Institute of Environmental Physics and Remote Sensing,

University of Bremen

burrows@iup.physik.uni-bremen.de
 

 

After graduating in 1978, he became a post doctoral researcher at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge Massachusetts, supervised by the late Dr. H. E. Radford. In 1979 he joined the research staff of the A.E.R.E. Harwell, Oxfordshire, working with Dr. R.A. Cox, Dr. R. G. Derwent and Professor S. Penkett. At this time he was also a member of the research group of Professor R. P. Wayne at the Physical Chemistry Laboratory of the University of Oxford. The main emphasis of his research in the earl phase of his career was the laboratory study of the photochemistry and reaction kinetics of atmospherically important species. In this context he developed with his colleges flow tube, molecular modulation and small chamber experiments using a variety of spectroscopic techniques to detect constituents.

In 1982 he joined the Department of Atmospheric Chemistry of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, which was directed by Professor P. J. Crutzen. He worked together with Dr. G. K. Moortgat and Dr. D. Griffiths on the exploitation of matrix isolation spectroscopy for studies of atmospheric constituents in the laboratory. At this stage he developed the technique of modulated photolysis, which is a variant on molecular modulation. After moving to work Optical Techniques with Dr. D. Perner within the MPI, he developed Tuneable Diode Laser spectroscopy, TDLAS, together Professor G. W. Harris to make measurements of tropospheric trace gases. In a collaboration with Professor D. Stedman, he developed a calibrated peroxy radical chemical amplifier, PERCA.

From 1984 onwards he started to develop concepts to exploit the remote sensing of atmospheric constituents by monitoring back scattered and reflected solar radiation, supported by Professor P. J. Crutzen and Dr. D. Perner. The approach built on the technique called Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy, DOAS, developed by Dr. D. Perner and Professor U. Platt and the successful NASA instruments TOMS and SBUV. In July 1988, he proposed, supported by an international team, the SCIAMACHY (Scaning Imaging Absorption specroMeter for Atmopsheric CHartographY) Project to ESA for flight on, what is now known as, ENVISAT. In December 1988 he proposed a second smaller version called SCIA-mini for flight on the ERS-2. SCIAMACHY was selected, as a national contribution by Germany for ENVISAT in February 1989. The Netherlands and Belgium joined the funding consortium for SCIAMACHY during the phases A and B. In 1989, SCIA-mini was descoped to GOME-1, which was then placed by ESA on a fast track development for ERS-2.

Professor Burrows has acted as the Principal Investigator or Lead Scientist for GOME-1 and SCIAMACHY. GOME-1 was successfully launched into a polar orbit on the 20^th of April 1995 and made over 8 years of global measurements until the tape recorders of ERS-2 failed in June 2003. However GOME-1 continues to downlink about 40% of its measurements and is working well. SCIAMACHY was launch successfully on the 28^th February 2002 and has made 5 years of measurements successfully. A version GOME-2 has been developed by ESA and EUMETSAT, supported by Professor Burrows and other sceintists for operational meteorology and atmospheric research. The first GOME-2 is flying aboard the METOP-A, which was successfully launched on the 19^th November 2006. Professor Burrows initiated with an international team, the GeoSIA project in 1997 and later the GeoTROPE (GeoSCIA and GeoFIS) projects to make high temporal and spatial sampling measurements of the back scattered solar radiation and the terrestrial thermal infrared, required for Air Quality applications. These concepts are currently being discussed for potential flight by either EUMETSAT or ESA within GMES.

In 1992 Professor Burrows was elected the chair entitled “Physics of the Ocean and Atmosphere” at the University of Bremen, joining the Institute of Remote Sensing. He was founding member of the Institute of Environmental Physics in 1993 and is currently a director and spokesperson.

The department of the Physics and Chemistry of the Atmosphere is led by Professor Burrows and has about 60 researcher scientists working on the following research areas: development of in-situ and remote sensing sensors and techniques, radiative transfer theory, the laboratory study of the kinetics and spectroscopy of atmospheric constituents, the interpretation of the measurements of GOME and SCIAMACHY, the BREDOM DOAS Network, which is a set measurements and part of the NDACC (The Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Constituent Change), and Flux Measurements.

The overriding objective of the research is to improve our understanding of the physicochemical processes determining the behaviour of the mesosphere, stratosphere and troposphere. One important issue is to separate the anthropogenic impact on climate change from natural phenomena.

Professor Burrows is involved in national and European research initiatives, currently being a member of the management committee of the ACCENT (Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate European Network) and his department participates in the current EU integrated projects AMMA, SCOUT-O3, QUANTIFY, GEMS and GeoMON.

Professor Burrows has been a visiting scientist at NASA GSFC and the University of Maryland since the early 1990s spending a sabbatical leave there in 1995. He has been in active collaboration with the NOAA Chemical Sciences Division since 1984. His department have participated in the ICARTT and INTEX campaigns with NASA and NOAA.

Professor Burrows received a Gassiot Studentship from the Royal Society to study for his Ph.D. He was awarded a Distinguished Scientist Lectureship by the German American Scientific Committee (DAAD) in 1998. He was awarded the Distinguished Guest Lecture Royal Society of Chemistry – Environmental Chemistry Group in March 2004. In 2004 he was elected a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He received the COSPAR William Nordberg Medal for his research work in 2006. He was elected Adjunct Professor at Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of Maryland in 2006.

He is currently a member of the IGBP IGAC-SSC, secretary of the CACGP, vice Chair of the COSPAR commission A, a member of the European Physical Society, Environmental section, and a member of the WMO-SPARC SSG. In addition he is an associate editor of Atmospheric Physics and Chemistry, Atmospheric Environment and formerly of the Journal of Geophysics. He has been an editor of the Journal of Advances in Space Physics since 1998.