Contact Info:
Peter Adams
Civil & Environmental Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890
Office: 113 Porter Hall
Phone: 412-268-5624
Fax: 412-268-7813
Email: petera@andrew.cmu.edu
Website: www.ce.cmu.edu/~adams/

Peter Adams, Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering & Engineering and Public Policy

Areas of Interest:

Climatic effects of atmospheric particulate matter (aerosols), global and regional models of atmospheric chemistry, and air quality in developing countries.

Education

Ph.D., 2001, California Institute of Technology

Research Activity:

Aerosol Effects on Climate

Anthropogenic aerosols cool the earth's climate by reflecting sunlight back to space and by serving as nuclei for cloud droplet formation. Their net effect has been to partially offset global warming from greenhouse gases, but uncertainty in the magnitude of this effect has complicated the assessment and forecasting of climate change. Research in this area focuses on improving the representation of aerosols in global climate, chemistry, and transport models by incorporating size-resolved aerosol microphysics and thermodynamics and testing these improved aerosol models against observations from ground networks, intensive field campaigns, and satellites. Other work examines how aerosols influence cloud reflectivity in small-scale, detailed simulations of cloud formation.

Regional Air Quality Modeling

Regional air quality models are being developed that predict the concentrations of ozone and particulate matter resulting from a given set of emissions. Specific goals in this area of research are to improve the computational efficiency of air quality models such that multi-year time periods can be simulated, better constrain the emissions of ammonia through inverse modeling, and examine the costs and benefits of air pollution control policies in developing countries.

Select Publications:

• Dawson, J.P., P.J. Adams, and S.N. Pandis, Sensitivity of PM2.5 to climate in the Eastern US: a modeling case study, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 7, 4295-4309, 2007.
• Gilmore, E. A., L. B. Lave, and P. J. Adams, The costs, air quality and human health effects of meeting peak electricity demand with installed backup generators, Environ. Sci. Tech., 40, 6887-6893, 2006.
• Pierce, J.R., and P.J. Adams, Global evaluation of CCN formation by direct emission of sea salt and growth of ultrafine sea salt, J. Geophys. Res., 111, 10.1029/2005JD006186, 2006.
• Pinder, R. W., P. J. Adams, and S. N. Pandis, Ammonia emission controls as a cost-effective strategy for reducing atmospheric particulate matter in the Eastern US, Environ. Sci. Tech., 41, 380-386, 2006.
• Racherla, P. N., and P. J. Adams, Sensitivity of global ozone and fine particulate matter concentrations to climate change, J. Geophys. Res., 111, doi:10.1029/2005JD006939, 2006.