Benjamin Navarrete Saavedra

Background

• BA in physics, ULB (2018-2022)
• MA in chemistry, ULB (2021-2024)
• Master thesis: "Evolution des concentrations atmosphériques de composés halogénés à long temps de résidence à partir des mesures des instruments IASI sur Metop", ULB (2024)
• PhD student in Sciences, ULB (2024-present)

PhD project

Quantifying the radiative effect of volcanic sulfate and dust aerosols with infrared satellite sounders.

Sulfate aerosols formed from sulfur dioxide mainly emitted by human activity and volcanic eruptions, are notably affecting the air quality, the environment and have a substantial impact on the Earth's climate through aerosol-radiation and aerosol-cloud interactions. The focus of this PhD project is on the evaluation of the longwave direct radiative effect (LW-DRE) of aerosols from natural source. The radiative impact of major sulfate volcanic eruptions in the last 15 years will be evaluated directly from the IASI observations, by taking advantage of their hyperspectral properties. The sulfate aerosol LW-DRE will be evaluated for single eruptions by tracking the volcanic plume but also at global/hemispheric scale to evaluate their global impact on the Earth radiation budget. Additionally, this research will also focus on assessing the LW-DRE of desert dust aerosols at the global scale and for individual transported plumes. The presence of a trend in the dust LW-DRE values from regional to global scales over up to 20 years (2008-2028) will also be investigated. These results will be compared to climate model outputs, providing insights for the identification of potential model biases and errors.

Publications

See here.

Contact

Spectroscopy, Quantum Chemistry and Atmospheric Remote Sensing (SQUARES)(https://squares.ulb.be//),
Université Libre de Bruxelles, CP160/09
50 Av. F.D. Roosevelt, B-1050 Belgium
E-mail