Dr. Donald Lucas
| Title | Assistant Professor |
| Research Interests | Atmospheric chemistry, air pollution, aerosol chemistry and physics, chemistry-climate interactions, regional and global scale atmospheric chemical modeling |
| Education |
S.B., MIT, 1996 Ph.D., MIT, 2003 |
| Office Location | Room 1010A, O&M Bldg |
| Office Phone | 979-458-0553 |
| Fax | 979-862-4466 |
| ddlucas .at. tamu.edu | |
| Mailing Address |
Department of Atmospheric Sciences Texas A&M University 3150 TAMU College Station, TX 77843-3150 |
Research Interests
Atmospheric Trace Gases and Aerosols
We investigate the interactions between trace gases and aerosols in Earth's atmosphere, with a particular emphasis on studying the cycles of gases that can form new atmospheric particles or modify existing aerosols. Gas-aerosol interactions lie at the heart of many challenging issues in the atmospheric sciences. These issues include, but are not limited to, air pollution, air quality, acid deposition and climate change. One of the largest uncertainties in assessing climate change, for instance, is related to an inadequate understanding of how trace gases form and alter cloud condensation nuclei.
To study these interactions, we develop and utilize atmospheric transport and chemistry models. Starting from their emissions at the surface, we track the gases and aerosols as they are transported through the air while undergoing chemical and physical transformations. The results from small scale theoretical and laboratory studies of chemical and aerosol processes are incorporated into our models in order to determine their potential large scale impacts in the atmosphere.
As sulfate aerosols are ubiquitous in the atmosphere and play a prominent role in climate forcing, many of our current research efforts are focused on quantifying the connections between sulfur-containing gases and aerosols. Toward these efforts, we are carrying out the following activities:
- Modeling the atmospheric cycles of sulfur gases and sulfate aerosols
- Allocating the contributions of natural and anthropogenic emissions to sulfate aerosols
- Assessing the mechanisms by which new aerosols are produced in the atmosphere
- Investigating the ammonia cycle and its role in neutralizing sulfate aerosols and producing new particles
- Developing modules to improve the representation of aerosol physics and chemistry in atmospheric models
Selected Publications
Lucas, D. D., and H. Akimoto (2006), Evaluating aerosol nucleation parameterizations in a global atmospheric model, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L10808, doi:10.1029/2006GL025672.Lucas, D. D., and R. G. Prinn (2005), Sensitivities of gas-phase dimethylsulfide oxidation products to the assumed mechanisms in a chemical transport model, J. Geophys. Res., 110, doi:10.1029/2004JD005386.
Lucas, D. D., and R. G. Prinn (2005), Parametric sensitivity and uncertainty analysis of dimethylsulfide oxidation in the clear-sky remote marine boundary layer, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 5, 1505–1525, SRef-ID:1680-7324/acp/2005-5-1505.
Lucas, D. D., and R. G. Prinn (2003), Tropospheric distributions of sulfuric acid-water vapor aerosol nucleation rates from dimethylsulfide oxidation, Geophys. Res. Lett, 30, doi:10.1029/2003GL018370.
Lucas, D. D., and R. G. Prinn (2002), Mechanistic studies of dimethylsulfide oxidation products using an observationally constrained model, J. Geophys. Res., 107, doi:10.1029/ 2001JD000843.
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