Jessica B. Smith | Research Scientist | Atmospheric Composition & Climate

Jessica B. Smith, PhD, is a research scientist dedicated to advancing understanding of atmospheric composition and climate through observation-based studies. Prior to starting Smith Scientific Consulting, she was a Research Scientist in the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. She has nearly 30 years’ experience in the development and deployment of sophisticated airborne and ground-based instrumentation for measuring key trace species in Earth’s atmosphere—including water vapor, ozone, and carbon dioxide—and is skilled in the integration of observations from multiple platforms to investigate atmospheric processes and their climate implications.

Dr. Smith has measured atmospheric composition—with a focus on the transition region between the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS)—from multiple airborne platforms, including NASA's high-altitude ER-2 and WB-57 aircraft, as well as small balloon-borne payloads. As Instrument Principal Investigator and Science Investigation Manager for NASA's Dynamics and Chemistry of the Summer Stratosphere (DCOTSS) mission, she co-led a multi-institutional team to examine how deep convection transports air and moisture from near the surface across the tropopause, and to quantify its impact on stratospheric composition. The results from this mission, along with her work with the Harvard Water Vapor instrument over the past two decades, have yielded valuable insights into the processes determining stratospheric humidity, which is important for both ozone chemistry and climate.

Over her career, Dr. Smith has supported over 15 national and international field deployments, targeting a wide range of topics, from stratospheric ozone loss over the North Pole to air quality in downtown Munich. As an elected member of the American Meteorological Society Committee on Middle Atmosphere, she contributed to shaping future directions for middle atmosphere research, emphasizing how UTLS properties and processes influence tropospheric climate and arguing for a better understanding of these factors prior to any intentional climate modification. She also co-led the development of a research article in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, highlighting the many important contributions of spaceborne observations of stratospheric composition over the past two decades and strongly advocating for observational continuity.