Research News

Cold Pool Collisions

In a recently published JAS paper, Nick and Sue simulated thousands of cold pool collisions to test how different environmental factors influence the forcing for new convection.

Controls on Congestus

A new paper led by Bee found that midlevel moisture is the most important factor in determining which congestus continue to develop into deeper convection.

Aerosol Breezes

In a recently published paper, Bee demonstrated how a circulation can be driven by differences in heating due to an aerosol gradient. This phenomenon was termed an “aerosol breeze.”



Group News

2024

March 1: Christine wins a second place Outstanding Student Presentation Award at the High Plains AMS/NWA Conference. Her talk titled “Cold Pool Trains in the Colorado Plains” discussed the effects of the passage of successive cold pools which do not collide (a cold pool train). Christine found that cold pool trains are highly variable, that the first cold pool in a train can stratify the environment and thus speed up the second cold pool, and that the time between passage of cold pools in a train is critical. Congratulations Christine! This is her second student presentation award!

Christine presenting her talk!

February 29 - March 1: Christine, Rachael, and Nick all attend the High Plains AMS/NWA Conference in North Platte.

Jaunary 29 - February 2: Sue, Jennie, IT, and Charles all attend AMS in Baltimore.

2023

December 11-14: Sue, Bee, Nick, Rick, Brenda, Randy, and Steve all attend AGU in San Francisco.

December 13: Bee's research on the impact of Southeast Asian deforestation on clouds is highlighted in an EOS article.

December 4: Ben successfully (and musically) defends his master's thesis “Effects of Land Surface-Atmosphere Interactions Within Two Convective Storm Regimes”. Congratulations Ben! Ben will now be pursuing his PhD at Ludwig Maximilian University in Germany!

October 2: Bee and Nick launch a radiosonde as a demonstration for an undergraduate atmospheric science class at CSU. Thank you to the class TAs Ivy Glade and Lexi Sherman for inviting us!

Bee and Nick talking to the class about radiosondes.
Bee and Nick preparing the balloon.

September 8: Christine successfully defends her master's thesis “Cold Pool Train Dynamics and Transport”. Congratulations Christine! Christine will be staying in the group to pursue her PhD!