Dr Alex Webb

Both my undergraduate degree in Physics with Astrophysics and my PhD were at the University of Leicester. My PhD was with Professor Hartmut Boesch and was on the topic of measuring methane over the Amazon Basin from space comparing these measurements with aircraft and modelled data. For my first post-doc position I moved to the Open University where I spent a few years working on the downscaling of satellite measurements of land surface temperature. In 2018 I returned to the University of Leicester as a member of the school of Physics and Astronomy’s Earth Observation Science group once again this time as a member of staff for the National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO). I am currently based in Space Park Leicester.

My currently research is funded by the National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO) a distributed NERC centre for research. I work on the measurements of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane using satellites such as GOSAT OCO-2 and Sentinel-5P. This work includes finding and quantifying plumes of methane from leaks at oil and gas facilities as well as more fundamental tasks such as assessing the biases and quality of the data we measure from these satellites. I also use the GOSAT satellite to measure Solar Induced chlorophyll Fluorescence (SIF); an infra-red signal emitted by plants which we can use as a proxy for plant photosynthetic activity. Finally I am using the Met Offices’ Numerical Atmospheric dispersion Modelling Environment (NAME) to model greenhouse gases on the city scale with the aim of tying the measurements to emissions inventories and ground-based in-situ measurements to further our understanding of how these gases affect the urban environment.

Webb, Alex J., Hartmut Bösch, Robert J. Parker, Luciana V. Gatti, Emanuel Gloor, Paul I. Palmer, Luana S. Basso et al. "CH4 concentrations over the Amazon from GOSAT consistent with in situ vertical profile data." Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 121, no. 18 (2016). doi.org/10.1002/2016JD025263.

Webb, Alex J., Hartmut Boesch, Roland Leigh, Evaluating CHâ‚„ concentrations and emissions in the Amazon Basin using the Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite and dedicated CHâ‚„ models, University of Leicester, ISNI: 0000 0004 6424 7950, 2017. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.727448.

Feng, Liang, Paul I. Palmer, Hartmut Bösch, Robert J. Parker, Alex J. Webb, Caio SC Correia, Nicholas M. Deutscher et al. "Consistent regional fluxes of CH 4 and CO 2 inferred from GOSAT proxy XCH 4: XCO 2 retrievals, 2010-2014." Atmospheric chemistry and physics 17, no. 7 (2017): 4781-4797. doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-4781-2017.

Parker, Robert J., Hartmut Boesch, Martin J. Wooster, David P. Moore, Alex J. Webb, David Gaveau, and Daniel Murdiyarso. "Atmospheric CH4 and CO2 enhancements and biomass burning emission ratios derived from satellite observations of the 2015 Indonesian fire plumes." Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 16, no. 15 (2016): 10111-10131. doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-10111-2016.

Parker, Robert, Hartmut Boesch, Kristiina Byckling, Alex J. Webb, Paul I. Palmer, L. Feng, P. Bergamaschi et al. "Assessing 5 years of GOSAT Proxy XCH4 data and associated uncertainties." (2015). doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-4785-2015.

Boesch, H., Liu, Y., Palmer, P. I., Tamminen, J., Anand, J. S., Cai, Z., Che, K., Chen, H., Chen, X., Feng, L., Hakkarainen, J., Heikkinen, P., Kalaitzi, N., Kivi, R., Parker, R., Somkuti, P., Wang, J., Webb, A., Yang, D., Yao, L., Yi, Y., “Monitoring Greenhouses Gases over China Using Space-Based Observations”, 2020, 3(4):  14-24. doi:10.11947/j.JGGS.2020.0402.

Boesch H, Liu Y, Tamminen J, Yang D, Palmer PI, Lindqvist H, Cai Z, Che K, Di Noia A, Feng L, Hakkarainen J, Ialongo I, Kalaitzi N, Karppinen T, Kivi R, Kivimäki E, Parker RJ, Preval S, Wang J, Webb AJ, Yao L, Chen H. Monitoring Greenhouse Gases from Space. Remote Sensing. 2021; 13(14):2700. doi.org/10.3390/rs13142700.

Yang, Dongxu and Boesch, Hartmut and Liu, Yi and Somkuti, Peter and Cai, Zhaonan and Chen, Xi and Di Noia, Antonio and Lin, Chao and Lu, Naimen and Lyu, Daren and Parker, Robert and Tian, Longfei and Wang, Maohua and Webb, Alex J., et al.. Toward High Precision XCO2 Retrievals from TanSat Observations: Retrieval Improvement and Validation against TCCON Measurements. Earth and Space Science Open Archive, 44, 2020, 10.1002/essoar.10502909.1.