Professor Matthew Rigby
MSci(Cantab.), PhD(Lond.)
Current positions
Professor
School of Chemistry
Contact
Press and media
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Research interests
My work focuses on developing methods for determining sources and sinks of greenhouse gases and ozone depleting substances. I carry out this work in collaboration with researchers around the world through the Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment (AGAGE), a global monitoring network that measures over 40 trace gases at high frequency and precision. I use models of atmospheric chemistry and transport to determine emissions and sinks of atmospheric gases using the AGAGE measurements. I am the PI of the NERC higlight topic "Detection and Attribution of Regional Emissions in the UK (DARE-UK)" and the NERC Digital Environment project "Hub for Greenhouse Gas data Science (HUGS)". I am a co-of the NERC highlight topic MOYA, investigating the global methane budget, and co-I of the London GHG project. I am a lead author of the 2018 World Meteorological Organisation Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion.
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
A Bristol-NIWA partnership to unlock MethaneSAT observations
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of ChemistryDates
01/11/2025 to 31/10/2027
A Bristol-NIWA partnership to unlock MethaneSAT observations
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of ChemistryDates
01/11/2025 to 31/10/2027
FOX-UK: Fossil-fuel CO2 emissions from OXygen measurements in the UK
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of ChemistryDates
01/07/2025 to 30/06/2028
Global Methane Flux Inference using Emulated Atmospheric Transport
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of ChemistryDates
01/05/2025 to 31/10/2028
Global Methane Flux Inference using Emulated Atmospheric Transport
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of ChemistryDates
01/05/2025 to 31/10/2028
Thesis supervisions
Estimating London’s methane emissions using a novel urban observation system
Supervisors
Using Gaussian process emulation to quantify the global methane budget
Supervisors
Atmospheric inverse modelling of biospheric carbon dioxide fluxes in the UK and Europe
Supervisors
Comparison of HFC emission and bank modelling methods
Supervisors
The Southern Ocean seasonal cycle of N 2 O, an atmospheric modelling study.
Supervisors
Publications
Selected publications
20/11/2008Renewed growth of atmospheric methane
Geophysical Research Letters
Re-evaluation of the lifetimes of the major CFCs and CH3CCl3 using atmospheric trends
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
Three decades of global methane sources and sinks
Nature Geoscience
Recent publications
14/07/2025AGAGE measurements of atmospheric trace gases from archived air samples.
A Graph Neural Network emulator for greenhouse gas emissions inference
Global emissions and abundances of chemically and radiatively important trace gases from the AGAGE network
Earth System Science Data
Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in Southern China
Environmental Science and Technology Letters
Impact of leakage during HFC-125 production on the increase in HCFC-123 and HCFC-124 emissions
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
Related people
Professor Simon O'Doherty
Visiting Professor
School of Chemistry
Professor Raul Santos-Rodriguez
Professor of Data Science and Intelligent Systems
School of Engineering Mathematics and Technology
Professor Anita Ganesan
Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry
School of Geographical Sciences
Dr Kieran Stanley
Senior Research Fellow
School of Chemistry
Dr Joe Pitt
Senior Research Associate
School of Chemistry