Professor
Michael
J. Prather
Fred Kavli
Chair and Professor of Earth System Science
- 3329 Croul
Hall, Department of Earth System Science
- University of
California, Irvine, CA 92697-3100
- tele: (949)
824-5838 (office), -8794 (dept), -3874 (fax)
-
mprather@uci.edu
Director, The
UCI
Environment Institute
Global
Change,
Energy, and
Sustainable Resources
http://environment.uci.edu
Undergraduate
degrees in Mathematics (Yale, 1969) and Physics (Merton,
Oxford, 1971). Doctorate in Astronomy and Astrophysics
(Yale,
1976).
Researcher at Harvard (1975-1985) and Goddard Institute for Space
Studies (1985-1992). Program manager at NASA HQ (1987-1992).
Adjunct
Professor in Applied Physics and Nuclear Engineering at Columbia U
(1986-1992). Professor of Earth System Science at UC Irvine
(1992-present). Jefferson Science
Fellow at U.S. Department of State / INR (resident 2005-2006,
continuing as
consultant). Member of the
Norwegian Academy of
Science and Letters. Fellow of the AGU (1997) and AAAS (2004).
International Ozone Commission
(1996-2004). UCI Lauds &
Laurels Faculty Award 2008. Editor-in-Chief of
Geophysical Research Letters
(1997-2001). UNEP/WMO
Ozone
Assessments: Lead
Author/Author/Contributor in
1985,
1988, 1989, 1991, 1994, 2010. Intergovernmental
Panel
on Climate Change: Reviewer; 1992; Convening Lead
Author, 1994, 1995, 1999 and 2001; Lead Author, 2007, 2013.
Lifetimes
and
Time scales in Atmospheric Chemistry
(Royal
Society
Talk, published in Phil.
Trans. Roy. Soc. A, 2007)
Early
Publications and Ph.D. Thesis (Yale, 1976)
NEW fast-JX
package v6.6,
includes JPL-2010 (Jan
2012):
Photolysis code for stratosphere & troposphere plus X-section maker
SOM tracer
advection
package (Apr
2007):
sample 3-D code with new flux limiters
The new CTM 3-D
over-the-pole code that avoids global CFL limiters and hence
can
readily do 1x1 resolution, is available upon request, we will
try to
post a simplified version soon. (see Prather M.J., X. Zhu,
S.E.
Strahan, S.D. Steenrod, J.M. Rodriguez (2008), Quantifying errors in trace
species
transport modeling, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 105(50):
19617-19621).
New, alternative SOM codes for
3-D tracer transport on a sphere have been developed
and will be posted soon (in 2012). These include both
lat-long grids and gnomonic cubed sphere. Also the
over-the-pole transport has been further revised/corrected
when it was found that the 2007-version (above, which passed
rigid-body rotation with ease), failed for specific cases when
cyclonic or anticyclonic vortices had their edges at the pole.
Publications
LIST
Copies
of
some PUBLICATIONS, PREPRINTS & PUBLIC TALKS
RESEARCH
INTERESTS
Simulation of
the physical, chemical and biological processes that
determine atmospheric composition. Development of (1) detailed
numerical models of photochemistry and atmospheric radiation, and
(2)
global chemical transport models that describe ozone and other
trace
gases. Studies include the predicted effects of volcanic sulfate
aerosols on stratospheric ozone loss, the role of clouds in
scattering
sunlight and altering photochemistry, non-linearities in
chemical systems that lead to sudden changes such as the depletion
of
ozone caused by CFC increases, and uncertainties in predicting
past and future greenhouse gas abundances.
Numerical
models
of atmospheric chemistry must simulate the
transport of trace species by winds, convective mixing, boundary
layer
exchange with the surface, and exchange between the stratosphere
and
troposphere. Such models are used to predict future changes in the
atmosphere and to analyze global data sets. Observed trace gas
distributions are used as measures of the atmospheric circulation
or
alternatively as indicators of the location and strength of
sources.
Such a quantitative understanding of these causal relationships is
an
essential element of assessments of chemical and climatic change,
and
it
is needed to convince governments and the public to make tough
environmental choices.