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| Me at Slush 2017 Skolar Award Science Pitching competition. Photo by Vilja Pursiainen /Kaskas Media. |
“Hi! My name is Janne Hakkarainen. I am a mathematician and I have amazing new formula to calculate where in the world man-made greenhouse gases come from. But first, let’s talk little bit about climate change…” that is how I started my pitch at Slush 2017 Skolar Award Science Pitching competition. In some sense that summarizes quite well who I am professionally: I am an applied mathematician who works with space-based greenhouse gas data for figuring out anthropogenic GHG emission areas.
I currently serve as a Senior Research Scientist at Greenhouse Gases and Satellite Methods Group in Earth Observation Research Division at Finnish Meteorological Institute. In fact, I have worked for Finnish Meteorological Institute for most of my professional career. In 2008, I first started as a summer trainee, then I served as MSc thesis worker and finally as a research scientist in 2010. From 2011 to 2013 I was also a PhD student at Lappeenranta University of Technology. In 2017, I was a researcher at the Centre of Excellence in Inverse Problems Research at University of Helsinki. This was an excellent opportunity to study different aspects of inverse problems research.
I received my MSc degree from University of Helsinki in 2010, and my PhD from Lappeenranta University of Technology in 2013. My dissertation was entitled “On state and parameter estimation in chaotic systems”. The dissertation studied uncertainty quantification in chaotic systems (such as climate) using data assimilation methods. The dissertation also studied applications to satellite data analysis. My advisors were Prof. Heikki Haario from Lappeenranta University of Technology and Adj. Prof. Johanna Tamminen from Finnish Meteorological Institute.
During my career, I have had the pleasure of being a research scientist and project manager in various research projects in Earth Observation. The Academy of Finland, Tekes, and European Space Agency have funded these projects. My tasks have been in developing mathematical, statistical and computational algorithms for data assimilation, parameter estimation and satellite data retrievals. In particular, I have worked with satellite data applications and topics related to uncertainty quantification. The satellite data applications have been from forest fires to volcanic eruptions and from middle atmosphere to greenhouse gases. In fact, if you look at my publication list, you can see the diversity of my work. And frankly put: I found this to be the best part of my work!
My current work is focused on space-based greenhouse gas research, and in anthropogenic greenhouse gas research in particular. This means that my aim is to understand the man-made greenhouse gas emissions (and also the biospheric process as most of the scientists in this field) using satellite data. In particular, my aim is to use and develop direct methods for satellite data exploitation. In my own GHG work, I have used data from NASA’s OCO-2 satellite and from Japanese GOSAT satellite. I have used also used air quality data from instruments like OMI to better understand greenhouse gases, and I have also used modern emission inventories like ODIAC. In near future, my aim is also to use data from recently launched Sentinel 5p (TROPOMI) and TANSAT satellites. In fact, data exploitation and societal impact have become more and more important in my own research. My vision for the future is to use this modern satellite technology together with direct methodologies to monitor the real changes in man-made greenhouse gas emissions and to reveal unreported emission sources.
My most widely acknowledged work has been my work related to OCO-2 XCO2 anomalies, published in GRL in 2016. This work has put me in Finnish national TV, and also magazines and newspapers all over the World. This work was also included in the paper “The Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 early science investigations of regional carbon dioxide fluxes” published in the prestigious journal Science, and in the Japanese “Guidebook” on the use of GHG satellite data for verification of GHG emission inventories as a response for the Paris agreement. One of my latest adventures was being a finalist in the Skolar Award Science Pitching competition at Slush 2017. In fact, my research project was entitled “Where in the world man-made atmospheric greenhouse-gases come from?”
Contact information
Street address: Erik Palménin aukio 1, Helsinki, FinlandPostal address: P.O. box 503, FI-00101 Helsinki
Tel.: +358 451 240 257
Email: janne.hakkarainen@fmi.fi
Weblog: jannehakkarainen.blogpost.fi
Google scholar: link
ResearchGate: link
Twitter: @JanneHakkaraine
