Craig Poku:
Why Aerosols are Key to Understanding Nocturnal Radiation Fog

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Fog is a low-lying cloud that reduces near-surface visibility, leading to severe impacts on human activity, health, and safety. Its formation and development is dependent on several interacting atmospheric processes such as changes in humidity, wind speed, fog microphysics, and pollutants (aerosols). Aerosols are small airborne particles that account for initial surface visibility decrease, as well as controlling the fog layer’s thickness and life span. Increasing our understanding of aerosol impacts on fog will lead to improved fog forecasts and hence decrease the risks associated with human health and activity.

This talk will present an overview of fog modelling techniques, with a focus on aerosol physics. I’ll begin by discussing how different aerosol properties can enhance fog droplet formation. Next, I’ll present current modelling techniques used to model fog when accounting for aerosols and how it can be improved, using observations from a UK case study. Finally, I’ll discuss my recent research investigating fog development in Delhi, and how it can aid in providing solutions to cleaner air policies with the rise in urbanisation.

Dr. Craig Poku is a trained mathematician turned atmospheric scientist, where he has focused his work in recent years to address challenging societal issues. Poku completed a degree in mathematics at King’s College London, where he obtained a 1st Class Honours. Following a year in local government, then went on to complete a PhD in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Leeds which specialised in investigating fog microphysics. Poku is now working at WACL, where he is investigating how we can apply new and novel analytical techniques to air quality monitoring sites to gain interesting scientific insights.