William Wallace McMillan, Associate Professor of Physics at UMBC, passed in March 2010. He is greatly missed...

For the previous 16 years, Wallace was a valued member of the UMBC Physics Dept, and the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences. Wallace was especially influential in the development of UMBC's PhD program in Atmospheric Physics for which he served as Graduate Program Director from 2003. He was also the Department liaison to the campus chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.

Wallace is remembered by his colleagues and friends for his collegial spirit, sense of humor (including his 'interesting' ties!), and commitment to the success of students through his outstanding service as a teacher and mentor.

A tribute to Wallace is posted on the AIRS website and in UMBC's student newspaper "The Retriever Weekly".

Education

Ph.D. Earth and Planetary Science, The Johns Hopkins University, 1992
M.A. Earth and Planetary Science, The Johns Hopkins University, 1990
B.S. Physics, Rhodes College, 1985, cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa

Previous Experience

Prior to joining the UMBC Physics Department, Dr. McMillan was a National Research Council Post-Doctoral Fellow with the Laboratory for Extraterrestrial Physics at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Professional Interests

Wallace's research in atmospheric physics involved measurements of the products of fire, particularly carbon monoxide, as tracers of atmospheric pollution.

[You can see a YouTube interview with Wallace regarding his research on "UMBC In the Loop: Wallace McMillan & Forecasting Pollution from Space"].

Global, regional, and local measurements of pollution are necessary to monitor the health of the atmosphere, to assess human impacts on the environment, and to support forecasting of significant pollution events. His research combined the analysis of satellite and ground-based retrievals from infrared spectra of two key components of atmospheric pollution: carbon monoxide (CO) and ozone. As a member of the science team for NASA's Aqua satellite based Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder (AIRS), he oversaw validation and optimization of AIRS CO retrievals. His Atmospheric Remote-sensing Facility (ARF) is home to the Baltimore Bomem Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (BBAERI), the first commercial prototype ground-based infrared sounder.

His research group studied local and regional air quality, boundary layer mixing, climatic influences on biomass burning, and the exchange of gases between the troposphere and stratosphere. AIRS daily global views of CO enabled them to see the motion of pollution similarly to our perspective of weather. Analysis of regional aircraft data acquired through NASA field experiments is critical to such integrated investigations in collaboration with teams of national and international researchers in atmospheric physics, chemistry, and dynamical modeling. Products developed by ARF are retrievals of near surface CO₂ from BBAERI and similar ground-based instruments.

Selected Publications

“AIRS views of transport from 12-22 July 2004 Alaskan/Canadian fires: Correlation of AIRS CO and MODIS AOD with forward trajectories and comparison of AIRS CO retrievals with DC-8 in situ measurements during INTEX-A/ICARTT,” McMillan, W. W., J. X. Warner, M. M. Comer, E. Maddy, A. Chu, L. Sparling, E. W. Eloranta, R. M. Hoff, G. Sachse, C. Barnet, I. A. Razenkov, and W. Wolf, J. Geophys. Res., doi:10.1029/2007JD009711 (2008).

“Global AIRS and MOPITT CO Measurements: Validation, Comparison, and Links to Biomass Burning Variations and Carbon Cycle,” Yurganov, L., McMillan, W. W., Dzhola, A, Grechko, E., Jones, N., van der Werf, G., J. Geophys. Res, 113, D09301, doi:10.1029/2007JD009229 (2008).

“Arctic smoke – record air pollution levels in the European Arctic during a period of abnormal warmth, due to agricultural fires in Eastern Europe” Stohl, A., T. Berg, A. M. Fjæraa, C. Forster, A. Herber, C. Lunder, W. W. McMillan, S. Oltmans, S. Solberg, K. Stebel, J. Ström, K. Tørseth, K. E. Yttri, Atmos. Chem. Physics, 7, 511-534 (2007).

“Alaskan and Canadian forest fires exacerbate ozone pollution over Houston, Texas, on 19 and 20 July 2004” Morris, G., S. Hersey, A.M. Thompson, O.R. Cooper, A. Stohl, P.R. Colarco, W.W. McMillan, J. Warner, B.J. Johnson, J.C. Witte, T.L. Kucsera, D.E. Larko, and S.J. Oltmans, J. Geophys. Res., 111(D24S03), doi:101029/2006JD007090 (2006).

“Daily Global Maps of Carbon Monoxide from NASA's Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder” McMillan, W. W., C. Barnet, L. Strow, M. Chahine, J. Warner, M. McCourt, P. Novelli, S. Korontzi, E. Maddy, S. Datta, Geophys. Res. Lett., 32, L11801, doi:10.1029/2004GL012821 (2005).

“Tropospheric carbon monoxide measurements from the Scanning High-resolution Interferometer Sounder on September 7, 2000, in southern Africa during SAFARI” McMillan, W. W., M. McCourt, H. Revercomb, R. O. Knuteson, T. J. Christian, B. G. Doddridge, P. V. Hobbs, J. V. Lukovich, P. C. Novelli, S. J. Piketh, L. Sparling, D. Stein, R. J. Swap, R. J. Yokelson, J. Geophys. Res., 109, D20307, doi:10.1029/2004JD004805 (2004).

“Retrieval of tropospheric CO column density from AERI spectra: Case study during March 2-4, 1998” He, H., W. W. McMillan, R. Knuteson, W. Feltz, Atmospheric Environment, 35(3), 509-514 (2001).