Nicholas Dietrich

I’m a third year PhD student in the Aerospace Engineering Sciences Department at CU (Fall 2019-current). I completed my undergraduate degree at the University of Florida in Aerospace Engineering with minors in Math and Physics. In undergrad, I worked on multiple satellite projects including DebriSat which sought to improve satellite break-up models and LISA which seeks to measure low-frequency gravitational waves caused by massive cosmic events. In summer 2017, I was fortunate to have interned in Japan with Hitachi-Ge to design nuclear power plants. In summer 2019, I interned at Saber Astronautics to develop a mission control software for the Air Force to provide easy to learn visualization tools for space mission operations. Currently, I am investigating forecast improvements for thermospheric neutral densities to improve satellite orbit prediction.

Awards:

CU Boulder Aerospace Excellence Award, 2019

CU Boulder College of Engineering Dean's Fellowship, 2019

Conference Presentations:

Dietrich, N., T. Matsuo, and C.-T. Hsu (2021), Qualifying and Reducing Neutral Density Uncertainty for Precise Orbit Determination using Physics-Based Data Assimilations, Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies (AMOS) Conference, September 14-17, Maui, Hawaii.

Dietrich, N., T. Matsuo, and C.-T. Hsu (2021), Coupled Thermosphere-Ionosphere Assimilative Modeling of Global Neutral Densities Using COSMIC Radio Occultation Data (iPoster), CEDAR Workshop, June 20-25, Virtual.

Dietrich, N., T. Matsuo, and C.-T. Hsu (2021), Estimating Localization Parameters for Assimilating COSMIC Radio Occultation Data to Estimate Neutral Density, The International EnKF Workshop, June 7-9, Virtual.

Dietrich, N., T. Matsuo, and C.-T. Hsu (2020), Thermospheric Neutral Density Specification and Forecasting via Driver Estimation and Assimilation of COSMIC Radio Occultation Data, AGU Fall Meeting, Virtual.

Dietrich, N., T. Matsuo, and C.-T. Hsu (2020), Thermospheric Neutral Density Estimation via Assimilation of COSMIC-2 Radio Occultation Data (Prerecorded Video), CEDAR Workshop, Virtual.