Dr Siegfried Gonzi
Siegfried works on chemical data assimilation with the research interest to better understand the consequences for air pollution and human well-being.
Current activities
Siegfried works on research of and implementation of data assimilation methods for AQCOPS (Air Quality for CAMS) at the Met Office.
CAMS (Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service) is a European Commission funded consortium project.
Siegfried's analysis will give the Met Office a lead in its own development of data assimilation methods for air pollution. Currently, Siegfried focuses his effort on assimilating European wide surface observations of O3 (ozone), SO2 (sulphur dioxide), NO2 (nitrogen doxide), and particulate matter PM2.5 and PM10. Siegfried uses a variational data assimilation approach and a state-of-the-art air quality model (AQUM) developed by the Met Office as part of the UM (Unified Model).
Background
Before completing his PhD in physics, on the topic of aerosol radiative forcing effects at the Karl-Franzens University of Graz, Austria, Siegfried completed a Master's degree in astronomy at the Solar Observatory Kanzelhoehe with the same university.
In 2007 Siegfried joined the University of Edinburgh where he worked on improving data assimilation methods by incorporating space-borne observations for estimating global scale biomass burning emissions. This work also involved a great deal of developing the global chemistry transport model GEOS-Chem. Building upon his experience Siegfried developed methods to estimate greenhouse gas emissions of CO2 (carbon dioxide) and CH4 (methane) for the UK. This work used data from a UK funded surface station network, shipborne measurements of CO2 and CH4 over the North Sea, airborne measurements of CO2 and CH4 over the UK, spaceborne GOSAT observations of greenhouse gases and the GEOS-Chem forward model.
Siegfried was a visiting scientist in 2013 for the duration of 6 weeks at CPTEC (Brasilian National Center for Weather Forecasting and Climate Studies) where he worked on improving our understanding of emissions and model error of CO2 over the Amazon Basin.
Siegfried joined the Met Office in April 2016 as Senior Scientist in the Data Assimilation & Ensembles Group.