Stefan Schreier, PhD

Institute: University of Bremen, Institute for Environmental Physics
Department: Physics and Chemistry of the Atmosphere (DOAS group)
Phone: +49-(0)421-218-62093
Email: [email protected]
Weblink: http://www.doas-bremen.de/index.html

PhD project title: Satellite observations of nitrogen dioxide from biomass burning: environmental pollution from space

Pollution in the troposphere is a problem for the environment and human health alike. Measurements of pollution can be performed from many platforms and using a multitude of different techniques, but only satellite observations provide the global view. Among the species observable with satellite instruments such as GOME, SCIAMACHY, OMI and GOME-2 which operate in the UV/visible part of the spectrum, nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is the most prominent.

In the industrialised parts of the world, anthropogenic emissions are the main source of nitrogen oxides in the troposphere. However, biomass burning including wild fires and the use of biofuels can be a large source locally, in particular in Africa, Asia, and South America. While anthropogenic nitrogen oxides emissions have been the focus of many studies using satellite NO2 observations, biomass burning has received much less attention as the measurements are complicated by the presence of smoke and aerosols.

In this project, satellite observations of NO2 will be analysed for biomass burning situations and compared to model simulations and other measurements. The work will start from existing retrieval tools, improve them for the specific conditions of biomass burning, evaluate the existing long-term satellite data set and link it to other data on fire counts, transport and chemical modelling in order to improve our understanding of the atmospheric consequences of fires.

Start of doctoral thesis: 04th October, 2011

Disputation of doctoral thesis: 11 December 2014

PhD committee members:

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. J. P. Burrows (Uni-HB/IUP)
Co-Supervisor: Dr. A. Richter (Uni-HB/IUP),
Further Member:Dr. Johannes Kaiser (ECMWF, Reading), Dr. Klaus Grosfeld (AWI)

Presentations:

Schreier, S.F.: Analysis of tropospheric NO2 from satellite and ship-based DOAS-type measurements. Seminar on Physics and Chemistry of the Atmosphere, Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany, June 2014
Schreier, S.F.: Estimation of NOx emissions from vegetation fires based on the empirical relationship between tropospheric NO2 and fire radiative power. AGU fall meeting 2013, San Francisco, USA, December 2013
Schreier, S.F.: Vegetation fire emission coefficients derived from MODIS fire radiative power and GOME‐2 tropospheric NO2, measurements. Helmholtz Research School on Earth System Science, Annual Retreat 2012, “Deutsches Auswandererhaus“, Germany, November 2012
Schreier, S.F.: Estimates of forest fire NOx emissions in Russia between 1998 and 2010. Young Scientists Summer Program Workshop, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria, August 2012
Schreier, S.F.: The influence of the spatial resolution of topographic input data on the accuracy of 3-D UV actinic flux and irradiance calculations. Seminar Ocean, Ice, and Atmosphere, Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany, January 2012

Posters:

Schreier, S.F., Richter, A., Schönhardt, A., Burrows J.P.: Relationship between satellite-observed active fires and tropospheric NO2. EGU general assembly 2012, Vienna, Austria, April 2012

Schreier, S.F., Richter, A., Kaiser, J.W., Burrows J.P.: Biome-specific fire emission rates of NOx from MODIS fire radiative power and GOME-2/OMI tropospheric NO2 satellite-derived data sets. EGU general assembly 2013,Vienna, Austria, April 2013

Schreier, S.F., Richter, A., Kaiser, J.W., Burrows J.P.: Using satellite measurements of tropospheric NO2 and fire radiative power to derive biome-specific fire emission rates of NOx. Davos Atmosphere and Cryosphere Assembly 2013, Davos, Switzerland, July 2013

Schreier, S. F., Richter, A., Schepaschenko, D., Shvidenko, A., Hilboll, A., Burrows, J. P.: Spatial differences in NOx emission factors between Eurasian and North American boreal forest fires. Helmholtz Research School on Earth System Science, Annual Retreat 2013, “Botanika Bremen“, Germany, November 2013
Schreier, S.F., Peters, E., Richter, A., Wittrock, F., Burrows, J.P.: Ship-based MAX-DOAS measurements of nitrogen dioxide in the South China and Sulu Sea. EGU general assembly 2014, Vienna, Austria, April 2014.
Schreier, S.F., Richter, A., Kaiser, J.W., Schepaschenko, D., Shvidenko, A., Hilboll, A., Burrows, J.P.: NOx emission factors from GOME-2 measurements for the major types of open biomass burning. EGU general assembly 2014, Vienna, Austria, April 2014.

Schreier, S.F., Richter, A., Burrows, J.P., Two-parameter approach for estimating biomass burning emissions of NOx for the African continent, 13th IGAC conference, Natal, Brazil, September 2014.

Publications:

Alvarado, L.M.A., Richter, A., Vrekoussis, M., Wittrock, F., Hilboll, A., Schreier, S.F., and Burrows, J.P.: An improved glyoxal retrieval from OMI measurements, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 7, 4133-4150, doi:10.5194/amt-7-4133-2014, 2014 (http://www.atmos-meas-tech.net/7/4133/2014/amt-7-4133-2014.pdf)
Schreier, S.F., Peters, E., Richter, A., Lampel, J., Wittrock, F. and Burrows, J.P.: Ship-based MAX-DOAS measurements of tropospheric NO2 and SO2 in the South China and Sulu Sea, Atmos. Environ., 102, 331–343, doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2014.12.015, 2015 (http://www.iup.uni-bremen.de/doas/paper/ae_15_schreier.pdf)
Schreier, S.F., Richter, A., Schepaschenko, D., Shvidenko, A., Hilboll, A., Burrows, J.P., Differences in satellite-derived NOx emission factors between Eurasian and North American boreal forest fires, Atmospheric Environment, 10.1016/j.atmosenv.2014.08.071, 2014
Schreier, S. F., Richter, A., Kaiser, J. W., and Burrows, J. P.: The empirical relationship between satellite-derived tropospheric NO2 and fire radiative power and possible implications for fire emission rates of NOx, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 2447-2466, doi:10.5194/acp-14-2447-2014, 2014.

Schreier, S.F., Suomi, I., Bröde, P., Formayer, H., Rieder, H.E., Nadeem, I., Jendritzky, G., Batcharova, E. and Weihs, P.: The uncertainty of UTCI due to uncertainties in the determination of radiation fluxes derived from numerical weather prediction and regional climate model simulations. Int. J. Biometeorol., Special Issue (UTCI), doi: 10.1007/s00484-012-0525-y, 2013
Weihs, P., Wagner, J.E., Schreier, S.F., Rieder, H.E., Angelini, F., Blumthaler, M., Fitzka, M., Gobbi, G.P., Kift, R., Kreuter, A., Simic, S., and Webb, A.R.: The influence of the spatial resolution of topographic input data on the accuracy of 3-D UV actinic flux and irradiance calculations. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 12, 2297-2312, doi:10.5194/acp-12-2297-2012, 2012

Teaching:

Teaching assistant, Exercises in climate geography, Lecturer: Ao.Univ.Prof. Philpp Weihs, March-July 2011, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Research stays:

Young Scientists Summer Program (YSSP), June-August 2012, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Laxenburg, Austria

Ecosystems Services and Management (ESM) Program, June-August 2013, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Laxenburg, Austria

Awards:

Peccei Award 2012, Young Scientists Summer Program, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Laxenburg, Austria