Role at ANSTO
Alastair leads the Atmospheric Research Group within ANSTO’s Environment Research group. His group uses the radioactive noble gas radon as a natural tracer to aid in the interpretation of observed changes in atmospheric composition, to investigate the sources and movement of pollution and greenhouse gases on various scales, and to quantify vertical mixing in the lower atmosphere using surface, aircraft and tower-based platforms. This research is providing new measurement tools, techniques and insights that will increase scientific understanding of important physical processes in the atmospheric boundary layer, improve the characterisation of public exposure to air pollution, and aid in the evaluation and improvement of physical parameterisations in numerical weather, climate and pollution models on a range of scales.
Alastair is the Radon Lead Scientist within the Cape Grim Baseline Air Pollution Station (CG-BAPS) Science Program. CG-BAPS is operated by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology as a principal node in the World Meteorological Organisation’s Global Atmospheric Watch (WMO-GAW) program. Under Alastair’s leadership, the atmospheric research group also contributes to other WMO-GAW and greenhouse gas observing networks worldwide, by leading and/or supporting high-quality atmospheric radon measurements at a large number of sites in Europe, Asia, Hawaii, South Africa, Australia and Antarctica.
Expertise
- Use of the naturally-occurring radioactive trace gas radon to investigate the sources and movement of pollution and greenhouse gases in the lower atmosphere, to aid in the interpretation of observed changes in atmospheric composition, and to elucidate exchange and mixing processes at the land surface and in the boundary layer
- Boundary layer meteorology (turbulent structure and transport in convective, stable and cloud-topped boundary layers over land and sea)
- Structure of atmospheric turbulence
- Air-surface interactions over land and sea, including heterogeneity / mesoscale effects
- Parameterisation of boundary layer and surface processes in numerical models
- Role of boundary layer and surface processes in local and global climate modification
- Technical aspects of aircraft meteorological measurements: processing/correction of data from fast-response instrumentation, wind calculations from aircraft, response characteristics of airborne probes, airborne flux measurements
Qualifications & Achievements
- PhD in Boundary Layer Meteorology, Flinders University (1991)
Committee Memberships and Affiliations
- Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society (FRMetS)
- Member, American Meteorological Society
- Member, American Geophysical Union
- Member, Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society