Organic Reactive Species

Dr. Jonathan Williams

“We aim to understand the atmospheric chemistry of volatile organic compounds.”

Our group specializes in the measurement of volatile organic compounds (VOC). We use highly sensitive mass spectrometers to identify and quantify hundreds of VOC species in multiple environments, from deep in the Earth’s mantle to the stratosphere, and from megacities to pristine rainforests. We develop instruments and deploy them in the field at remote ground sites (e.g. Amazon Tall Tower Observatory, ATTO), on ships (e.g. M/V Kommander Iona) and on aircraft (High Altitude Long Operation, HALO) and  Lufthansa Civil Aircraft for Regular Investigation of the atmosphere Based on an Instrumentation Container, CARIBIC). Recently, we have applied our techniques to investigate indoor chemistry, particularly the contribution people make to this environment. To this end we have made measurements in chambers, cinemas and football matches.

Overview article "Organic Trace Gases in the Atmosphere" (pdf)