As a postdoctoral fellow, Dooley develops new methods to interpret atmospheric greenhouse gas data from satellites. Particularly interested in understanding complex urban and agricultural areas, his research includes various anthropogenic sources as well as carbon capture in the biosphere. Dooley works with Prof. Taylor Jones to design novel environmental sensing equipment useful for estimating ecosystem carbon exchange in urban and forested environments. Dooley received a B.S. in Physics from George Mason University and began graduate research in optical instrumentation at New Mexico Tech. With extensive exposure to embedded and networked control systems as well as a strong background in spectroscopy, Dooley shifted focus to designing instruments used for atmospheric chemistry. His doctoral research focused on the development and validation of an airborne system to quantify various methane sources emitting at or below the detection threshold of other aircraft and space-based monitoring systems. Much of this work was in collaboration and support from Los Alamos National Lab (LANL), Sandia National Lab, and the New Mexico Consortium.
Addressing the global imbalance between carbon emission and sequestration will be the defining legacy of our society. At Georgetown, Dr. Dooley aims to use his varied set of experiences – from embedded sensor design to atmospheric spectroscopy – to develop a multi-scale approach to carbon exchange monitoring and adaptation. The combination of ground, aircraft, and space-based measurement strategies is essential to constrain and validate the carbon flux estimates driving climate policies and mitigation strategies.