An external view of the Met Office building at night.

Dr Joelle Buxmann

Joelle Buxmann is a Senior Scientist in Observations Remote Sensing R&D at the Met Office.

Areas of expertise

  • Remote sensing of aerosols and trace gases
  • LIDAR, Ceilometer and sun photometer (SP)
  • Differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS)
  • Atmospheric physics and chemistry

Publications by Joelle Buxmann

Current activities

Joelle Buxmann started to work for the Met Office in March 2013. Her main interest is remote sensing of aerosols and trace gases including water vapour and ozone.

She is currently one of the leading scientists in the development and support of the operational LIDAR, Sun Photometer (SP) and Ceilometer network across the UK.

She was a key person in setting-up a UK-wide network using state of the art LIDARs and SPs to support the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre (VAAC) London at the Met Office. The network is operational since 2016.

During June-August 2013 she went on a winter expedition to Antarctica on the research Vessel Polarstern in collaboration with the University of Heidelberg. Her work was focused on detection Halogen oxides and sea salt aerosols in correlation with ozone depletion and mercury deposition.

Career background

2013-now working as a scientist in Remote Sensing R&D with a focus on operational networks and products of active and passive remote sensing instruments in national and international collaborations.

2008-2012 PhD in Physics, Dissertation topic: 'Bromine and Chlorine explosion in a simulated atmosphere' at the University of Heidelberg. Her work was focused on Smog chamber studies of atmospheric halogen chemistry at Bayreuth Center of Ecology and Environmental Research, Atmospheric Chemistry Research Laboratory.

Besides her laboratory work she conducted a number of field campaigns:

  • 2012 Remote sensing using DOAS of SO2 and BrO at Mount Etna (volcano), Sicily, Italy
  • 2008 Remote spectroscopic measurements of NO2 and SO2 fluxes at a field campaign at Canadian Oil Sand Open Pit Mining
  • 2008 Remote measurements using multi-axis-(MAX)-DOAS of IO and BrO as well as air and soil sampling at salt lakes in Namibia and Botswana, South African continent
  • 2008 Vertical profile measurements of NO2 and NO3 using Long-path-DOAS measurements during DOMINO (Diel Oxidant Mechanisms In relation to Nitrogen Oxides) campaign in Southern Spain
  • 2007 MAX-DOAS measurements (remote/ spectroscopic) of Halogen oxides on the Research Vessel 'Marion Dufresne'
  • 2006 & 2007 Long-path-DOAS measurements of IO, BrO and ClO at Mace Head, Ireland

2008 Diploma thesis in environmental physics about 'Optimized long path- DOAS measurements of BrO and ClO on the west coast of Ireland', University of Heidelberg, Germany

External recognition