Dr Emily Dowd

Profile

I am a NERC Independent Research Fellow in the School of Earth, Environment and Sustainability’s Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science. My research focuses on using satellite data and chemical transport models to understand changes in atmospheric methane.

The NERC Fellowship is a novel approach to quantifying the largest uncertainty in the methane budget, the hydroxyl radical (OH). “COSMIC: Constraining OH using Satellite data and Machine learning to Investigate CH4 trends” will combine Earth observation (EO) data, machine learning and chemical transport modelling to provide long-term spatially and temporally varying estimates of OH and other tropospheric species, such as methane, ozone and nitrogen dioxide. The project will then take advantage of the EO constrained OH dataset to further investigate trends in atmospheric methane.

Before starting my fellowship, I worked on the POLYGRAM project which involved modelling polyisotopologues of methane. Before that, I worked on the EO4CH4 project which aimed to use Earth Observation to support the reduction of methane emissions from agriculture in Australia.

I completed my PhD at the University of Leeds in 2024. My thesis focused on analysing atmospheric methane across different spatial and temporal scales. Before my PhD, I graduated from the University of Edinburgh with an MPhys Physics with Meteorology and worked as a Maritime Meteorologist.

During my PhD I was trained across a wide range of Earth Observation techniques through the SENSE CDT. I have experience in using the chemical transport model, TOMCAT, and satellite data to investigate global and local changes in atmospheric methane. I also have experience in combining hyperspectral data from GHGSat’s satellite constellation, surface-based observations and the Met Office’s Numerical Atmospheric-dispersion Modelling Environment (NAME) to validate satellite derived emission estimates of a point source.

Alongside my research, I am the co-founder of an outreach programme called SatSchool. SatSchool aims to introduce key Earth Observation concepts to 11-15 year olds by providing ready-made outreach materials which researchers can take into schools. This project has reached over 7000 students across the UK and continues to provide outreach in schools.

Research interests

• Atmospheric methane
• Chemical Transport modelling and model development
• Earth Observation – including:
  • Sentinel-5P/TROPOMI
  • GHGSat
  • IASI
• Machine Learning

Co-investigator (Co-I)

• Development and application of Earth Observation to support reductions in methane emission from agriculture (EOforCH4)

Qualifications

• PhD: Analysis of Atmospheric Methane Across Different Spatial and Temporal Scales
• MPhys Physics with Meteorology

Student education

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Research groups and institutes

• Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science