Paul O. Wennberg is the R. Stanton Avery Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry and Environmental Science and Engineering at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
[5] Wennberg's research focuses on the atmospheric chemistry of planets, including air quality, photochemistry, and the carbon cycle.
[2] He designs and builds remote-sensing and in-situ scientific instruments which are used in field investigations supported by the National Science Foundation and NASA.
[17][13] Using these tools, he overturned the long-held belief that lower stratospheric ozone is destroyed principally by nitrogen oxides; Wennberg showed that odd-hydrogen catalysis represents a quantitatively more important process.
By contrast to the stratosphere, a significant fraction of tropospheric ozone results from the presence of nitric oxide delivered to the atmosphere by aircraft and surface hydrocarbon burning.
By developing methods for measuring radical gases in situ and interpreting these results within a theoretical framework, Wennberg has advanced our understanding of atmospheric chemistry.
[19] The Total Carbon Column Observing Network is a group of about 20 ground-based sites worldwide that host Fourier transform spectrometers.
The spectrometers examine near-infrared (NIR) solar absorption spectra and measure atmospheric column abundances of CO2, CH4, CO, N2O and other molecules in terrestrial ecosystems.
[21] "TCCON has pioneered a key element of the ground segment measurements required to provide the evidence base for policy making for the next 100 years.
[6] Wennberg was the principal investigator for the development of the Mars Atmospheric Trace Molecule Occultation Spectrometer (MATMOS), a collaboration between Caltech and the Canadian Space Agency with NASA support.