Mbavhi Maliage

Biography

I am a PhD student at the Wolfson Atmospheric Chemistry Laboratory (WACL) at the University of York. I completed my undergrad in Meteorology at the University of Pretoria, then went on to work as a weather forecaster, focusing on public weather forecasting and marine forecasting, as well as freelancing as a marine forecasting trainer.

I recently completed my Masters in Meteorology at the same university, focussing on dust storms over South Africa. I looked at the evolution of meteorological variables during a dust storm as well as the weather patterns associated with dust storms over South Africa. Outside of science, I enjoy being outside in nature, reading, and doing anything creative and fun such as arts and crafts.

Qualifications

MSc in Meteorology.

Research interests

Atmospheric chemistry, air quality, climate and weather.

Teaching interests

Geography and climate, mathematics.

Project title

Understanding Southern African air pollution.

Supervisors

Matt Evans
Professor Rebecca Garland

Funding

Wild Fund.

Project outline

The project will investigate the processes influencing air pollution levels in Southern Africa using the GEOS-Chem model to create a regional assessment of pollution loads. The model’s performance will be evaluated against observational datasets to determine the accuracy of current emission inventories from both human activities and natural sources in the region.

Additionally, the effects of African wildfires on pollution levels will be examined, as well as the influence of the Atlantic, Indian, and Southern oceans on southern African air quality. This study will also explore how the unique mix of pollutants emitted in Southern Africa challenges our understanding of air pollution, especially in comparison to findings from North America, Europe, and other regions of Africa.