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Methane Removal
Grantee Project

CHLOROXEA: Chlorine Oxidation Experiment, Atlantic

Research to advance understanding of the naturally-occurring iron salt aerosol mechanism in the North Atlantic through an aircraft field measurement campaign

John Mak

January 2024

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May 2025

Project Summary

Previous research (Mak et al 2003, van Herpen et al 2023) suggests that mineral dust from the Sahara desert blown over the northern Atlantic Ocean reacts with sea salt aerosol, creating chlorine radicals, a previously unaccounted for methane sink. Currently, the methane sink is estimated to be up to 5% of the global methane sink. This project will investigate the presence and magnitude of this phenomena in the summer of 2024. CHLOROXEA will take place in June-July and will overlap with MAGPIE, an ONR funded physical meteorology field campaign that will also be based out of Barbados. 

Team

John E. Mak is an earth scientist who has worked primarily in the fields of atmospheric chemistry and biogeochemistry. He earned a BS in Chemistry from UC Irvine, a PhD from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and was then a DOE Global Change Postdoctoral Fellow before joining the faculty at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University, where he is a full professor. Over the past fifteen years, John also has led an effort under a private entity (UltraPure Air, LLC) for research and development that specializes in novel applications for airborne research. To support this endeavor, Mak is a commercial pilot and drone pilot with a couple thousand hours’ flight time. Over the past two-plus decades Mak has led various research efforts funded by the National Science Foundation, NOAA, and EPA, and now is very excited to be working with Spark Climate on CHLOROXEA.

Matthew S. Johnson is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Copenhagen, working with atmospheric chemistry and innovation. He has a Bachelor from Macalester College and a PhD from the California Institute of Technology for spectroscopy of solvated ions in a molecular beam. He was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to work at the MAX-Lab Synchrotron in Lund Sweden on the spectroscopy of stratospheric ozone depletion. He is co-author of 151 peer-reviewed publications, 12 patents, and the textbook Chemistry and the Environment (Cambridge University Press). He has been the principal supervisor for 12 Postdoc, 14 PhD, 79 MSc, and 41 BSc research projects and was elected 'Teacher of the Year' by the students. He has a role as founder, CSO, CEO in multiple startup companies including Infuser, Airlabs, Airscape, Rensair, Devlabs, Luper Tech, and Ambient Carbon.

Maarten van Herpen has a PhD in physics and a master’s degree in business innovation. He was the founder of Philips Africa Innovation Hub working with health innovation and served as the unit’s director for five years. Through the ISAMO consortium, he has made important scientific contributions to the field of atmospheric methane removal. van Herpen combines his technical and business background and has extensive experience in public-private collaboration. He is known for his many innovative ideas and entrepreneurial mindset, resulting in a large number of patents (>100 granted patents) and new business models. He served on the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council for Social Innovation and is an alumnus of the Global Young Academy of Science.

Thomas Röckmann is a leading specialist in the development and application of innovative isotope techniques to atmospheric research. His group operates a large and innovative atmospheric chemistry laboratory specialized in isotope ratio measurements on numerous trace species. His research covers a wide field of applications with isotope studies, e.g. global trace gas budgets, detailed kinetic isotope effects, impact of anthropogenic activities on the atmosphere or stratosphere-troposphere exchange.

Collaborators

Cassandra Gaston (University of Miami), Daniel Knopf (Stony Brook University), Alex Laskin (Purdue University), Alfonso Saiz-Lopez (Spanish National Research Council (CSIC))

Publications

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