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I have a PhD in astrophysics and have since worked in Earth science, on atmospheric composition. My main interests are the climate, biosphere and health impacts of aerosol. I work on the interface between observations and models, using one to make sense of the other. 

I am a Dutch national and have worked before in the Netherlands (KNMI), Japan (NICT and University of Tokyo) and England (University of Oxford).

Research

Recently, I studied observational spatio-temporal sampling impacts on model evaluation and showed sampling can introduce large and unneccessary errors. Currently I am intercomparing a large dataset of satellite remote sensing products for aerosol, evaluating AEROCOM models with that same satellite dataset and trying to deduce the source of model errors.

In the past I worked on data assimilation of aerosol, and developed an ensemble Kalman filter/smoother to estimate aerosol emissions from satellite measurements. This system is used by other researchers ( at NIES in Japan and BSC in Spain). Soon I will return to this work as we will upgrade the system to operate with the ECHAM-HAM global model and multi-angle polarisation measurements from POLDER PARASOL.

I am also starting to use WRF-Chem to simulate landscape fires in order to better understand climate impacts of biomass burning aerosol. 

 

Education

I studied astrophysics at Utrecht University in the Netherlands and obtained my PhD (on oscillations in solar prominences) from that same place.

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 13 - Climate Action
  • SDG 14 - Life Below Water

Academic qualification

astrophysics, PhD, Prominence oscillations, Universiteit Utrecht

Award Date: 8 Sept 1998

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