Dr. Xavier Fain

Title: Post Doctoral Fellow
Affiliation: Division of Atmospheric Sciences
Location: DRI Reno
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Phone: 775.674.7098
Full Resume: Download PDF

Research Areas:

• Mercury, atmosphere, laser, glaciology

Professional Interests

During my PhD, I developed research interests in quantification of exchanges processes of mercury species between snow surfaces and atmosphere, and comprehension of the past evolution of the global biogeochemical mercury cycle using natural archives such as ice core and firn air (from Greenland). Recent projects have focused on the impact of human industrial activities on the atmospheric mercury burden over the last century.

My current research at the Desert Research Institute –together with Daniel Obrist and Hans Moosmuller– aims at developing new laser-based sensors to measure atmospheric mercury at high temporal resolution to be used in conjunction with state-of-the-art micrometeorological methods such as Eddy Covariance. At the same time, I am involved in the characterization of long range transport of mercury pollution over USA with the installation of new instruments at Storm Peak Laboratory (CO).

Recent Projects

• Development of a CRDS instrument for real time measurements of gaseous elemental mercury
• Measurements of speciated mercury at a high elevation research station, Colorado: in-situ conversion and long range transport
• Investigation of the fate of mercury in mountain ecosystems, using a mercury mass balance approach at the watershed scale in the Sierra Nevada
• Effects of global change on the atmospheric mercury burden and mercury sequestration through changes in ecosystem carbon pools (Collaboration; PI: D. Obrist).
• Assessment of Mercury processes in the Arctic Snowpack during winter (Ny Alesund, Svalbard)
• Air-snow exchanges and snow chemistry in alpine and polar areas