About the Division
Our mission is to understand the atmospheric processes that drive regional and global earth systems, with a primary focus on climate, aerosol and cloud physics; global and regional scale modeling; integrated assessment; and complex regional meteorology and chemistry.
In supporting this mission, our research addresses one of the key missions of the Department of Energy, namely to ensure that the nation's energy system is economically and environmentally sustainable. Because nearly all energy-related emissions enter the atmosphere, research on atmospheric processes and their impacts on human health and the environment-over a variety of temporal and geographic scales-is critical to understanding these consequences.
Scientists in this division lead and contribute to programs within the Department of Energy, the Department of Homeland Security, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and industry. Major programs supported by this division include the DOE Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program, the DOE Atmospheric Science Program, the DHS Urban Dispersion Program, and the Global Energy Technology Strategy Program, a public-private international collaboration.
From the role of clouds and aerosol processes in climate change, to the effect of energy technology choices on greenhouse gas emissions, PNNL scientists are combining an extensive world-wide field observational system with laboratory research and modeling to advance our understanding of integrated Earth systems on regional and global scales.
Charlette Geffen
Director, Atmospheric Sciences and Global Change Division
