July 2017, and CIRES Administrative Support Has Been Central to Its Rapid Growth
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2018 Annual Report COOPERATIVE INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES COOPERATIVE INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES University of Colorado Boulder 216 UCB Boulder, CO 80309-0216 303-492-1143 [email protected] http://cires.colorado.edu CIRES Director Waleed Abdalati Annual Report Staff Katie Weeman, Editor Kathy Bogan, Design Karin Vergoth, Editor Katy Human, Director of Communications Agreement Nos. NA12OAR4320137 NA15OAR4320137 and NA17OAR4320101 Contents From the Director 2 People and Programs 11 Recognition & Reach 54 Research Highlights: Science in Fellows 12 Selected Awards 55 Service to Society 3 CIRES Centers 22 Events 58 Center for Limnology 23 This is CIRES 6 Media 61 Center for Science and Collaborations 7 Technology Policy Research 25 Project Reports 62 CIRES Structure 7 Earth Science and Observation Center 28 Appendices 127 Governance 8 Table of Contents 127 National Snow and Ice Finance 10 Data Center 30 Publications by the Numbers 127 Publications 127-150 Programs at CIRES 34 NOAA Active Awards 151 Earth Lab 35 Personnel 152 CIRES Education & Outreach 38 Goals 153 International Global Atmospheric Chemistry 40 Western Water Assessment 42 Other Institutional Program and Teams 44 Diversity and Inclusion 45 Diversity and Undergraduate Research 46 Graduate Student Research Awards 48 Innovative Research Program 49 Integrated Instrument Development Facility 50 Visiting Fellows 51 20182016 Annual Report 1 From the Director CIRES is now in its fifties, and judging by this year’s accomplishments, we are aging quite well. We had another outstanding year of scientific advances, support of the NOAA mission, service to the scientific community, and service to society. I want to extend my deepest appreciation to every member platforms, helped strengthen CIRES’ capabilities in personnel. As Director of Diversity and Inclusion, she of our team, from our scientists, engineers, and developers understanding and predicting Earth system change. I am supports search efforts to attract diverse pools of candidates, to our staff and students, who continue to make CIRES pleased to say that Earth Lab is emerging as a powerful and serves as a critical liaison to broader university and the great success that it is and an force in harnessing the power of big data to understand campus efforts. Dr. Sullivan’s efforts are helping turn organization of which we can our changing world, reduce environmental risk, and train CIRES’ strong commitment to diversity into meaningful all be very proud. The last next generation Earth scientists. As part of the university’s outcomes. year continued CIRES’ “Grand Challenge” investment, Earth Lab has hit the By numbers, CIRES is very strong. In addition to our half-century run of ground running, submitting 17 proposals in FY18, and numbers of publications and highly cited researchers, great achievement successfully competed to serve as the U.S. Geological we had nearly $93 million in expenditures last year. Our and service, whether Survey’s North Central Climate Science Center. This major funding came from diverse sources and supported an we measure achievement, which brings in $4.5 million in support from 875-person research enterprise. In FY18, CIRES scientists by funding, the USGS through 2023, provides another connection to brought in about one-sixth of the university’s research publications, a federal agency, nicely complementing our relationship funding. scientific impact, with NOAA and furthering our ability not just to conduct But ultimately, CIRES is about much more than the societal benefit, world-class research, but to provide usable information to numbers. CIRES is about understanding the world in media attention, or sponsors, stakeholders, and decision makers. which we live in ways that improve our lives and livelihoods other means. Many of our faculty and other scientists have established at the individual level; at local, state, and regional levels; The core of our effort is themselves as national and international leaders in their at the national level; and at the global level. We make the in support of NOAA—and fields, which is a major reason we help make CU Boulder world a better place, as we seek to better understand and our very successful review and such a strong force in the geosciences. And with nearly improve our relationship with our environment. recent five-year renewal indicate that 200 students in CIRES and dozens of postdocs and early we continue to serve that function well. Moreover, we have career scientists, our leadership role in the geosciences will continued to leverage NOAA’s investments in CIRES into continue well into the future. Our newest faculty hire, a very robust environmental research enterprise. With more Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies and CIRES than 700 peer-reviewed journal articles published in 2017, Fellow Dr. Matt Burgess, brings new capabilities to CIRES: and the fact that CIRES is home to 5 of CU Boulder’s expertise in environmental economics, promising to make 10 highly cited researchers (Clarivate Analytics), CIRES our environmental research portfolio even more robust continues to be instrumental in the ranking of CU Boulder with critical understanding of economic underpinnings and Waleed Abdalati as the #1 public university in the world in Geosciences consequences of environmental decisions. CIRES Director (U.S. News). This past year, we have also increased our investment The 2017 addition of Earth Lab, an initiative led by in diversity and inclusion. Dr. Susan Sullivan is working Assistant Professor of Geography Dr. Jennifer Balch to increase our exposure to underrepresented groups to capitalize on the data deluge from space and other and provide awareness and sensitivity workshops for our Photo: Glenn Asakawa/CU Boulder 2 2018 Annual Report Research Highlights: Science in Service to Society Arabidopsis thaliana floats in a petri dish. Photo: Luiza Parvu/CIRES The Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences is an CIRES has been helping NOAA achieve strategic goals by hiring and international leader in research, addressing some of the most pressing supporting some of the best and brightest Earth scientists and leveraging challenges facing the planet. Many of these challenges are priorities for NOAA investments with partnerships and funding from other NOAA, such as innovating new ways to better forecast severe weather institutions around the world. Here we highlight a few of the past year’s events that threaten lives and property and conducting climate research activities and successes as they align with NOAA’s Next Generation useful to decision makers, from local to international levels. Since its Strategic Plan. inception as one of NOAA’S first cooperative institutes 50 years ago, 2018 Annual Report 3 SCIENCE IN SERVICE TO SOCIETY WEATHER-READY NATION GOAL conditions that impact life, property, national security, and convection forecasts, identifying the best models for specific areas and situations. (GSD-06; page 114) • CIRES researchers in NOAA’s National Weather Service economic vitality. (SWPC-03; page 102) are working to improve the agency’s abilities • CIRES staff are part of a NOAA team thatverifies and CLIMATE ADAPTATION AND MITIGATION GOAL to forecast extreme rainfall and other high- evaluates forecast systems related to aviation that threaten lives and property. For • As part of the Fire Influence on Regional to Global impact events safety, such as icing, turbulence, and convection forecasts. example, CIRES staff support critical weather forecasting Environments Experiment and Air Quality (FIREX- CIRES scientists have completed assessments of an icing experiments (e.g., Winter Weather Experiment and Flash AQ) campaign, CIRES scientists led extensive product for the Federal Aviation Administration in Alaska; Flood and Intense Rainfall Experiment) with objective measurements of wildfire fuel emissions during verification, increasing efficiency, and standardization. have begun evaluation of the Ceiling and Visibility analysis experiments at the Fire Science Laboratory in Missoula, And CIRES staff have designed new methods to visualize products for helicopter emergency medical services; and Montana. Those measurements have improved our weather predictions, to help forecasters quickly identify evaluated the performance of various turbulence and understanding of smoke composition and the processes when a rainfall event has the potential to become extreme. governing the variability of the emission; results will help (NWS-01/NWS-02; page 102) guide upcoming field work to study biomass burning emissions and their impact on climate, air quality, and • CIRES and NOAA scientists led a groundbreaking ultimately, human health. (CSD-04; page 67) study that revealed that VOCs from household and industrial products now rival motor vehicle- • A CIRES scientist in NOAA’s Chemical Sciences Division related emissions as the top source of urban air chairs the internationally recognized Tropospheric pollution. Their continued efforts are helping form a big Ozone Assessment Report, a global effort involving picture of the evolution of air quality, informing decision 230 scientists from more than 30 nations. The TOAR makers about the likely effectiveness of emissions control Surface Ozone Database was made public in August efforts in a changing world. (CSD-04; page 67) 2017, providing researchers around the world with comprehensive ozone data and metrics to conduct research. • CIRES researchers work to