Skip Navigation

Matthäus Kiel

Photo of Matthäus Kiel

Address:

4800 Oak Grove Drive
M/S 233-300

Pasadena, CA 91109

Phone:

1-818-354-5338

Curriculum Vitae:

Click here

Member of:

Tropospheric Composition

Biography

Dr. Matthäus Kiel is a Research Scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. With a Ph.D. in Physics, his research primarily focuses on utilizing data from multiple remote sensing platforms, such as satellites, airborne and ground-based systems, to estimate atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. Dr. Kiel's postdoctoral research at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) concentrated on the challenges of understanding the impact of the anthropogenic footprint of carbon on the atmosphere. Presently, he leads a group of scientists developing methods to identify and quantify carbon sources in urban environments. This work has significant implications for understanding carbon emissions in densely populated areas. Further, Dr. Kiel has extensive experience in validating satellite data products against independent measurements. He oversees the validation of satellite data products to ensure they meet the mission's scientific goals. Dr. Kiel also works on the quality assessment of aerosol and particulate matter measurements from space. He has experience working with different project teams including calibration, algorithm, validation, and mission planning.

Education

  • Ph.D. (Dr. rer. nat.) in Physics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany (2016)
  • Master of Science in Physics, University of Bonn, Germany (2012)
  • Bachelor of Science in Physics, University of Bonn, Germany (2010)

Professional Experience

  • NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Research Scientist (2019 - present)
    • Validation Lead (OCO-3)
    • Urban/Local Sources Lead (OCO-3)
    • Science Team (OCO-2/3, MAIA)
  • California Institute of Technology, Research Associate (2016 - 2019)
  • Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany, Research Assistant (2013 - 2016)

Community Service

  • Review manuscripts for scientific journals (e.g., Remote Sens. Environ, Atmos. Meas. Tech., Atmos. Chem. Phys., Remote Sens., Geophys. Res. Lett.).
  • Review research grant proposals (e.g., NASA, FINESST).
  • Organize sessions at domestic and international conferences (e.g., IWGGMS).
  • Present science highlights at public events chosen by NASA’s JPL Speakers Bureau (e.g., at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) - Los Angeles/Las Vegas Section).
  • Collaborate with members of ESA and JAXA on the Tri-Agency Earth Observing Dashboard with the goal to inform the public about environmental, economic, and societal challenges impacting Earth’s climate.

Research Interests

  • Remote Sensing, Atmospheric Retrieval Algorithms, Validation, Greenhouse Gases, Carbon Cycle

Selected Awards

  • JPL Voyager Award for improving the scientific impact of OCO-3 data through validation and visualization efforts (2022).
  • JPL Voyager Award for successfully coordinating and leading a group of scientists in the analysis of OCO-2/3 measurements over Los Angeles (2021).
  • JPL Team Bonus Award for the successful delivery of high-quality results from the B10 Level 2 algorithm for the OCO missions (2020).
  • JPL Team Bonus Award for implementing science data through the completion of OCO-3’s IOC (2019).

Selected Publications

  1. Taylor, T. E., O'Dell, C. W., Baker, D., Bruegge, C., Chang, A., Chapsky, L., Chatterjee, A., Cheng, C., Chevallier, F., Crisp, D., Dang, L., Drouin, B., Eldering, A., Feng, L., Fisher, B., Fu, D., Gunson, M., Haemmerle, V., Keller, G. R., Kiel, M., et al..: Evaluating the consistency between OCO-2 and OCO-3 XCO2 estimates derived from the NASA ACOS version 10 retrieval algorithm, Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., in review, 2023
  2. Laughner, J. L., Roche, S., Kiel, M., Toon, G. C., Wunch, D., Baier, B. C., Biraud, S., Chen, H., Kivi, R., Laemmel, T., McKain, K., Quéhé, P.-Y., Rousogenous, C., Stephens, B. B., Walker, K., and Wennberg, P. O.: A new algorithm to generate a priori trace gas profiles for the GGG2020 retrieval algorithm, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 1121–1146, 2023
  3. Bell, E., O'Dell, C. W., Taylor, T. E., Merrelli, A., Nelson, R. R., Kiel, M., Eldering, A., Rosenberg, R., and Fisher, B.: Exploring bias in the OCO-3 snapshot area mapping mode via geometry, surface, and aerosol effects, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 109–133, 2023
  4. Nassar, R., Moeini, O., Mastrogiacomo, J.-P., O’Dell, C. W., Nelson, R. R., Kiel, M., Chatterjee, A., Eldering, A., and Crisp, D.: Tracking CO2 emission reductions from space: A case study at Europe’s largest fossil fuel power plant, Front. Remote Sens. 3:1028240, 2022
  5. Rißmann, M., Chen J., Osterman, G., Dietrich, F., Zhao X., Makowski, M., and Kiel, M.: Comparison of OCO-2 target observations to MUCCnet - Is it possible to capture urban XCO2 gradients from space?, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 6605–6623, 2022
  6. Wu, D., Liu, J., Wennberg, P. O., Palmer, P. I., Nelson, R. R., Kiel, M., and Eldering, A.: Towards sector-based attribution using intra-city variations in satellite-based emission ratios between CO2 and CO, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 14547–14570, 2022
  7. Taylor, T. E., O’Dell, C. W., Crisp, D., Kuze, A., Lindqvist, H., Wennberg, P. O., Chatterjee, A., Gunson, M., Eldering, A., Fisher, B., Kiel, M., Nelson, R. R., Merrelli, A., Osterman, G., Chevallier, F., Palmer, P. I., Feng, L., Deutscher, N. M., Dubey, M. K., Feist, D. G., Garćia, O. E., Griffith, D. W. T., Hase, F., Iraci, L. T., Kivi, R., Liu, C., De Mazière, M., Morino, I., Notholt, J., Oh, Y.-S., Ohyama, H., Pollard, D. F., Rettinger, M., Schneider, M., Roehl, C. M., Sha, M. K., Shiomi, K., Strong, K., Sussmann, R., Té, Y., Velazco, V. A., Vrekoussis, M., Warneke, T. and Wunch, D.: An 11-year record of XCO2 estimates derived from GOSAT measurements using the NASA ACOS version 9 retrieval algorithm, Earth System Science Data, 14, 325–360, 2022
  8. Nassar, R., Mastrogiacomo, J.-P., Bateman-Hemphill W., McCracken C., MacDonald C. G., Hill T., O’Dell, C. W., Kiel, M., and Crisp, D.: Advances in quantifying power plant CO2 emissions with OCO-2, Remote Sens. Environ., 264, 112579, 2021
  9. Kiel, M., Eldering A., Roten, D. D., Lin, J. C., Feng, S., Lei, R., Lauvaux, T., Oda, T., Roehl, C. M., Blavier, J.-F., and Iraci, L.: Urban-focused satellite CO2 observations from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-3: a first look at the Los Angeles Megacity, Remote Sens. Environ., 258, 112314, 2021
  10. Taylor, T. E., Eldering, A., Merrelli, A., Kiel, M., Somkuti, P., Cheng, C., Rosenberg, R., Fisher, B., Crisp, D., Basilio, R., Bennett, M., Cervantes, D., Chang, A., Dang, L., Frankenberg, C., Haemmerle, V. R. , Keller, G. R., Kurosu, T., Laughner, J. L., Lee, R., Marchetti, Y., Nelson, R. R., O’Dell, C. W., Osterman, G., Pavlick, R., Roehl, C., Schneider, R., Spiers, G., To, C., Wells, C., Wennberg, P. O., Yelamanchili, A., and Yu, S.: OCO-3 early mission operations and initial (vEarly) XCO2 and SIF retrievals, Remote Sens. Environ., 251, 112032, 2020
  11. Ohyama, H., Morino, I., Velazco, V. A., Klausner T., Bagtasa G., Kiel, M., Frey M., Hori A., Uchino O., Matsunaga T., Deutscher, N. M., DiGangi, J. P., Choi, Y., Diskin, G. S., Pusede, S. E., Fiehn, A., Roiger, A., Lichtenstern, M., Schlager, H., Wang, P. K., Chou C., Andrés-Hernández M. D., and Burrows, J. P.: Validation of XCO2 and XCH4 retrieved from a portable Fourier transform spectrometer with those from in situ profiles from aircraft-borne instruments, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 5149–5163, 2020
  12. Byrne, B., Liu, J., Lee, M., Baker, I., Bowman, K., Deutscher, N., Feist, D., Griffith, D., Iraci, L., Kiel, M., Kimball, J., Miller, C., Morino, I., Parazoo, N., Petri, C., Roehl, C., Sha, M., Strong, K., Velazco, V., Wennberg, P., and Wunch, D.: Improved constraints on northern extratropical CO2 fluxes obtained by combining surface-based and space-based atmospheric CO2 measurements, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., in review, 2020
  13. Kulawik, S. S., Crowell, S., Baker, D., Liu, J., McKain, K., Sweeney, C., Biraud, S. C., Wofsy, S., O’Dell, C. W., Wennberg, P. O., Wunch, D., Roehl, C. M., Deutscher, N. M., Kiel, M., Griffith, D. W. T., Velazco, V. A., Notholt, J., Warneke, T., Petri, C., De Mazi`ere, M., Sha, M. K., Sussmann, R., Rettinger, M., Pollard, D. F., Morino, I., Uchino, O., Hase, F., Feist, D. G., Roche, S., Strong, K., Kivi, R., Iraci, L., Shiomi, K., Dubey, M. K., Sepulveda, E., Rodriguez, O. E. G., T ́e, Y., Jeseck, P., Heikkinen, P., Dlugokencky, E. J., Gunson, M. R., Eldering, A., Crisp, D., Fisher, B., and Osterman, G. B.: Characterization of OCO-2 and ACOS-GOSAT biases and errors for CO2 flux estimates, Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., in review, 2019
  14. Hedelius, J. K., He, T.-L., Jones, D. B. A., Baier, B. C., Buchholz, R. R., De Mazière, M., Deutscher, N. M., Dubey, M. K., Feist, D. G., Griffith, D. W. T., Hase, F., Iraci, L. T., Jeseck, P., Kiel, M., Kivi, R., Liu, C., Morino, I., Notholt, J., Oh, Y.-S., Ohyama, H., Pollard, D. F., Rettinger, M., Roche, S., Roehl, C. M., Schneider, M., Shiomi, K., Strong, K., Sussmann, R., Sweeney, C., Té, Y., Uchino, O., Velazco, V. A., Wang, W., Warneke, T., Wennberg, P. O., Worden, H. M., and Wunch, D.: Evaluation of MOPITT Version 7 joint TIR–NIR XCO retrievals with TCCON, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 5547–5572, 2019.
  15. Frey, M., Sha, M. K., Hase, F., Kiel, M., Blumenstock, T., Harig, R., Surawicz, G., Deutscher, N. M., Shiomi, K., Franklin, J., Bösch, H., Chen, J., Grutter, M., Ohyama, H., Sun, Y., Butz, A., Mengistu Tsidu, G., Ene, D., Wunch, D., Cao, Z., Garcia, O., Ramonet, M., Vogel, F., Orphal, J.: Building the COllaborative Carbon Column Observing Network (COC- CON): Long term stability and ensemble performance of the EM27/SUN Fourier transform spectrometer, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 1513–1530, 2019
  16. Kiel, M., O’Dell, C. W., Fisher, B., Eldering, A., Nassar, R., MacDonald, C. G., and Wennberg, P. O.: How bias correction goes wrong: Measurement of XCO2 affected by erroneous surface pressure estimates, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 2241–2259, 2019
  17. O’Dell, C. W., Eldering, A., Wennberg, P. O., Crisp, D., Gunson, M. R., Fisher, B., Frankenberg, C., Kiel, M., Lindqvist, H., Mandrake, L., Merrelli, A., Natraj, V., Nelson, R. R., Osterman, G. B., Payne, V. H., Taylor, T. R., Wunch, D., Drouin, B. J., Oyafuso, F., Chang, A., McDuffie, J., Smyth, M., Baker, D. F., Basu, S., Chevallier, F., Crowell, S. M. R., Feng, L., Palmer, P. I., et al.: Improved Retrievals of Carbon Dioxide from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 with the version 8 ACOS algorithm, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 6539-6576, 2018
  18. Borsdorff, T., aan de Brugh, J., Hu, H., Hasekamp, O., Sussmann, R., Rettinger, M., Hase, F., Gross, J., Schneider, M., Garcia, O., Stremme, W., Grutter, M., Feist, D. G., Arnold, S. G., De Mazière, M., Kumar Sha, M., Pollard, D. F., Kiel, M., Roehl, C., Wennberg, P. O., Toon, G. C., and Landgraf, J.: Mapping carbon monoxide pollution from space down to city scales with daily global coverage, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 5507–5518, 2018
  19. Oh, Y.-S., Kenea, S. T., Goo, T.-Y., Kim, G., Chung, K.-S., Rhee, J.-S., Ou, M.-L., Byun, Y.-H., Wennberg, P. O., Kiel, M., Velazco, V. A., Oh, M.-L., and Griffith, D. W. T: Characteristics of the Greenhouse Gas Concentration Derived from the Ground-based FTS Spectra at Anmyeondo, Korea, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 2361-2374, 2018
  20. Barthlott, S., Schneider, M., Hase, F., Blumenstock, T., Kiel, M., Dubravica, D., Garcia O. E., Sepulveda, E., Mengistu Tsidu, G., Takele Kenea, S., Grutter, M., Stremme, W., Strong, K., Weaver, D., Palm, M., Warneke, T., Notholt, J., Mahieu, E., Jones, N., Griffith, D. W. T., Smale, D., and Robinson, J.: Tropospheric water vapour isotopologue data (H2 16O, H2 18O and HD16O) as obtained from NDACC/FTIR solar absorption spectra, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 9, 15-29, 2017
  21. Velazco V. A., Morino, I., Uchino O., Hori A., Kiel, M., Bukosa, B., Deutscher, N. M., Sakai, T., Nagai, T., Bagtasa, G., Izumim, T., Yoshida, Y., and Griffith, D. W. T.: TCCON Philippines: First Measurement Results, Satellite Data and Model Comparisons in Southeast Asia, Remote Sens., 9, 1228, 2017
  22. Wunch, D., Wennberg, P. O., Osterman G., Fisher, B., Naylor, B., Roehl, C. M., O’Dell C., Mandrake, L., Viatte, C., Kiel, M., et al.: Comparisons of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) XCO2 measurements with TCCON, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 2209-2238, 2017
  23. Kiel, M., Hase, F., Blumenstock, T., and Kirner, O.: Comparison of XCO abundances from the Total Carbon Column Observing Network and the Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change measured in Karlsruhe, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 2223-2239, 2016
  24. Hase, F., Frey, M., Kiel, M., Blumenstock, T., Harig, R., Keens, A., and Orphal, J.: Addition of a channel for XCO observations to a portable FTIR spectrometer for greenhouse gas measurements, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 2303-2313, 2016
  25. Kiel, M., Wunch, D., Wennberg, P. O., Toon, G. C., Hase, F., and Blumenstock, T.: Improved retrieval of gas abundances from near-infrared solar FTIR spectra measured at the Karlsruhe TCCON station, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 669-682, 2016
  26. Hase, F., Frey, M., Blumenstock, T., Groß, J., Kiel, M., Kohlhepp, R., Mengistu Tsidu, G., Schäfer, K., Sha, M. K., and Orphal, J.: Application of portable FTIR spectrometers for detecting greenhouse gas emissions of the major city Berlin, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 3059- 3068, 2015
  27. Frey, M., Hase, F., Blumenstock, T., Groß, J., Kiel, M., Mengistu Tsidu, G., Schäfer, K., Sha, M. K., and Orphal, J.: Calibration and instrumental line shape characterization of a set of portable FTIR spectrometers for detecting greenhouse gas emissions, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 3047-3057, 2015
  28. Porz, S., Kiel, M., and Lehnertz, K.: Can spurious indications for phase synchronization due to superimposed signals be avoided?, Chaos, 24, 033112, 2014