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The latest news and announcements related to the Department of Atmospheric Science appear below. In addition to these items, the department periodically produces an alumni newsletter designed to keep alumni informed about their alma mater. The College of Engineering also provides additional news and announcements.
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CSU boasts one of world's most advanced radars
CSU-CHILL radar image of the May 22, 2008, tornado near Fort Collins. Photo courtesy of Pat Kennedy.
Colorado State University this spring installed a unique antenna on one of the nation's most advanced polarimetric weather radars to more precisely detect major storms and precipitation. The new antenna gives scientists a "more delicate knife" to evaluate thunderstorms and the size and distribution of rain, hail and snow, said Steven Rutledge, professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State and the scientific director of the CSU-CHILL radar facility.
The radar, located next to the Greeley-Weld County Airport and known as CSU-CHILL, has the capability of seeing a single hail stone in the atmosphere more than 10 miles away. So-called dual polarization technology will be adopted as the new National Weather Service standard starting next year and deployed on the nation's WSR-88D radars, used to warn the public about developing severe weather. The CSU-CHILL radar supports this effort by developing new techniques that will be used on the weather warning radar network.
The CHILL facility is jointly operated by the Colorado State University departments of Atmospheric Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering. In addition to Rutledge, V.N. Bringi and V. Chandrasekar, professors of electrical engineering, serve as principal investigators on the award from the National Science Foundation, which exceeds $3 million over a three-year period.
To read the full story behind the CSU-CHILL radar, click here. For more information on the CSU-CHILL radar, please visit the CSU-CHILL webpage.
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It is a great pleasure to announce that Susan C. van den Heever will be joining the Atmospheric Science faculty in August 2008.
Sue received her Ph.D. from the Department of Atmospheric Science at CSU in 2001, after coming to the United States from Johannesburg, South Africa, where she received an M.S. degree from the University of Witwatersrand in 1995. Sue's expertise lies in the areas of cloud and mesoscale dynamics, cloud physics, and NWP models. As many of you know, Sue has been working at CSU since her Ph.D. and has taught ATS 540, Daily Weather Laboratory I, in our department for a number of years.
The hiring of Sue is an outcome of the recent ATS faculty search in the area of mesoscale processes. We thank all of you for your assistance during the search process.
Please join me in welcoming Sue to the ATS faculty!
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13-year-old Aboriginal student visits CSU
This past week, the 13-year-old Aboriginal student and his teacher toured NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and Colorado State University's Department of Atmospheric Science program in Fort Collins. Neil is a student at Woolaning, a tiny school near Wangi Falls in Litchfield Park that has 10 students and one teacher, Guna Deva. Darwin, a city of 100,000 people, is the closest major city and it's 120 miles away.
Woolaning is part of CloudSat's network of some 70 schools around the world where students observe clouds and cloud behavior and send the data back to CloudSat scientists. CSU, along with JPL and other partners launched CloudSat, the world's first cloud-profiling radar, into space on April 28, 2006. From 438 miles above Earth, CloudSat is giving scientists unprecedented information about the nature of clouds and the amount and type of their precipitation.
To read the full story behind Neil's visit to CSU, click here (link to Today@Colorado State courtesy of Emily Wilmsen)
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Nick Parazoo and Angela Rowe both received the 2008 Herbert Riehl Memorial Award for the best paper submitted for publication in the peer-reviewed literature by an MS student. Eric Hendricks has received the 2008 Alumni Award for best paper submitted for publication by a senior Ph.D. student.
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CloudSat, a joint project of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Colorado State University and other agencies, has received a Rotary National Award for Space Achievement for providing unprecedented perspectives of Earth's clouds.
CloudSat, which is the world's first cloud-profiling radar in orbit, launched on April 28, 2006, and reached a position 438 miles above Earth. The satellite is part of NASA's "A-Train" of Earth observation satellites and one of the very few university-led earth science missions. Graeme Stephens, a University Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University, serves as the principal investigator for the team, which also includes the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Department of Energy and the Canadian Space Agency. Colorado State's Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere processes CloudSat data for the scientific community.
The CloudSat team received the award for "exceptional achievement by an international joint government, university and industry team in conceiving, designing, developing and launching the CloudSat spacecraft that provides an unprecedented three-dimensional perspective of Earth's clouds to answer questions about how they form, evolve and affect the weather, climate and fresh water supply."
The Rotary National Award for Space Achievement Foundation Stellar Awards recognize outstanding individuals and teams from industry and government who have made significant contributions to the U.S. space program. The foundation was established in 1985 by the Space Center Rotary Club.
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The Department of Atmospheric Science has once again been designated a Program of Research and Scholarly Excellence at CSU - more details at http://today.colostate.edu/index.asp?url=display_story&story_id=1004568
- Thomas Guinn receives 2008 Atmospheric Science Alumni Award. In a ceremony at the Lory Student Center on April 19, Tom Guinn was recognized as the 2008 winner of the ATS Alumni Award. He received his PhD from CSU in 1992, studying hurricane spiral rainbands with Wayne Schubert as his advisor. Tom retired in February 2008 after 22 years in the United States Air Force. While in the military, he served as Deputy Director of weather policy, ASAF Headquarters, Washington, DC; Director of Operations, AF Combat Climatology Center, Asheville, NC; and Weather Squadron Commander, Fort Lewis, WA. While in Asheville, he was honored by the city as Outstanding Federal Manager of the Year. He has received five Meritorious Service Medals, and in 1995 won the AMS Banner I. Miller Award for the most significant contribution to tropical meteorololgy. Tom is currently an assistant professor at Embry-Riddle Aerolnautical University, Daytona Beach, FL.
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Professor Sonia Kreidenweis wins College of Engineering George T. Abell Outstanding Faculty Teaching and Service Award. This award was presented to Prof. Kreidenweis at a ceremony at the University Center for the Arts on April 10. Sonia was honored for exceptional, sustained contributions to the Atmospheric Science Department in the areas of teaching, advising, and service.
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Construction begins on ATS West, a 13,000 sq ft building on the Atmospheric Science campus. ATS West is a new department facility that will initially house the new National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center, Center for Multiscale Modeling of Atmospheric Processes (CMMAP). CMMAP, awarded in 2006 and directed by Professor David Randall, has the goal of improving the representation of cloud processes in global climate models. Construction of ATS West is expected to be completed in late 2008.
- A new antenna and radome has been installed at the CSU-CHILL Radar Facility that will further improve the radar's ability to collect high quality data. Read the full story here.
- The Peter V. Hobbs Symposium will be held on 24 January as part of the AMS Annual meeting in New Orleans, LA. The Symposium will be chaired by Prof. Steven Rutledge and will consist of invited papers and a panel session, the latter organized by the AMS Committee on Cloud Physics.
- Reception for Alumni, Faculty, Students and Friends. Will be Tuesday, January 22, 2008 at 5:30-8:30 pm. Location will be at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside Hotel in the Melrose Room. For more information please contact Kim (at) atmos.colostate.edu or call 970-491-8360.
- CoCoRaHS, the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network out of Colorado State University, will begin its 10th year with the addition of 10 states in 2008 including Louisiana, which will be announced at the American Meteorological Society's Annual Meeting Jan. 20-24 in New Orleans. Read the full story here.
- Eric Maloney joins Atmospheric Science Faculty as Associate Professor. Eric comes to us from Oregon State University where he served on the faculty of the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences (COAS) since 2002. In 2006 he received the COAS Patullo Award for Excellence in teaching. Eric received his Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Washington in 2000. His research expertise is in the areas of tropical weather and climate variability and intraseasonal variations in the tropics.
- Nicole Lovenduski, who is a postdoctoral fellow in our department, has been selected to be one of the New Generation of Polar Researchers for the International Polar Year. Niki holds PhD from UCLA and conducts her research on the future of Antarctic climate and carbon cycle. Thirty-four scholars are selected from international and interdisciplinary community of polar scientists including full range of natural and social sciences. We as the department would like to congratulate Niki for the great award.
- Colette Heald joins Atmospheric Science faculty. Colette comes to CSU from UC-Berkeley, where she was a Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellow from 2006 to 2007. She received her Ph.D. from Harvard University in 2005. Colette's research interests are long-range transport of pollution, aerosol sources, composition, chemistry, and biogenic and anthropogenic influences on chemistry and climate. In 2006, Colette received the Paul Crutzen Award for the best paper at the Young Scientist's Conference on Global Change in Beijing.
- Dave Thompson will receive the 2008 AMS Meisinger Award at the AMS Annual Meeting in New Orleans, 20-24 January 2008. Full Story
- The Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University is seeking applicants for a tenure-track assistant or associate level faculty position in the areas of physics and/or dynamics of weather systems.
- Read about award-winning research conducted by students Amy Butler and Kirsten Koehler.
- Graduate students in the department presented the Professor of the Year award for 2007 to Dr. Chris Kummerow.
- Dr. Eric Maloney will be joining the department faculty as an Associate Professor in early 2008. Eric will come to us from Oregon State University, where he has served as an assistant professor since 2002. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Washingon while working with Dennis Hartmann and held a two-year post-doctoral position at NCAR in the ASP program. Eric's research focuses on processes that regulate tropical weather and climate variability. He has done considerable work on intraseasonal convective variability using both observations and general circulation models.
- Russ Schumacher won the 2nd place student oral presentation award at the AMS Weather and Forecasting/Numerical Weather Prediction Conference in Park City, Utah.
- The second Fire Lab At Missoula Experiment (FLAME II) was led by co-PIs Professor Sonia Kreidenweis and Professor Jeffrey Collett from May 21 through June 6 at the USDA/Forest Service Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory in Missoula, Montana. The primary goal of the FLAME project is to characterize particulate matter emissions from wildland fires relevant to visibility impairment and particulate matter air quality standards. A series of over 100 burns was conducted for a variety of wildland fuels, primarily from the western and southeastern U.S., and measurements were made to develop smoke emission composition profiles and key physical and optical properties of each smoke type. Project findings will support the needs of wildland fire managers and policy makers in determining the contributions of biomass burning to regional air quality degradation. FLAME is supported by the Joint Fire Science Program and is a cooperative effort between the National Park Service, the Forest Service's Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory, the University of Nevada Desert Research Institute and the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University, with participation from a number of outside investigators. More information is available here.
- Dr. Thomas Birner will be joining the department faculty as an Assistant Professor in early 2008. Thomas will come to us from the University of Toronto, where he is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Physics. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Munich in 2003. His current research pertains to the dynamics of the stratosphere and upper troposphere as well as the fine-scale structure of the extratropical tropopause.
- The department presented two awards to graduate students at the annual Herbert Riehl and Alumni Reception. Amy Butler received the 2007 Herbert Riehl Memorial Award for "Observed Relationships between the Southern Annular Mode and Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide" (Advisor: Dave Thompson). Kirsten Koehler received the 2007 Department Alumni Award for Outstanding Research by a Senior Ph.D. Student for "Owens (dry) Lake: Potential impacts of PM10 emissions to cloud development" (Advisor: Sonia Kreidenweis). Congratulations to Amy and Kirsten on their research that led to these awards!
- CloudSat, a satellite mission conceived by Colorado State University scientist Graeme Stephens, celebrated its first anniversary on Saturday as the world's most sensitive cloud-profiling radar in orbit. Please see the university press release for more information.
- Professor Wayne Schubert won the Jack E. Cermak Outstanding Advisor Award endowed in 1984 to honor excellence in academic advising including recognition by students and peers as an outstanding advisor; capacity to offer career as well as academic advising; interpersonal communication skills that lead to beneficial advising relationships; and contributions to the improvement of advising services and/or the appreciation of academic advising throughout the campus.
- Nolan Doesken, Colorado State Climatologist and director of CoCoRaHS, received the NOAA Environmental Hero Award at a ceremony held in Washington D.C. This award recognizes his leadership in developing CoCoRaHS, which began as a Colorado precipitation observation network and quickly grew into a national program. Appreciation also goes to others in the department who have made valuable contributions to developing the CoCoRaHS network, which has now become an important asset to the National Weather Service for weather forecasts and warnings. Please see the university press release for more information.
- Professor David Randall won the CSU College of Engineering George T. Abell Outstanding Faculty Research Award for 2007 at the ceremony held on April 12 at the Fort Collins Hilton.
- The Atmospheric Chemistry program secured 3 of 10 slots available in the U.S. for participation in the U.S/Nordic Biogenic Secondary Aerosol Workshop Series for young scientists who received their Ph.D. since 2001. Assistant professor Colette Heald, research scientist Markus Petters, and postdoctoral scientist Amy Sullivan were each selected for this honor. Their selection includes full support for participation in workshops in Finland in 2007 and Sweden in 2008. This is a terrific honor for these individuals and reflects well on the outstanding young scientists we are privileged to work with in the Atmospheric Chemistry program.
- Dr. Greg Holland, Director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Mesoscale & Microscale Meteorology (MMM) and 1983 Ph.D. graduate of the department, received the CSU College of Engineering Distinguished Alumnus Award for the Department of Atmospheric Science in a ceremony held at the Fort Collins Hilton.
- The department has recently published an updated alumni newsletter. Download the PDF version here.
- Florian Schwandner (Collett Group) will chair the WOVOdat 1st Technical Workshop of the World Organization of Volcano Observatories on site from February 7th through 9th.
- Professor Colette Heald, who will be joining our faculty in January 2008, received the Paul Crutzen Prize for the best paper at the International Young Scientists' Conference held in Beijing, China in November 2006. You can read more about it here.
- Several hundred alumni, prospective students, and friends attended the Department of Atmospheric Science annual reception on January 16 at the AMS Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas. While an ice storm paralyzed San Antonio during the meeting, a gathering of friends warmed things up at this annual department event.
- Dave Randall and Wayne Schubert of our Department, along with Chin-Hoh Moeng of NCAR, are organizing the Akio Arakawa Symposium to be held next Tuesday, January 16, at the AMS Annual Meeting at San Antonio, TX. Details of the program can be found here.
- Takamitsu (Taka) Ito will be joining the Department of Atmospheric Science faculty on January 15, 2007. Taka is an expert on ocean dynamics, global climate, and biogeochemical cycles. He received his Ph.D. at MIT and comes to us most recently from the University of Washington where he served as a Postdoctoral Fellow at JISAO. In 2005 he received MIT's Rossby Award for the most outstanding Ph.D. thesis in the Program in Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate. Welcome, Taka, to the Department of Atmospheric Science here at CSU.
- Professor Steven Rutledge will become an editor of the Journal of Atmospheric Sciences on January 1, 2007. He will handle papers in the general area of atmospheric physics for this journal.
- Dr. Richard Johnson will replace Dr. Steve Rutledge as the new Department Head on January 1, 2007. Please read Dr. Johnson's incoming statement and Dr. Rutledge's outgoing statement for more information.
- Join us for the Atmospheric Science Alumni Reception to take place in San Antonio, TX, on January 16 during the AMS National Meeting. See old friends, catch up with faculty members, and have a great time during an evening of fine food and drink from 5:30 to 8:30 at the Marriott Rivercenter in Salon M. We hope to see you there!
- Professor Steven Rutledge was re-elected to the UCAR Board of Trustees for a second 3-year term during the October 2006 UCAR members meeting in Boulder, CO.
- Becky Adams won the best student paper award at the Tenth Annual High Plains Conference held October 4-6 in Dodge City, Kansas.
- The National Science Foundation (NSF) today awarded Colorado State University and its partners a $19 million Science and Technology Center to build climate models that will more accurately depict cloud processes and improve climate and weather forecasting for scientists around the world. The NSF Science and Technology Center for Multi-Scale Modeling of Atmospheric Processes will be based at Colorado State in the College of Engineering's renowned Department of Atmospheric Science. David Randall, professor of atmospheric science since 1988, will serve as principal investigator and director of the center.
- Christopher Davey of the Desert Research Institute's Western Regional Climate Center was awarded the inaugural Ph.D. Dissertation Medal in Applied Climatology from the American Association of State Climatologists, or AASC, for his paper entitled "Differences between near-surface equivalent temperature and temperature trends for the Eastern United States." Christopher was recently a student in the CSU Atmospheric Science Ph.D. program.
- Dave Randall has received the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal. The NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal is the highest honor NASA awards to anyone who was not a government employee when the service was performed. The award is granted only to individuals whose distinguished accomplishments contributed substantially to the NASA mission. The contribution must be so extraordinary that other forms of recognition would be inadequate.
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