Student visits NASA Goddard for summer research on first-of-its-kind satellite air quality observations

Graduate student Madison Shogrin went to Washington D.C. over the summer as one of three Goddard Earth Sciences Technology and Research II visiting scholars. Shogrin worked on research using new satellite observations to explore air quality in North America.

At Colorado State University, Shogrin works on peroxyacetyl nitrate, or PAN, a secondary pollutant in smog, with her advisor Emily Fischer, a professor in the Department of Atmospheric Science within the Walter Scott, Jr. College of Engineering. Shogrin and Fischer use satellite observations to locate and study the distribution of this pollutant.

“Emily is such a great mentor and advisor because she is really individualized with her students,” said Shogrin. “She wants to know, ‘what is your goal after you leave here.’ And she knows my goal is to go to a NASA lab eventually. So, she heard about this opportunity, and she said ‘I know a student that would be interested’ and she encouraged me to apply for this fellowship.”

Experience with data from satellites set Shogrin up well for her research at Goddard.

For her GESTAR II summer fellowship, Shogrin worked with Lok Lamsal, a GESTAR-affiliated Research Scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Shogrin studied distribution of formaldehyde and nitrogen dioxide across North America. In polluted regions, nitrogen dioxide and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from PAN. Formaldehyde is a VOC we can measure from space, so it serves as a proxy for VOCs.

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