmig's group that had been presented at conferences. This is why I visited Prof. Matsumoto in Tokyo in December 2017 and then went to Boulder CO, U.S.A. , with Anssi Liikanen , in January 2018. Anssi stayed almost two months to work in Dr. Helmig's laboratory, performing many tests on the total O3 reactivity monitor (TORM).   Figure 1. Left: TORM at the Toolik Field Station, Alaska...

International collaboration is a cornerstone of modern science. This is why funding agencies generally make mobility an important part of any funding application. Academy of Finland is not different and my Academy Research Fellow project includes several instances of mobility. As I was preparing my proposal including ozone reactivity measurements, I was made aware of the unpublished work from Prof. Detlev Helmig and his team on this topic at the  Atmospheric Research Laboratory (ARL) , part of the  Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) at the University of Colorado in Boulder. After contacting Prof. Helmig, he agreed to host a laboratory visit in order for me to get familiar with their method. As the project got funded, the visit was settled for the beginning of 2018. Therefore, after visiting Prof. Matsumoto in Tokyo , I embarked on another trip, this time to the United States of America, and this time together with Anssi . I stayed for three weeks the...

Prof. Jun Matsumoto ( Waseda University , Tokyo, Japan) is one of the few researcher that has published about his experimental research on ozone reactivity. I recently visited his laboratory on the Tokorozawa Campus to discuss his research. As I was reading about ozone reactivity measurements for proposals, a name stood out: Prof. Jun Matsumoto. He published results from ozone reactivity measurements a few years ago (Matsumoto, 2014) and I contacted him to ask if he would be wiling to host me for a visit at the beginning of the project to familiarize myself with his method. He agreed and as the proposal got funded , I started to organize my trip to Tokyo, which took place at the end of November and beginning of December. Prof. Matsumoto met me on the first day at the Tokorozawa train station, next to my hotel, and we traveled together with train and bus to the university campus. There we first discussed about the current state of his research and on the following day, we visited ...

The annual seminar of the Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Atmospheric Science – From Molecular and Biological Processes to the Global Climate led by Academician Markku Kulmala took place in Helsinki last week from 4 to 6 October 2017. The seminar offers a unique opportunity for participants to share their work and discover the work of collaborators beyond their immediate field of research to foster innovative future research. What is a Centre of Excellence? Funding provided by the Academy of Finland to CoEs aims at creating research and training networks to achieve long-term (and even risky!) objectives. The Academy of Finland's Centres of Excellence (CoE) are the flagships of Finnish research. They are close to or at the very cutting edge of science in their fields, carving out new avenues for research, developing creative research environments and training new talented researchers for the Finnish research system and Finnish business and industry. (Source:  A...