Department of Atmospheric Science Volume 4, December 2008 Greetings, Alumni New Faculty Join Department and Friends! Sue van den Heever “I would describe my research areas elcome to our 2008 as convective storms, mesoscale annual newsletter. We modeling, and aerosol impacts,” Whave witnessed major says Sue van den Heever. Her changes in the Department in primary research interest is the the past few years, highlighted investigation of convective storms. by the arrival of five new faculty: She uses numerical models in order Takamitsu Ito in 2007 and Colette to better understand such systems. Heald, Eric Maloney, Sue van den She is also researching the impact Heever, and Thomas Birner in 2008. of aerosols on the microphysical This exceptional group of new and precipitation properties of faculty brings to the Department a these storms, as well as on the storm broad range of expertise in both the dynamics, including the severity of oceanic and atmospheric sciences. a storm and the strength of the updraft. Their research activities are featured in both this and last year’s Van den Heever’s research goals include simulating systems editions of the newsletter. like supercell storms, squall lines, and mesoscale convective Foremost among the milestones of the past year have been systems in order to further understand the relationships between continued, significant research advances in our field associated storm dynamics and microphysics and the role of the cold pool with the completion of 18 master’s and 14 doctoral degrees in in such systems. A related research focus is to enhance our 2008. Exciting data continue to pour in from CloudSat, now into understanding of the impact of dust and aerosols on severe its third year of operation. The Center for Multiscale Modeling convective storms and their feedbacks using cloud-resolving of Atmospheric Processes (CMMAP) is making major strides models. in representing the effects of clouds in global climate models. Van den Heever flew as a flight scientist in the P3 into storms Ground was broken in Spring 2008 on a new building to house over Florida. The field program she participated in was called CMMAP scientists and staff. The NSF CHILL National Weather “CRYSTAL FACE” and was sponsored by NASA. Van den Heever Radar facility in Greeley upgraded its antenna to allow improved participated in the program over a period of several weeks. “We detection of storms and precipitation. The atmosphere, aerosol, were bounced around, it was very interesting and exciting,” says and cloud chemistry groups are making headway on difficult Van den Heever. While they were making flights into storms, atmospheric chemistry problems through field campaigns, there was a Saharan dust event in Florida. “We were fortunate, laboratory work, and numerical modeling. Finally, 2008 has seen we had convection and dust. Not only did we get to examine the the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network characteristics of tropical convective storms, we also got to look (CoCoRaHS) grow to 36 states and more than 10,000 observers. at the impact of Saharan dust on those storms,” says Van den Atmospheric Science students, staff, and faculty continue to Heever. advance the frontiers in many areas of our field. Our graduates Van den Heever earned her M.S. at the University of the continue to find challenging leadership positions around the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. She came to country and world. I invite all graduates and friends to attend the Colorado State initially because of the work Bill Cotton was Atmospheric Science Reception at the AMS Annual Meeting on doing in the area of severe storms and cloud resolving models. Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2009, 5:30-8:00 p.m., in Phoenix. Van den Heever earned her Ph.D. at CSU in 2001. She admits to a lifelong interest in weather, beginning at age three when she asked her mother, “Why do the clouds stay up in the sky, why don’t they fall down?” Richard Johnson continued on Page 2 Alumni Reception Join us for the Atmospheric Science Alumni Reception in Phoenix, Ariz., Jan. 13, 2009, during the AMS Annual Meeting. See old friends, catch up with faculty members, and have a great time during an evening of hors d’oeuvres and drinks from 5:30-8:00 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency Phoenix, in the Cowboy Artist Room. New Faculty Join Department continued from Page 1 Colette Heald “One of my overarching research goals is a better Colette Heald’s research focus understanding of what controls tropical precipitation, why is bringing together models and precipitation occurs in one area and not in another. Our climate observations to better understand models don’t do particularly well in simulating some aspects atmospheric composition as it of tropical precipitation. Improving our model simulations is relates to climate and air quality. one of my goals, and this includes a strong interest in ocean/ “As an atmospheric chemist, I atmospheric interactions,” says Maloney. am interested in how gases and Maloney earned his Ph.D. at the University of Washington, particles get into the atmosphere, Seattle. “I was attracted to Colorado State’s Department of how they are transformed and Atmospheric Science by the overall quality of the faculty and lost, and their ultimate impact on graduate students here,” says Maloney. Maloney was also air quality and the global climate attracted to CSU by the CMMAP Project. One of CMMAP’s system. This involves understanding goals is to improve the parameterization of clouds in climate both the natural atmosphere and models. how human activities have perturbed this system. To learn about Maloney said he became fascinated with weather growing the composition of the atmosphere, I use observations from up as a kid. “I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, a place of satellites, aircraft, and ground stations to try to understand what interesting weather extremes. It has blizzards, hail, tornados – processes are missing from our state-of-the-art models,” says I once videotaped a tornado from my own front yard,” says Heald. Maloney. Heald’s research goals are to advance our understanding of the global composition of the atmosphere and to investigate Thomas Birner the interactions between the biosphere and atmospheric Thomas Birner’s main research composition. interest is in the global tropopause Heald is from Canada, and her undergraduate work was in region. This is the area of engineering physics at Queen’s University. She earned her Ph.D. intersection between the turbulent in earth and planetary science from Harvard in 2005, and she was troposphere and the stably stratified a NOAA Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellow at the stratosphere. University of California at Berkeley. “This is a very delicate region Heald says she came to CSU because, “the Department of that is only a few kilometers thick Atmospheric Science has a very strong graduate program. There and has distinctive chemical and are a large number of talented people here at one location. It dynamical characteristics. For makes for an exciting environment in which to do research.” example, the tropical tropopause Heald credits her sister’s work in aerospace engineering with determines how much water inspiring her to pursue a career in the engineering sciences. It vapor gets into the stratosphere and this water vapor is a very was a summer internship, working for an atmospheric scientist important greenhouse gas,” says Birner. at the University of Toronto, that prompted her interest in “My approach is to look at the tropical tropopause, from the atmospheric science. top down. I want to understand what’s happening lower down to “We have so much to learn about the processes controlling see how it affects what’s higher up. I’d like to understand why we the composition of the atmosphere, and there are so many have such a layer and what the dynamics of that layer are,” says exciting problems to work on. In addition, atmospheric science Birner. impacts people and their lives, and there is a real need for people Birner is from Germany, completed his Ph.D. at the University to understand how the atmosphere works. This is what energizes of Munich and did research at the German Aerospace Center. He me about coming to work in the morning,” says Heald. did postdoctoral work at the University of Toronto in Canada where he worked on cloud resolving simulations, among other Eric Maloney research topics. “I would call myself a tropical Birner said he was attracted to Colorado State by the meteorologist. Much of my focus prominent strength of the Department, in particular Dave has been on a subseasonal time Thompson’s work. “I also had a chance to meet Wayne Schubert. scale variability, hurricanes, and El Like many other faculty members, Thompson and Schubert are Nino.” Eric Maloney worked on the both widely known and outstanding at what they are doing. I tropical subseasonal variability of think the Department of Atmospheric Science is a great place, winds and precipitation that occur and I thought I should give it a try,” says Birner. on 30- to 60-day time scales, when Birner is in the process of relocating his family from he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Germany. He and his wife, Katrin, have a two-year-old daughter, National Center for Atmospheric and seven months ago, they became the proud parents of triplets, Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo., two boys and one girl. “We won the lottery, but not the lottery from 2000 to 2002. one expects,” says Birner. 2 Department OF Atmospheric SCIENCE Student Fellowships Thank You to the Following and Awards 2008-2009 2007-2008 Benefactors Alumni Award: Eric Hendricks Robert F.