Title: Applications of Environmental Radionuclides 210Pb and 7Be to Atmospheric Studies at the WMO-GAW Station of Mt. Cimone (2165 m a.s.l., Italy)
Speaker:Â Erika Brattich, PhD, University of Bologna
Date: Monday, July 25, 2016
Time: 1:30pm
Location: NIA, Room 101
Host: Hongyu Liu, National Institute of Aerospace
Abstract: Cosmogenic and terrigenous radionuclides have been traditionally used in the atmospheric sciences for a better understanding of several basic processes, including interhemispheric transport, stratosphere-troposphere exchange (STE) and timescales of atmospheric dynamics. Moreover, they also provided important insights into transport and/or deposition processes of atmospheric pollutants (e.g., particulate matters). This seminar will present an overview of the research activity on the long-term observations of 210Pb and 7Be in PM10 matrix collected over the period of 1998-2011 at the WMO-GAW (World Meteorological Organizazion-Global Atmosphere Watch) station of Mt. Cimone (44.20° N, 10.70° E; 2165 m a.s.l.; Italy). Having completely different sources (i.e., 210Pb is a decay daughter of 222Rn of crustal origin while 7Be is a cosmogenic nuclide) but sharing the same deposition processes (i.e., attaching to submicron particles and mainly removed by precipitation scavenging of the carrier aerosol), the pair of 210Pb and 7Be has been widely exploited for researches in atmospheric science. At Mt. Cimone, 210Pb and 7Be radiotracers have been used both in the traditional study of stratosphere-to-troposphere transport, and more recently in the investigation of the influences of transport and precipitation scavenging on atmospheric composition and of the factors controlling 210Pb and 7Be seasonalities at the site. 210Pb was also analysed in view of its use as a proxy of fine stable aerosol to gain better insights into the origin and size of particles. This talk is an extended version of two talks presented at the RICTA 2015 (3rd Iberian Meeting on Aerosol Science and Technology) and ENVIRA 2015 (International Conference Natural Radioactivity), and a collection of papers published so far in peer-reviewed scientific journals. An outline of the research to be carried out in collaboration with Dr. Hongyu Liu and Dr. Bo Zhang (NIA) will also be presented.
Bio: Erika Brattich received her bachelor in Atmospheric Physics and Meteorology from Bologna University in 2007. She then completed her Master degree in Physics, specializing in Atmospheric Physics and Meteorology at the University of Bologna in 2010. Her bachelor thesis won the 2nd prize at the concourse in honor of Prof. Gianpietro Puppi at the FAI congress in Ischia, 2007. Her master thesis (“Atmospheric aerosol composition in Bologna: receptor modeling applicationâ€) won the special prize “Inquinamento zero†(“Zero pollutionâ€) at the master thesis concourse ICU Laura Conti, 2011. After that she began the PhD studies in Earth Sciences at the Bologna University in January 2011. Her PhD thesis (“Origin and variability of PM10 and atmospheric radiotracers at the WMO-GAW station of Mt. Cimone (1998-2011) and in the central Po Valleyâ€) studied atmospheric particulate matter, radiotracers and ozone at the WMO-GAW station of Mt. Cimone (Italy), and the intercorrelations between atmospheric transport and composition at that site.
Her area of expertise is the application of techniques based on receptor modeling and atmospheric radiotracers in the study of the sources of aerosols. Her research with Dr. Hongyu Liu and during her visit at NIA focuses on investigating the sources of seasonality and interannual variability in 210Pb and 7Be radionuclides observations at the WMO-GAW station of Mt. Cimone (Italy) with the use of the GEOS-Chem global chemical transport model. She is coauthor of 14 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals, reviewer for 7 international scientific journals, and co-supervisor of 4 master theses and 5 bachelor theses.