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In Memoriam
Professor Charles Thomas McElroy was a valued member of the 91亚色 community whose contributions to research, teaching, and mentorship had a lasting impact on colleagues and students.
Research Specialization
Space-based remote sensing of Earth's atmosphere, especially stratospheric ozone; Spectroscopic instrumentation and techniques.
My primary research focus is space-based remote sensing of the Earth鈥檚 atmosphere. I am especially interested in monitoring atmospheric constituents, such as ozone, and I develop and deploy instrumentation for that purpose. Ozone is a particularly important gas because it shields us from much of the ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the Sun. To monitor UV radiation and the levels of ozone and sulphur dioxide in the atmosphere, I co-invented the Brewer Ozone Spectrophotometer, an instrument that is now deployed on the ground worldwide. To quantify the effect of ozone depletion on shielding and simultaneously apprise the population of the level of danger, I co-developed the UV Index. My students and I continue to develop new methods and techniques for measuring and modeling the chemical composition of our atmosphere.