What is the climate effect of tiny particles such as aerosols, soot, and dust, in the atmosphere? Dr. Eric Wilcox, a world-class sailor and researcher, is exploring the answers to these questions linking the ever-changing composition of Earth’s atmosphere and climate change. Wilcox recently joined the Division of Atmospheric Sciences (DAS) at DRI as an assistant research professor. His research is highly interdisciplinary, with an emphasis on examining clouds and aerosols, and the complex interactions these have with climate on local and global scales.

Earth’s atmosphere can be thought of as a very complicated mix of aerosols and water vapor that changes over time. One of Wilcox’s research areas is examining clouds, and how the reflection of sunlight from different kinds of clouds can cool Earth’s atmosphere. Almost as a counterpoint, another aspect of his research looks at how dust and soot, which can be darker than clouds, can absorb sunlight, which can contribute to heating of the atmosphere. Because there are so many variables in these natural systems, Wilcox also creates models to test hypotheses about the effects this atmospheric mix of reflection and absorption of sunlight has on both local and global climate.

One of Wilcox’s recent studies looked at how dust plumes from the Saharan desert affect rainfall patterns over the Atlantic Ocean. Dust absorbs sunlight, which heats the atmosphere, but has a shadowing effect on the surface, which cools down. These physical parameters all ultimately add up to creating more rainfall just south of the dust plumes over the Atlantic Ocean. Wilcox currently is examining the effect that smoke from burning of the savanna has on African climate. He also would like to determine the effect smoke from fires in the western US has on the regional climate of North America.

Wilcox previously was employed as a Physical Scientist at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Wilcox says he came to DRI from NASA in part because, “There is a diversity of expertise at DRI, and there are possibilities of linking up with other experts. DRI is a good place for larger-scale studies, and DAS has a lot of potential collaborators to work with. I thought that I could come to DRI and contribute to a project immediately, collaborate immediately.”

At DRI, Wilcox says he has begun working with collaborators including Dr. Darko Koracin, a faculty member in DAS, and Dr. John Mejia, a DAS post-doc. Benjamin Hatchett, a DAS Graduate Research Assistant, is working on scaling some of the global models Wilcox helped develop down to apply to a finer-scale, regional setting. Wilcox also is working with an interdisciplinary team funded through the National Science Foundation’s EPSCoR grant to look at effects of climate change in the Great Basin, and how these ecosystems recover from fire.