CGCS Directory

Prof. Ronald G. Prinn

TEPCO Professor of Atmospheric Science
Founding Director Emeritus, CGCS
Founding Co-Director Emeritus, MIT Joint Program
Faculty

Affiliations

EAPS, CGCS, JP

Prof. Prinn's research interests incorporate the chemistry, dynamics, and physics of the atmospheres of the Earth and other planets, and the chemical evolution of atmospheres. He has been a faculty member at MIT since 1971, and headed the MIT Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences from 1998 to 2003. He is currently involved in a wide range of projects in atmospheric chemistry and biogeochemistry, climate science, and integrated assessment of science and policy regarding climate change. He leads the Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment (AGAGE), in which the rates of change of the concentrations of the trace gases involved in the greenhouse effect and ozone depletion have been measured continuously over the globe for the past three decades. He is pioneering the use of inverse methods, which use such measurements and three-dimensional models to determine trace gas emissions and understand atmospheric chemical processes, especially those processes involving the oxidation capacity of the atmosphere. He is also working extensively with social scientists to link the science, economics and policy aspects of global change. He has co-led the development of a unique integrated global system model coupling economics, climate physics and chemistry, and land and ocean ecosystems, which is used to estimate uncertainty in climate predictions and analyze proposed climate policies.

Selected Publications:

An, M., Prinn, R.G., Western, L.M. et al. Sustained growth of sulfur hexafluoride emissions in China inferred from atmospheric observations. Nat Commun 15, 1997 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-46084-3.
 
Chen, A., Chen, D., Hu, X., Harth, C. M., Young, D., Mühle, J., Krummel, P. B., O’Doherty, S., Weiss, R. F., Prinn, R. G., & Fang, X. (2023). Historical trend of ozone-depleting substances and hydrofluorocarbon concentrations during 2004–2020 derived from satellite observations and estimates for global emissions. Environmental Pollution, 316(3), 120570. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2022.120570
 
Eastham, S. D., T. Fritz, I. Sanz-Morere, P. Prashanth, F. Allroggen, R. G. Prinn, R. L. Speth and S. R. H. Barrett, Impacts of a near-future supersonic aircraft fleet on atmospheric composition and climate, Environ. Sci.: Atmos., Advance Article, DOI https://doi.org/10.1039/D1EA00081K, 2022.

  

Say, D., A. J. Manning, L.M. Western, D. Young, A. Wisher, M. Rigby, S. Reimann, M.K. Vollmer, M. Maione, J. Arduini, P. B. Krummel, J. Mühle, C. M. Harth, B. Evans, R. F. Weiss, R. G. Prinn, S. O’Doherty. Global trends and European emissions of tetrafluormethane (CF4), hexafluoroethane (C2F6) and octafluoropropane (C3F 8). Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 2149-2164, 2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-21149-2021.

 

P. Wang, J. R. Scott, S. Solomon, J. Marshall, A. R. Babbin, M. Lickley, D. W. J. Thompson, T. DeVries, Q. Liang, R. G. Prinn. On effects of the ocean on atmospheric CFC-11 lifetimes and emissions. PNAS, 2021, Vol. 118, No. 12, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas. 2021528118.¨

Montzka, S. A., G.  S. Dutton, R. W. Portmann, M. P. Chipperfield, S. Davis, W. Feng, A. J. Manning, E.Ray, M. Rigby, B. D. Hall, C. Siso, J. D. Nance, P.B. Krummel, J. Mühle, D. Young, S. O’Doherty, P.K. Salameh, C.M. Harth, R. G. Prinn, R. F. Weiss, J. W. Elkins, H. Walter-Terrinoni, C. Theodoridi, A decline in global CFC-11 emissions during 2018-2019, Nature, 590:7846 (428-4320), https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03260-5, 2021

Park, S., L. M. Western, T. Saito, A. L. Redington, S. Henne, X. Fang, R. G. Prinn, A. J. Manning, S. A. Montzka , P. J. Fraser, A. L. Ganesan, C. M. Harth, J. Kim, P. B. Krummel, Q. Liang, J. Mühle, S. O’Doherty, H. Park, Mi-Kyung Park13, Stefan Reimann5 , Peter K. Salameh11, Ray F. Weiss & Matthew Rigby, A decline in emissions of CFC-11 and related chemicals from eastern China, Nature 590, 433–437, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03277-w , 202

Sheng, J., R. Tunnicliffe, A. L Ganesan, J. D. Maasakkers, L. Shen, R. G. Prinn, S. Song, Y.          Zhang, T. Scarpelli, A. A. Bloom, M. Rigby, A. J. Manning, R. J. Parker, H. Boesch, X. Lan, B. Zhang, M. Zhuang and X. Lu, Sustained methane emissions from China after 2012 despite declining coal production and rice-cultivated area, Environ. Res. Lett., 16 104018, 2021.

Wang, P., J. R. Scott, S. Solomon, J. Marshall, A. R. Babbin, M. Lickley, D. W. J. Thompson, T. DeVries, Q. Liang, R. G. Prinn, On the effects of the ocean on atmospheric CFC-11 lifetimes and emissions, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 118 (12) e2021528118; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2021528118, 2021

Saikawa, E., C.A. Schlosser, and R.G. Prinn, 2013: Global modeling of soil nitrous oxide emissions from natural processes, Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 27(3): 972–989

Potter, K.E., S. Ono and R.G. Prinn, 2013: Fully automated, high-precision instrumentation for the isotopic analysis of tropospheric N2O using continuous flow isotopic ratio mass spectrometry, Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry, 27(15): 1732–1738

Rigby, M., R. Prinn, P. Fraser, P. Simmonds, R. Langenfelds, J. Huang, D. Cunnold, P. Steele, P. Krummel, R. Weiss, S. O'Doherty, P. Salameh, H. Wang, C. Harth, J. Muhle, and L. Porter, 2008, Renewed growth of atmospheric methane. Geophysical Research Letters, 113, D17313

Prinn, R.G., J. Reilly, M. Sarofim, C. Wang, and B. Felzer, Effects of air pollution control on climate: results from an integrated global system model, in: Human-induced climate change: an interdisciplinary assessment, editors M. Schlesinger, H. Kheshgi, J. Smith, F. de la Chesnaye, J. Reilly, T. Wilson and C. Kolstad, Cambridge University Press, pgs. 93-102, 2007

Prinn, R.G., J. Huang, R.F. Weiss, D.M. Cunnold, P.J. Fraser, P.G. Simmonds, A. McCulloch, C. Harth, S. Reimann, P. Salameh, S. O'Doherty, R.H.J. Wang, L. Porter, B.R. Miller and P. Krummel, Evidence for variability of atmospheric hydroxyl radicals over the past quarter century. Geophysical Research Letters, 32, L07809, 2005

Prinn, R.G., Complexities in the Climate System and Uncertainties in Forecasts, in: The State of the Planet: Frontiers and challenges in Geophysics, S. Sparks and C. Hawksworth (editors), Geophysical Monographs, 150, AGU, pgs. 297-305, 2004

Prinn, R.G., The Cleansing Capacity of the Atmosphere. Annual Reviews, Environment and Resources, 28, 29-57, 2003

Reilly, J., R.G. Prinn, J. Harnisch, J. Fitzmaurice, H.D. Jacoby, D. Kicklighter, J. Melillo, P.H. Stone, A.P. Sokolov, and C. Wang, Multi-gas assessment of the Kyoto Protocol. Nature, 401, 549-555, 1999

Prinn, R.G., H.D. Jacoby, A.P. Sokolov, C. Wang, X. Xiao, Z.L. Yang, R.S. Eckaus, P.H. Stone, A.D. Ellerman, J.M. Melillo, J. Fitzmaurice, D.W. Kicklighter, G.L. Holian, and Y. Liu, Integrated Global System Model for climate policy assessment: Feedbacks and sensitivity studies, Climatic Change, 41: 469–546, 1999

 

Contact Information

t: 617-253-2452
e: rprinn@mit.edu
w: http://mit.edu/rprinn/

Education

B.Sc., Chemistry, Pure and Applied Mathematics, University of Auckland, New Zealand, 1967
M.Sc., Chemistry, University of Auckland, New Zealand, 1968
Sc.D., Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1971

Courses taught:

Atmospheric Physics and Chemistry
Global Climate Change: Economics, Science, and Policy
Experimental Atmospheric Chemistry
Atmospheric Radiation