ATOC in the News

Could one volcanic eruption skew the data on rising sea levels? Yes, according to new research.

One of the great things about science is that it allows you to make predictions. Three top climate scientists just made a very bold prediction regarding sea level rise; we should know in a few years if they are correct.

The “job” that kicked off Matthew Shupe’s career is unforgettable, and so are some of the experiences he has had since, including one that was “straight out of National Geographic.”

Congratulations to ATOC graduate student Laura Mazzaro, who won the "Best Student Oral Presentation" award at the American Meteorological Society's 22nd Symposium on Boundary Layers and Turbulence in Salt Lake City earlier this summer. Her talk was on nesting large-eddy simulations within mesoscale simulations, a technique that is critical for wind energy, fire weather, pollution dispersion, and numerous other applications. Her coauthors were Julie Lundquist and NCAR scientist Domingo Muñoz-Esparza.

Boulder Preparatory students gathered in a field outside the Gunbarrel high school on Wednesday to help launch a weather balloon. The students, who are taking a class on meteorology, watched the balloon ascend until it was about the size of a grain of rice, then went to their classroom to track its progress recorded by an attached GPS system.

Congratulations to ATOC Assistant Professor Jen Kay, who has won an NSF CAREER award for her project, "Going Global - The Influence of Southern Ocean Albedo on Large-scale Climate Dynamics." The NSF CAREER program "offers the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations."

At its regular meeting on Thursday and Friday at the University Memorial Center on the Boulder campus, the University of Colorado Board of Regents approved two new bachelor's degrees in the School of Education and one in the College of Arts & Sciences Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences.

ATOC Research Associate Dr. John Fasullo, was recently highlighted as one of the most influential papers published in the journal Nature Climate Change since its inception 5 years ago. The highlight takes the form of a News & Views article by Shang-Ping Xie (see http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v6/n4/full/nclimate2973.html for the review and http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v1/n7/full/nclimate1229.html for the original article itself).

Active on social media? Care about weather? If the answer is ‘yes,’ the University of Colorado Boulder and the National Weather Service (NWS) want your help investigating large surface hail accumulations from thunderstorms in Colorado between April and September.

Changes in the terrestrial water balance are expected in many regions, but small islands remain difficult to assess. Research now reveals a tendency towards increased aridity in over 73% of island groups (home to around 16 million people) by the mid-century.