Christian Frankenberg

Christian Frankenberg is Professor of Environmental Sciences & Engineering (ESE) at Caltech and works on the global carbon cycle. He is the Carbon-I Principal Investigator and responsible for the quality and direction of the investigation.

Dr. Frankenberg has two decades of experience in remote sensing of atmospheric trace gases, in particular methane (C. Frankenberg et al. 2005; Christian Frankenberg et al. 2016; Christian Frankenberg, Bergamaschi, et al. 2008), carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. Dr. Frankenberg’s main research focus is the global carbon cycle and how to connect models with remote sensing data, both for the atmosphere as well as the surface (Christian Frankenberg et al. 2011, 2014, 2014, 2018; C. Frankenberg et al. 2012; Hayashida et al. 2013; He et al. 2019, 2020, 2023; Houweling et al. 2014; Humphrey et al. 2021; Irakulis-Loitxate et al. 2021; Jacob et al. 2022). He has developed the proxy method for accurate methane retrievals (C. Frankenberg et al. 2005), improved methane spectroscopy (Christian Frankenberg, Warneke, et al. 2008; Tran et al. 2010) to minimize biases in satellite data, developed solar chlorophyll fluorescence retrievals from space (C. Frankenberg, Butz, and Toon 2011; Christian Frankenberg et al. 2011), wrote the IMAP pre-processor code for OCO-2/3, organized a methane workshop with global experts at Caltech and is currently leading the land surface model development in the Climate Modelling Alliance (CliMA). He also c0-organized the first airborne campaigns for controlled released experiments of methane (Thorpe et al. 2016) as well as the first wide-area coverage investigation in the Four Corners area (Christian Frankenberg et al. 2016).

Education

PhD in Environmental Physics | University of Heidelberg, Germany | 2002 - 2005
Diploma in Geoecology | University of Bayreuth, Germany | 1996-2002

Professional Experience

2018-present: Professor, Caltech
2015-2018: Associate Professor, Caltech
2010-present: Scientist, Earth Atmospheric Science, JPL
2006- 2009: VENI Postdoc at SRON-Netherlands Institute of Space Research\

References

Frankenberg, C, A Butz, and GC Toon. 2011. “Disentangling Chlorophyll Fluorescence from Atmospheric Scattering Effects in O2 a-Band Spectra of Reflected Sun-Light.” Geophysical Research Letters 38 (3). https://doi.org/10.1029/2010gl045896.

Frankenberg, Christian, IPBJDE Aben, P Bergamaschi, EJ Dlugokencky, R Van Hees, S Houweling, P Van Der Meer, R Snel, and P Tol. 2011. “Global Column-Averaged Methane Mixing Ratios from 2003 to 2009 as Derived from SCIAMACHY: Trends and Variability.” Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 116 (D4). https://doi.org/10.1029/2010jd014849.

Frankenberg, Christian, Peter Bergamaschi, André Butz, Sander Houweling, Jan Fokke Meirink, Justus Notholt, Anna Katinka Petersen, Hans Schrijver, Thorsten Warneke, and Ilse Aben. 2008. “Tropical Methane Emissions: A Revised View from SCIAMACHY Onboard ENVISAT.” Geophysical Research Letters 35 (15). https://doi.org/10.1029/2008gl034300.

Frankenberg, Christian, Philipp Köhler, Troy S Magney, Sven Geier, Peter Lawson, Mark Schwochert, James McDuffie, Darren T Drewry, Ryan Pavlick, and Andreas Kuhnert. 2018. “The Chlorophyll Fluorescence Imaging Spectrometer (CFIS), Mapping Far Red Fluorescence from Aircraft.” Remote Sensing of Environment 217: 523–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2018.08.032.

Frankenberg, Christian, Chris O’Dell, Joseph Berry, Luis Guanter, Joanna Joiner, Philipp Köhler, Randy Pollock, and Thomas E Taylor. 2014. “Prospects for Chlorophyll Fluorescence Remote Sensing from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2.” Remote Sensing of Environment 147: 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2014.02.007.

Frankenberg, Christian, Andrew K Thorpe, David R Thompson, Glynn Hulley, Eric Adam Kort, Nick Vance, Jakob Borchardt, et al. 2016. “Airborne Methane Remote Measurements Reveal Heavy-Tail Flux Distribution in Four Corners Region.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113 (35): 9734–39. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1605617113.

Frankenberg, Christian, T Warneke, A Butz, I Aben, F Hase, P Spietz, and LR Brown. 2008. “Methane Spectroscopy in the Near Infrared and Its Implication on Atmospheric Retrievals.” Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions 8 (3): 10021–55. https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-8-5061-2008.

Frankenberg, C, JF Meirink, Michael van Weele, U Platt, and T Wagner. 2005. “Assessing Methane Emissions from Global Space-Borne Observations.” Science 308 (5724): 1010–14. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1106644.

Frankenberg, C, C O’Dell, L Guanter, and J McDuffie. 2012. “Chlorophyll Fluorescence Remote Sensing from Space in Scattering Atmospheres: Implications for Its Retrieval and Interferences with Atmospheric CO2 Retrievals.” https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-5-2081-2012.

Hayashida, S, A Ono, S Yoshizaki, C Frankenberg, W Takeuchi, and X Yan. 2013. “Methane Concentrations over Monsoon Asia as Observed by SCIAMACHY: Signals of Methane Emission from Rice Cultivation.” Remote Sensing of Environment 139: 246–56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2013.08.008.

He, Liyin, Troy Magney, Debsunder Dutta, Yi Yin, Philipp Köhler, Katja Grossmann, Jochen Stutz, et al. 2020. “From the Ground to Space: Using Solar-Induced Chlorophyll Fluorescence to Estimate Crop Productivity.” Geophysical Research Letters 47 (7): e2020GL087474. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020gl087474.

He, Liyin, Lorenzo Rosa, David B Lobell, Yuan Wang, Yi Yin, Russell Doughty, Yitong Yao, Joseph A Berry, and Christian Frankenberg. 2023. “The Weekly Cycle of Photosynthesis in Europe Reveals the Negative Impact of Particulate Pollution on Ecosystem Productivity.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 120 (49): e2306507120. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2306507120.

He, Liyin, Zhao-Cheng Zeng, Thomas J Pongetti, Clare Wong, Jianming Liang, Kevin R Gurney, Sally Newman, et al. 2019. “Atmospheric Methane Emissions Correlate with Natural Gas Consumption from Residential and Commercial Sectors in Los Angeles.” Geophysical Research Letters 46 (14): 8563–71. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019gl083400.

Houweling, Sander, M Krol, Peter Bergamaschi, Christian Frankenberg, EJ Dlugokencky, I Morino, Justus Notholt, et al. 2014. “A Multi-Year Methane Inversion Using SCIAMACHY, Accounting for Systematic Errors Using TCCON Measurements.” Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 14 (8): 3991–4012. https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-3991-2014.

Humphrey, Vincent, Alexis Berg, Philippe Ciais, Pierre Gentine, Martin Jung, Markus Reichstein, Sonia I Seneviratne, and Christian Frankenberg. 2021. “Soil Moisture–Atmosphere Feedback Dominates Land Carbon Uptake Variability.” Nature 592 (7852): 65–69. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03325-5.

Irakulis-Loitxate, Itziar, Luis Guanter, Yin-Nian Liu, Daniel J Varon, Joannes D Maasakkers, Yuzhong Zhang, Apisada Chulakadabba, et al. 2021. “Satellite-Based Survey of Extreme Methane Emissions in the Permian Basin.” Science Advances 7 (27): eabf4507. https://doi.org/10.31223/x5k661.

Jacob, Daniel J, Daniel J Varon, Daniel H Cusworth, Philip E Dennison, Christian Frankenberg, Ritesh Gautam, Luis Guanter, et al. 2022. “Quantifying Methane Emissions from the Global Scale down to Point Sources Using Satellite Observations of Atmospheric Methane.” Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 22 (14): 9617–46. https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-9617-2022.

Thorpe, Andrew K, Christian Frankenberg, AD Aubrey, DA Roberts, AA Nottrott, TA Rahn, JA Sauer, et al. 2016. “Mapping Methane Concentrations from a Controlled Release Experiment Using the Next Generation Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS-NG).” Remote Sensing of Environment 179: 104–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2018.06.018.

Tran, H, J-M Hartmann, G Toon, LR Brown, C Frankenberg, T Warneke, P Spietz, and F Hase. 2010. “The 2\(\nu\)3 Band of CH4 Revisited with Line Mixing: Consequences for Spectroscopy and Atmospheric Retrievals at 1.67 \(\mu\)m.” Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer 111 (10): 1344–56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jqsrt.2010.02.015.