ATOC in the News

"People just grabbed whatever they could carry and went," said atmospheric scientist Josh Wurman, director of the Center for Severe Weather Research (CSWR) in Boulder, Colorado. Wurman should know. He and scientist Karen Kosiba, also of CSWR, were running the wrong way, heading for ground zero, where Harvey's fury would roar onshore. They weren't alone. A National Science Foundation (NSF) Doppler-on-Wheels (DOW) was with them.

Dr. John Cassano has posted a couple of plots showing the temperature and solar radiation observed by the ATOC weather stations during the eclipse on Monday. I've also posted a video of the total eclipse as seen from Douglas, WY and a couple of satellite animation perspectives of the eclipse on my weather web page at http://atoc.colorado.edu/~cassano/weather/201708_eclipse/index.html .

Tremendous amounts of soot, lofted into the air from global wildfires following a massive asteroid strike 66 million years ago, would have plunged Earth into darkness for nearly two years, according to a news release from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). This event would have shut down photosynthesis, drastically cooled the planet and contributed to the mass extinction that marked the end of the age of dinosaurs.

A solar instrument package designed and built by CU Boulder and considered a key tool to help monitor the planet’s climate has arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a targeted November launch.

An Americans Airlines flight from Greece to Philadelphia encountered "severe turbulence" shortly before landing Saturday that was so violent 10 people were taken to a local hospital for evaluation, the airline said.

President-elect Donald Trump in December grabbed the attention of nuclear weapons experts and others across the world by commenting in a television interview, "Let it be an arms race."

Scientists and students led by CU Boulder and Rutgers University are calculating the environmental and human impacts of a potential nuclear war using the most sophisticated scientific tools available. The lead researchers, CU Boulder Professor Brian Toon and Rutgers Professor Alan Robock, have been studying the threat in-depth for decades.

Congratulations to ATOC faculty Kristopher Karnauskas (Ocean Scientists early Career Award) and Jan Lenaerts (Cryosphere Early Career Award) who have received accolades from groups representing their disciplines within the American Geophysical Union (AGU), the world’s largest Earth and space science society. They have been chosen for this recognition for their innovative research, important contributions to promoting better understanding of their scientific fields, and meritorious work and service to their communities

THE RESEARCHERS HAD ALREADY DONE FOUR FLIGHTS, earlier in January, before they saw the first hints of what they were looking for. The crew of meteorologists, atmospheric scientists, and students had converged near Idaho’s Snake River Basin, a horseshoe-shaped depression between ranges of the Rocky Mountains that is 125 miles at its widest point.

"Your question about mermaids in an excellent one," the letter started, which was printed on official CU letterhead. "I'm glad you decided to ask our department for the answer."