M2 Internship - Synthesis of global observations of Volatile Organic Compounds : composition, spatial variability, and origins

Context and objectives of the internship :
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) play a crucial role in air quality due to their high atmospheric reactivity. They significantly influence the oxidative capacity of the atmosphere, are important precursors of tropospheric ozone, and contribute to the formation of secondary organic aerosols. These aerosols affect the Earth’s radiative balance and, at high concentrations, are harmful to human health. VOCs are emitted from various natural and anthropogenic sources, and several global studies have improved our understanding of their origins and impacts on atmospheric chemistry. However, access to observational data remains limited, with a lack of knowledge about VOC levels and composition in certain regions of the globe.
The Global Emissions Initiative (GEIA, https://igacproject.org/activities/GEIA) is an activity of the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry (IGAC) program aimed at improving access to emission data, facilitating analysis to strengthen the scientific basis of emission information, and enhancing the emissions community. Among the various working groups of GEIA, the GEIA-VOC (https://igacproject.org/voc-working-group) aims to bring together the scientific community working on VOCs, their emissions, atmospheric concentrations, and impacts. Currently, significant work is being done to compile existing databases following a call to the scientific community, and a web interface is being developed.

In this context, the internship will focus on processing the data obtained from analyzing a large number of VOCs in approximately 150 measurement campaigns conducted in different regions of the globe. Using various data analysis tools, the internship will analyze the composition and spatial and temporal variability of VOCs across different sites, identify commonalities and differences between contrasting regions regarding sources and VOC chemistry, and highlight gaps in global observations.
This work will provide general knowledge about air quality, establish appropriate data processing methods, and lead to the writing of a study report (ideally in English). The internship will be conducted within the framework of existing collaborations with over a hundred researchers from various institutions worldwide and will result in a publication on this dataset, which is highly anticipated by the scientific community. The internship results may also be presented at the international GEIA conference in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, in July 2025.

Supervisors : Pamela Dominutti (IGE-UGA) and Agnès Borbon (LaMP-UCA)

Start Date  : End of January 2025
Duration  : 6 months

Supervision Method : Weekly in-person meetings will be held during the first months of the internship, with a monthly update with both supervisors. The intern will also have the opportunity to participate in GEIA-VOC team meetings, which occur every three months.

Skills Required : Data science, statistical/geospatial methods, good level of English (written and spoken), knowledge of atmospheric sciences is a plus.

Collaborations : Stéphane Sauvage (IGE, ACTRIS France), Eva Pfannerstill (Forschungszentrum Jülich)

Contact : +33 07 86 47 82 08, pamela.dominutti univ-grenoble-alpes.fr