Dr. John T. Sullivan currently works in the Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics Laboratory at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (Greenbelt, MD). He is currently the NASA Tropospheric Ozone Lidar Network (TOLNet) project scientist. His expertise is in performing measurements of atmospheric constituents using active remote sensing techniques, such as lidar (light detection and ranging), for applications such as air quality, satellite validation, and stratospheric trends. Dr. Sullivan has been critical in designing, calibrating, and deploying transportable lidars for measuring tropospheric and stratospheric ozone profiles in NASA campaigns, such as DISCOVER-AQ and KORUS-AQ and various NDACC intercomparison campaigns. He was awarded the NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) Fellowship to continue his contribution of novel observations of the atmosphere to further NASA’s science exploration. In 2017, he was named as the Early Career Scientist associated with the NASA Science Innovation Fund (SIF) supported Ozone Water-Land Environmental Transition Study (OWLETS) in the Tidewater, VA region. He transitioned to the PI for the 2018 OWLETS field deployment within the northern Chesapeake region and the Co-PI for the TRACER-AQ (Tracking Aerosol Convection interactions ExpeRiment - Air Quality) in the Houston, TX metropolitan area in 2021. He serves as the Co-PI for the Synergistic TEMPO Air Quality Study (STAQS), which provides NASA TEMPO satellite validation and evaluation data sets from across the U.S. His role within TOLNet is to guide an inter-agency cadre of scientists and researchers to provide high spatio-temporal observations of boundary layer and free tropospheric ozone to study the character of the atmospheric structure that can be used to better evaluate satellite retrievals and improve the processes in air-quality forecast and diagnostic models.
John T. Sullivan
(Rsch AST, Atmospheric Chemistry & Dyn)
| Email: | john.t.sullivan@nasa.gov |
| Phone: | 301.614.5549 |
| Org Code: | 614 |
| Address: |
NASA/GSFC Mail Code 614 Greenbelt, MD 20771 |
| Employer: |
Brief Bio
Positions/Employment
Tropospheric Ozone Lidar Network (TOLNet) Project Scientist
NASA - Greenbelt, MD
October 2019 - Present
Research Physical Scientist
NASA - Greenbelt, MD
December 2017 - Present
Postdoctoral Research Associate
UMBC/JCET - Baltimore, MD
July 2017 - December 2017
Posdoctoral Fellow (NPP)
NASA/USRA - Greenbelt, MD
February 2016 - July 2017
Postdoctoral Fellow (NPP)
NASA/ORAU - Greenbelt, MD
July 2015 - February 2016
Teaching Experience
Teaching Fellow, UMBC-CCBC, Fall 2013
- PHYS 101 - Fundamentals of Physics I (Lecture)
- PHYS 111 - Physical Sciences Lab (Lab)
- PHYS 151 - General Physics I (Lab)
- PHYS 252 - General Physics III (Lab)
Ph.D. Commitee Member, Brian Carroll, "Observations of Low-Level Jet Physics and Impacts", University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 2020.
Ph.D. Commitee Member, Zhifeng Yang, "Improving Air Quality Forecasts of Ozone: Modeling-Observation Integrated Study", University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 2021.
Ph.D. Co-Advisor, Maurice Roots, "Observations of Tropospheric Ozone Production and Dynamics", University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 2024.
Co-Mentor, Amber Schlessiger, "Meteorological links to Houston’s Ozone Air Quality during TRACER-AQ", NASA, 2021
Mentor, Trong Hieu Nguyen, "Lidar Automation and Software Development for Tropospheric Ozone DIAL" University of Central Florida, 2020-present
Mentor, Natasha Dacic, "Evaluation of NASA's high-resolution global composition simulations: Understanding a pollution event in the Chesapeake Bay during the summer 2017 OWLETS campaign" University of Michigan, 2018-2020.
Mentor, Lance Niño, "Characterizing Spatio-Temporal Ozone Gradients Along Coastal Boundaries: Sondes and Mobile Measurements from OWLETS-2" Colorado State University, 2017-2019.
Co - NPP Advisor, Alexander Kotsakis, "Characterizing temporal and spatial variability of Pandora ozone measurements over land-water pollution gradients", 2018-2021
Education
Ph.D., Atmospheric Physics, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 2015
"Improving the Current Understanding of the Evolution and Vertical Processes of Tropospheric Ozone Using a Ground Based Differential Absorption Lidar", Advisor: Dr. Raymond M. Hoff
M.S., Atmospheric Physics, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 2012
B.A. Physics, McDaniel College, 2010
Professional Societies
American Geophysical Union
2011 - Present
American Meteorological Society
AMS Committee for Laser Atmospheric Studies (CLAS)
2012 - Present
Awards
Inaba Award, 30th International Laser Radar Conference (ILRC- 30), 2022. This prize is awarded during each ILRC to an individual under the age of 40 who is judged to have presented the best paper at the ILRC.
Special Act Award on Behalf of NASA GSFC Earth Sciences and Exploration Directorate, John T. Sullivan, 2020
NASA Headquarters Honors Group Achievement Award, Tropospheric Ozone Lidar Network, 2019
NASA Outstanding Group Achievement Award, OWLETS Science Team, 2019
NASA Outstanding Group Achievement Award, KORUS-AQ Science Team, 2018
NASA Outstanding Group Achievement Award, DISCOVER-AQ Science Team, 2016
Selected Publications
Refereed
2023. "An integrated monitoring system (IMS) for air quality: Observations of a unique ozone-exceedance event in Maryland." Atmospheric Environment 313 120028 [10.1016/j.atmosenv.2023.120028] [Journal Article/Letter]
2023. "Evaluating WRF-GC v2.0 predictions of boundary layer height and vertical ozone profile during the 2021 TRACER-AQ campaign in Houston, Texas." Geoscientific Model Development 16 (18): 5493-5514 [10.5194/gmd-16-5493-2023] [Journal Article/Letter]
2023. "Surf, Turf, and Above the Earth: Unmet Needs for Coastal Air Quality Science in the Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL)." Earth's Future 11 (6): [10.1029/2023ef003535] [Journal Article/Letter]
2023. "Satellite remote-sensing capability to assess tropospheric-column ratios of formaldehyde and nitrogen dioxide: case study during the Long Island Sound Tropospheric Ozone Study 2018 (LISTOS 2018) field campaign." Atmospheric Measurement Techniques 16 (9): 2431-2454 [10.5194/amt-16-2431-2023] [Journal Article/Letter]
2022. "Cluster-based characterization of multi-dimensional tropospheric ozone variability in coastal regions: an analysis of lidar measurements and model results." Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 22 (23): 15313-15331 [10.5194/acp-22-15313-2022] [Journal Article/Letter]
2022. "Tropospheric and stratospheric ozone profiles during the 2019 TROpomi vaLIdation eXperiment (TROLIX-19)." Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 22 (17): 11137-11153 [10.5194/acp-22-11137-2022] [Journal Article/Letter]
2022. "Sensitivity of total column NO2 at a marine site within the Chesapeake Bay during OWLETS-2." Atmospheric Environment 277 119063 [10.1016/j.atmosenv.2022.119063] [Journal Article/Letter]
2022. "A Succession of Cloud, Precipitation, Aerosol, and Air Quality Field Experiments in the Coastal Urban Environment." Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 103 (2): 103-105 [10.1175/bams-d-21-0104.1] [Journal Article/Letter]
2021. "Tropospheric NO2; measurements using a three-wavelength optical parametric oscillator differential absorption lidar." Atmospheric Measurement Techniques 14 (6): 4069-4082 [10.5194/amt-14-4069-2021] [Journal Article/Letter]
2019. "Evaluation of NASA's high-resolution global composition simulations: Understanding a pollution event in the Chesapeake Bay during the summer 2017 OWLETS campaign." Atmospheric Environment 117133 [10.1016/j.atmosenv.2019.117133] [Journal Article/Letter]
2019. "Integration of Airborne and Ground Observations of Nitryl Chloride in the Seoul Metropolitan Area and the Implications on Regional Oxidation Capacity During KORUS-AQ 2016." Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 19 12779–1279 [10.5194/acp-19-12779-2019] [Journal Article/Letter]
2019. "Taehwa Research Forest: a receptor site for severe domestic pollution events in Korea during 2016." Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 19 5051-5067 [https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-5051-2019] [Journal Article/Letter]
2019. "The Ozone Water-Land Environmental Transition Study (OWLETS): An Innovative Strategy for Understanding Chesapeake Bay Pollution Events." Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 100 (2): 291-306 [10.1175/BAMS-D-18-0025.1] [Journal Article/Letter]
2019. "Boundary layer ozone in the Northern Colorado Front Range in July–August 2014 during FRAPPE and DISCOVER-AQ from vertical profile measurements." Elem Sci Anth 7 (1): 6 [10.1525/elementa.345] [Journal Article/Letter]
2018. "Validation of the TOLNet lidars: the Southern California Ozone Observation Project (SCOOP)." Atmospheric Measurement Techniques 11 (11): 6137-6162 [10.5194/amt-11-6137-2018] [Journal Article/Letter]
2018. "Lidar validation measurements at the NOAA Mauna Loa Observatory NDACC Station." Lidar Remote Sensing for Environmental Monitoring XVI [10.1117/12.2324714] [Proceedings]
2018. "Evaluation of potential sources of a priori ozone profiles for TEMPO tropospheric ozone retrievals." Atmospheric Measurement Techniques 11 (6): 3457-3477 [10.5194/amt-11-3457-2018] [Journal Article/Letter]
2018. "Boundary layer pollution profiles from a rural site in South Korea." EPJ Web of Conferences 176 04004 [10.1051/epjconf/201817604004] [Journal Article/Letter]
2017. "Quantifying TOLNet ozone lidar accuracy during the 2014 DISCOVER-AQ and FRAPPÉ campaigns." Atmospheric Measurement Techniques 10 (10): 3865-3876 [10.5194/amt-10-3865-2017] [Journal Article/Letter]
2017. "Using Observations and Source-Specific Model Tracers to Characterize Pollutant Transport During FRAPPÉ and DISCOVER-AQ." Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 122 (19): 10,510-10,538 [10.1002/2017jd027257] [Journal Article/Letter]
2017. "Lidar observations revealing transport of O3 in the presence of a nocturnal low-level jet: Regional implications for “next-day” pollution." Atmospheric Environment 158 (June 2017): 160-171 [10.1016/j.atmosenv.2017.03.039] [Journal Article/Letter]
2016. "Quantifying the contribution of thermally driven recirculation to a high-ozone event along the Colorado Front Range using lidar." Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 121 [10.1002/2016jd025229] [Journal Article/Letter]
2016. "Characterizing the Vertical Processes of Ozone in Colorado’s Front Range Using the GSFC Ozone DIAL." EPJ Web of Conferences 119 05014 [10.1051/epjconf/201611905014] [Journal Article/Letter]
2016. "TOLNET – A Tropospheric Ozone Lidar Profiling Network for Satellite Continuity and Process Studies." EPJ Web of Conferences 119 20001 [10.1051/epjconf/201611920001] [Journal Article/Letter]
2016. "Observations and Impacts of Transported Canadian Wildfire Smoke on Ozone and Aerosol Air Quality in the Maryland Region on 9-12 June, 2015." Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association 66 (no. 9): 842-862 [10.1080/10962247.2016.1161674] [Journal Article/Letter]
2015. "Characterizing the lifetime and occurrence of stratospheric-tropospheric exchange events in the rocky mountain region using high-resolution ozone measurements." Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 120 (24): 12410--12424 [10.1002/2015JD023877] [Journal Article/Letter]
2015. "Optimization of the GSFC TROPOZ DIAL retrieval using synthetic lidar returns and ozonesondes--Part 1: Algorithm validation." Atmospheric Measurement Techniques 8 (10): 4133--4143 [10.5194/amt-8-4133-2015] [Journal Article/Letter]
2015. "Results from the NASA GSFC and LaRC Ozone Lidar Intercomparison: New Mobile Tools for Atmospheric Research." Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology 32 (10): 1779-1795 [10.1175/jtech-d-14-00193.1] [Journal Article/Letter]
2014. "A mobile differential absorption lidar to measure sub-hourly fluctuation of tropospheric ozone profiles in the Baltimore--Washington, DC region." Atmospheric Measurement Techniques 7 (10): 3529--3548 [10.5194/amt-7-3529-2014] [Journal Article/Letter]
Non-Refereed
2020. "OWLETS: An Enhanced Monitoring Strategy Directly within the Chesapeake Bay." EM: Environmental Manager Special Issue 6 pp [Magazine]