Image credit: NASA

Experts available: American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting 2022

Chicago  Online everywhere Dec. 12–16

The American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting begins Monday, Dec. 12 in Chicago and online. Top earth and planetary scientists from CU Boulder will present their research at this conference, from new findings on transporting freeze-dried algal mats in space to the drivers of wildfire-related home losses over the past two decades. Media are invited to register for and attend AGU. 

CU Boulder's earth sciences and atmospheric science disciplines ranked No. 1 and No. 2 globally in the ShanghaiRanking Consultancy’s 2022 Global Ranking of Academic Subjects (GRAS). Find more experts and story ideas through the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), a partnership of NOAA and the University of Colorado Boulder. 

Earth sciences contact: Kelsey Simpkins, CU Boulder media relations

CU Boulder receives more NASA funding than any other public university in the country. Learn more about the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at AGU 2022.

Space sciences contact: Daniel Strain, CU Boulder media relations

Press events

 Press events will take place in the Press Conference Room (N228) or Roundtable Room (N231) and stream live through Zoom, accessed through the online AGU meeting platform.

Press Conference: NOAA 2022 Arctic Report Card
 Tuesday, Dec. 13
 10:00 a.m. CST
Featuring Matthew Druckenmiller, research scientist at the National Snow & Ice Data Center (NSIDC) and lead editor of the Arctic Report Card.

Briefing: Debate: Which Future Climate Scenario Deserves Center Stage?
 Thursday, Dec. 15
 10:00 a.m. CST
Featuring Matt Burgess, assistant professor of environmental studies, faculty affiliate in economics and fellow at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES). 

 

Research news

Earth from space with volcanic ash in the atmosphere

LASP scientists to present Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai research at AGU

In January 2022, the islands of Hunga Tonga and Hunga Ha’apai, 65 kilometers north of Tonga’s main island of Tongatapu, disappeared below the sea surface in a cataclysmic eruption. Since then, scientists have been unraveling both the short- and long-term impacts of the eruption, which range from the depths of the seafloor to the ionosphere.

Green algae under the microscope

These freeze-drying algae can awaken from cryostasis, could help spaceflights go farther

Featuring research by Diane McKnight, Distinguished Professor of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering and at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) on algal mats, which survive extreme conditions in Antarctica by entering a freeze-dried state. Researchers collected the green algae that survive there and grew them in the lab to assess their applications for spaceflight.