Professor Michael
J. Prather
Fred Kavli
Chair and Professor- 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
Jefferson
Science
Fellow
U.S.
Department
of State (2005/2006, -2010)
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. Deparment of State / INR (resident 2005-2006, as
consultant -2010). 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 in
1985,
1988, 1989, 1991 and 1994. Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change: Reviewer; 1992; Convening Lead
Author, 1994, 1995, 1999 and 2001; Lead Author, 2007.
The
sustained,
collective work of the IPCC since 1988 was awarded
the Nobel
Peace Prize in 2007. Congrats to all my colleagues who worked on
the reports.
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)
fast-JX
package
(v6.4 & v6.5, Jan
2010):
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)
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, and the non-linearities in
chemical systems that lead to sudden changes such as the depletion of
ozone caused by CFC increases.
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.
