Uncertainty qualification of reaction networks of ozone on Mars
Lead supervisor: Alex Archibald, Department of Chemistry
Co-supervisor: Megan Brown, Department of Chemistry
Research proposal
Atmospheric chemical networks are key for linking the molecules that may be vital for the evolution of life (e.g., HCN and HCHO) to the physical processes in a planets atmosphere. But these networks are complex, involving 100s of coupled ODEs. By solving these equations we can model how the composition of an atmosphere evolves under changes in forcing (emissions or climate). However, uncertainty arises owing to the complexity of the networks and the need to extrapolate the data that are used in them from laboratory conditions to other conditions of T and P. Often this uncertainty is neglected but in this project the summer intern will quantify the magnitude of this uncertainty using ozone on Mars as a case study. Ozone is widely recognised as being important for its role as a climate warming gas and its optical properties – enabling it to modulate the UV flux to the surface. By comparing modelled ozone to observations of Martian ozone the student could then begin to constrain the uncertainty and identify key sources of uncertainty that future work would target.