Thematic Plenary Sessions

The sessions themes will be:

1. Atmosphere-surface (ocean/vegetation/ice) interactions in a changing climate

Chairs: Alex Guenther, Roland von Glasow
Confirmed Invited Speakers: Lucy Carpenter, University of York, UK / Thomas Karl, University of Innsbruck, Austria
The strong coupling between the biosphere/ocean and ice can have profound effects on the atmosphere through exchange of reactive and nonreactive gases and particles that affect cloud and regional atmospheric chemistry. This session will include studies on exchange between the atmosphere and the biosphere, ocean, and cryosphere, including atmospheric chemistry near these interfaces.

2. Atmospheric chemistry and the coupling between biogenic and anthropogenic emissions

Chairs: Maria Kanakidou, Olga Mayol-Bracero
Confirmed Invited Speakers: Scot Martin, Harvard University, USA / Annmarie Carlton, Rutgers University, USA
Biogenic VOC (BVOC) are a major source for secondary organic aerosol (SOA). Anthropogenic VOCs and pollutants such as nitrogen oxides, can affect the amount and properties of the SOA formed by the BVOCs. This session will include papers about recent field campaigns and modeling studies that provide new insights about the links between emissions, chemistry and climate.

3. Interactions between aerosols, clouds and precipitation

Chairs: Spyros Pandis, Barbara Turpin
Confirmed Invited Speakers: Ilan Koren, Weizmann Institute, Israel / Akua Asa-Awuku, University of California Riverside, USA
Aerosol, clouds and radiation interact in a multitude of ways that strongly affect Earth’s climate. This session invites new studies on the properties of clouds, cloud fields, aqueous phase chemistry and possible climatic roles that will result from these processes. Policy consequences will be discussed.

4. Atmospheric chemistry and urbanization: from local to the global scales

Chairs: Laura Gallardo, Tao Wang
Confirmed Invited Speakers: Tong Zhu, Peking University, China / Michael Gauss, Meteorological Institute, Norway
Urbanization is a major trend around the world with profound effects on air quality and human health. This session will focus on emission trends, secondary pollution formation, process analysis, air quality forecasting, and evaluating connections to urban, regional, continental and global scale atmospheric chemistry. Special emphasis will be given to human health perspectives associated with exposure to pollution emitted by biomass burning activities, fossil fuel combustion and industries, including indoor pollution.

5. Atmospheric chemistry fundamentals

Chairs: Jon Abbatt, Christian George
Confirmed Invited Speakers: Jason Surratt, University of N. Carolina, USA / Carl Percival, University of Manchester, UK
Fundamental atmospheric chemistry is pivotal in the understanding of field data, lab measurements, remote sensing and cloud physics. It lies at the heart of atmospheric chemistry. The session will include studies on the chemical kinetics of gaseous and aerosol phases, chamber experiments, photochemical mechanisms, measurement technique development, gas/particle interactions, health impacts and connections to observations.

6. Atmospheric chemistry in a changing climate

Chairs: Colette Heald, Rokjin Park
Confirmed Invited Speakers: Jason West, University of N. Carolina, USA / Paul Young, Lancaster University, UK
This session will focus on how atmospheric chemistry may affect and depend on our changing climate. Greenhouse gases, stratospheric ozone, the interactions and feedbacks between aerosols and clouds in the climate system, the introduction of new energy sources and technologies (such as biofuels ad fracking), and the interactions of air pollution control and climate, will be discussed in the context of Earth’s future.