Maria Paula Velásquez García

Profile

I am a third-year PhD student in the School of Earth, Environment and Sustainability at the University of Leeds. Since 2018, I have worked in various research groups, assessing air quality and atmospheric processes at local and regional scales, primarily in northern South America. I led investigations on air quality in the Aburrá Valley, Colombia, characterising the impacts of wildfire emissions. The results supported the need to further understand the long-range transport of pollutants, mainly from wildfire emissions, their physical interactions, and chemical dynamics, to make better human and ecosystem health decisions. My master's dissertation aligned with my motivation to better understand fire risk and emissions. I analysed strategies to reduce BC and CO₂ emissions from forest fires in Colombia, with the aim of contributing to Colombia's NDCs (National Determined Contributions). Currently, I am continuing my research career supporting wildfire impact assessment using satellite observations and modelling, funded by NERC Panorama DTP and NCEO.

For the first objective of my PhD, I evaluated the JULES-INFERNO fire model over South America using different wildfire emission inventories. We investigated the processes underlying observed/modelled spatiotemporal biases in INFERNO-simulated fire CO emissions to identify the next steps toward improving the INFERNO fire model and fire modelling in South America. This work led to the accepted manuscript titled "Understanding drivers and biases of simulated CO emissions from the INFERNO fire model over South America”. For the second objective of my PhD, I used IASI retrievals to analyse formic acid levels in fire plumes and their evolution in the aging plume. Formic Acid is not well constrained, so in this study we analyze its budget supported by weeklong observations, from which we hypothesize key sources and suggest avenues to further close its balance. For my third and final objective, I will work to understand the air quality impact of intercontinental long-range biomass-burning transport between South America and Africa. This last objective might include intercomparison with HTAP3 models.

Research interests

• Wildfire emissions' physical and chemical interactions in the atmosphere.
• Impact of wildfire emissions on air quality and climate in South America (e.g. Wildfire aerosols and dust transport to northern South America).
• Long-range transport of pollutants. ACP - Long-range transport of air pollutants increases the concentration of hazardous components of PM2.5 in northern South America (published paper).
• The interaction between local emissions and meteorology (e.g., low clouds in the Aburra Valley).
• Air quality monitoring network (e.g., SIATA network in the Aburrá Valley).

Qualifications

• BSc Environmental Engineer, Faculta de Minas, Universidad Nacional de Colombia - Sede Medellín
• MSc Environmental Science and Management, University of York