Current and active research interests include:

• Drone-based (unmanned aerial vehicle) measurement of atmospheric composition (in situ and remote sensing), specialising in greenhouse gas sampling and development and validation of flux quantification methods
• Environmental (atmospheric) baselining of shale gas areas in the UK with a focus of fugitive emission assessment of greenhouse gases
• Aircraft and satellite measurements of atmospheric composition (using a range of in situ and remote sensing techniques)
• pollution transport and modelling (local, urban and regional, e.g. biomass burning sources)
• Methane and other greenhouse gas emissions quantification - at global, national and local scales - processes and inventory validation

My research interests focus on the use of airborne and satellite in situ and remote sensing data and transport modelling to interpret atmospheric chemical processes and composition budgets, especially those linked to air quality/urban pollution and greenhouse gases. Specific current (active) projects include:

Closing the Global Methane Budget (NERC - 2016-2020)

This NERC-funded project will use (and add to) a global dataset of greenhouse gas measurements - including surface monitoring stations, aircraft and satellites - to attempt to balance the sources and sinks of atmospheric methane in the Earth system. Methane (the second-most important greenhouse gas after CO₂) is rising rapidly in the atmosphere and science does not fully understand the reasons why. The relative roles of fossil fuel emissions, wetland emissions, Arctic climate change and biogeochemical sinks must all be understood to close the "budget". This project will use vast datasets and state-of-the-science Earth system models to reconcile these factors and update our understanding of each source and sink term through tailored field work and the setup of new monitoring stations (especially in the Tropics). Grant's role in this project leads FAAM aircraft field projects  (www.faam.ac.uk) in Senegal, Uganda and Zambia to study regional source signatures of methane to help apportion and quanitfy fluxes of methane from different source types across the planet.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for the measurement of CH₄ (NERC - 2016-2017)

This 12-month NERC Technology Proof-of-concept project will seek to develop and test a new prototype drone for the remote sensing of methane and pioneer the use of 3D spatial tomography and rapid scanning techniqes to map methane plumes and quantify mass flux.

Environmental Baselining of potential locations of Hydraulic Fracturing (2015-2019)

This Department for Energy and Climate Change (now BEIS) funded project (see www.bgs.ac.uk/research/groundwater/shaleGas/monitoring/yorkshire.html) is an academically-led and independent project to understand the background environment of locations in Yorkshire and Lancashire ahead of any potential exploratory drilling for shale gas. My role in this project (together with colleagues at the University of York) is to lead the collection of a baseline dataset of atmopsheric composition (including greenhouse gases and air quality) at these two locations to provide a background against any future potential changes due to fracking in those areas can be interpreted and assessed.

NERC EQUIPT4RISK (2018-2022)

This strategic programme addresses the technological and measurement needs to better assess environmental impacts and risk associated with the development of shale gas extraction in the UK. Grant's involvement as the PI of a work package on atmospheric impacts consists of fieldwork and measurements to detect and quantify fugitive emissions of methane and greenhouse gases and air quality impacts.

Grant's PhD at Leicester University between 2001-2004 investigated the remote sensing of peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN) in the upper troposphere. It investigated the potential for the retrieval of PAN concentration data from remotely sensed infrared spectra of Earth’s atmosphere from atmospheric and space satellite platforms. The PAN molecule is an important atmospheric trace component, both in terms of its role as a reservoir molecule and intercontinental transport vehicle for urban pollution plumes; and through its impact on the ability of Earth’s atmosphere to cleanse itself of volatile organic pollutants. The first recorded laboratory reference spectra for PAN were measured as part of a CASE industrial partnership at the NERC Molecular Spectroscopy Facility (MSF). In conjunction with atmospheric radiative transfer modelling, these reference spectra were used to make the first measurements of PAN concentration data from infrared emission spectra of the Earth’s limb in the upper troposphere as measured by the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) onboard ESA’s Envisat satellite. High concentrations of PAN were observed from space in convective outflow and frontal uplift of pollution plumes from megacities in China, with consequent implications for USA air quality downwind.

Previous Research Projects