Research Topics
Descriptions of the research projects available for the 2024 Summer REU program can be found below.
2024 Research Topics
Advisor: Weiqing Han
Topic: Marine heatwaves and compounding sea level surges in the South Indian Ocean
Advisor: Julia Moriarty
Topic: Analyzing the Circulation of Arctic Back-Barrier Lagoons with Implications for Nutrient Transport
Advisor: Ben Li
Topic: Developing a novel analytical method for atmosphere and seawater nitrate isotopic analysis using an isotope ratio mass spectrometer
Advisor: Laura Sunberg
Topic: Microplastic transport in coastal regions
Advisor: Andrew Winters
Topic: Atmospheric characteristics of Antarctic Atmospheric Rivers OR Recent Trends in Polar–Subtropical Jet Stream Superpositions
Advisor: Xinyue Wang
Topic: How do submarine volcanic eruptions change stratospheric climate?
Advisor: Jeff Weiss
Topic: Using simple energy balance models to understand climates of complex systems
Advisor: Arianna Varuolo-Clarke
Topic: Exploring the seasonality of precipitation
Please take a look at the project descriptions from our 2021 and 2022 REU for an idea of previous subject areas!
2022 Research Topics
Patterns of warming and cooling in an Aqua Planet
Advisor: Pedro DiNezio
Global climate has warmed and cooled over the course of Earth's history, but these changes are not spatially uniform resulting in large changes in rainfall across the tropics. In this project we will use numerical simulations of an Aqua planet to explore how patterns of warming and cooling are generated. This idealized setup will allow to isolate fundamental mechanisms driving changes in atmospheric circulation and clouds and their influence on rainfall and climate sensitivity.
How is Arctic heat changing?
Advisor: Jennifer Kay
In recent decades, the Arctic surface has warmed more than any other location on Earth. These recent Arctic changes include not only a warmed surface but also big changes to the balance of incoming and outgoing energy (the Arctic energy budget), Arctic sea ice, and extreme Arctic weather events. In this project, we will assess the energy budget of the Arctic using satellite observations available since 2001. We will calculate changes to the Arctic energy budget including the amount of sunlight that has been absorbed and the amount of radiation heat emitted back to space. We will then compare these Arctic values to their global equivalents. We will also assess the frequency and occurrence of Arctic heat waves at the surface and how those relate to the Arctic energy budget. We will also explore hypotheses to explain the changes that we have been observing. In summary, we aim to understand using data how Arctic heat is changing and why.
Ocean biogeochemistry from large-eddy simulations
Advisor: Nikki Lovenduski
Our project focuses on high resolution modeling of ocean biogeochemical reactive tracers. The participating student will use existing output from a large-eddy simulation of reactive carbonate species. He/she/they will quantify spatiotemporal variations in pH and carbonate saturation state at small scales, while considering these variations in the context of ocean acidification. Results from the student’s analysis can be used to forward our project goals and spawn new ideas for future work.
Hold on tight! Triggers for atmospheric turbulence in hilly regions
Advisor: Julie Lundquist
To improve weather forecasting, predictions of pollution dispersion, wind energy forecasting, and our ability to use small aircraft or drones, we need to predict atmospheric turbulence at small scales. We’ve collected datasets of turbulence, winds, and temperature profiles in hilly terrain, and we are analyzing these data to identify triggers for turbulence events. The student will read in these observations to help identify relationships between wind and temperature profiles and turbulence mixing events.
It's a bumpy ride! Modeling atmospheric turbulence in mountainous regions
Advisor: Julie Lundquist
To improve weather forecasting, predictions of pollution dispersion, wind energy forecasting, and our ability to use small aircraft or drones, we need to predict atmospheric turbulence at small scales. We’ve collected datasets of turbulence dissipation rate in mountainous regions of the western United States, and are now ready to compare simulations of this turbulence to the observations to identify the optimal approaches. The student will read in weather forecast data for flows in complex terrain and compare model predictions of turbulence to observed turbulence in order to assess when our simulations work well and when they break.
Satellite Observations for Studying Earth's Climate
Advisor: Peter Pilewskie
The Earth's climate is determined in part by the inflow of energy from the Sun and outflow from the Earth in the form of reflected solar radiation and emitted infrared radiation. Data from instruments on satellites in orbit that measure these quantities are used to construct climate records that track the changes in energy flow over time. Scientists at the University of Colorado's Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences are working on new NASA missions to not only improve the measurements of Earth's energy budget but also to develop new methods that use space observations to better understand the role of clouds in climate. The REU candidate will work with satellite and aircraft measurements to assist with Earth energy budget analysis and cloud remote sensing applications. Students will work with data from NASA CERES, MODIS, and VIIRS satellite sensors and data from the NASA AVIRIS airborne sensor to better understand how to improve our future satellite missions and to develop new techniques for extracting information about cloud properties.
Global Mixed-phase Cloud Distributions
Advisor: Zhien Wang
The importance of Mixed-phase clouds: Observations show that the Arctic is warming at approximately twice the pace of the rest of the globe. The fast increase in Arctic temperature led to a rapid arctic sea ice decrease during the last 40 years. The changing Arctic also impacts low and middle latitude weather and climate. There are significant intermodal variations in predicted future changes in Polar regions. In the Polar regions, high albedo snow/ice surface makes cloud radiative feedback processes more complicated than the lower latitude regions, and polar clouds are dominated by mixed-phase clouds. Therefore, a better understanding of mixed-phase clouds is urgently needed to better predict the future earth climate. The data source: CloudSat 2B-CLDCLASS-Lidar and ECMWF-AUX Analysis goals: 1) Document global distributions of mixed-phase clouds, 2) Characterize their seasonal and spatial variations.
Winter precipitation
Advisor: Andrew Winters
When temperatures are near freezing during a winter storm, a variety of precipitation types can be observed at the surface. These precipitation types include rain, drizzle, freezing rain, freezing drizzle, snow, and ice pellets, each of which can have considerable impacts on aviation, road transportation, power utilities, ecology, and hydrology. To address these impacts, observations of near-freezing precipitation events were collected in the Montreal, QC, area during Feb–Mar 2022 as part of the Winter Precipitation Type Multi-Scale Experiment (WINTRE-MIX). This project will focus on using observations collected during WINTRE-MIX to better understand the atmospheric conditions associated with winter storms under near-freezing conditions and their predictability, with the goal of improving forecasts of near-freezing precipitation events in the future.
2021 Research Topics
Hold on tight! Atmospheric turbulence in mountainous regions
Advisor: Julie Lundquist
To improve weather forecasting, predictions of pollution dispersion, wind energy forecasting, and our ability to use small aircraft or drones, we need to predict atmospheric turbulence at small scales. We’ve collected datasets of turbulence dissipation rate in mountainous regions of the western United States, and are now ready to compare simulations of this turbulence to the observations. The student will use Python to read in weather forecast data (from the numerical weather prediction model WRF) for flows in complex terrain and compare model predictions of turbulence to ground-based lidar observations of turbulence in order to assess when our simulations work well and when they… need improvement. If interested, the student is also welcome to carry out new simulations using WRF to test new parameterizations of turbulence.
How do small-scale ocean circulations affect ocean biogeochemistry?
Advisor: Nikki Lovenduski
There is growing evidence that marine life is shaped by short-lived, small-scale currents that are difficult to observe and difficult to model. Exactly how small-scale currents influence marine ecosystems is still under debate. The primary goal of the project is to investigate how small-scale ocean circulation affects ocean biogeochemistry using data collected from cruises monitoring the southern portion of the California Current System. The participant will work to characterize small scale spatial variability in surface ocean chlorophyll concentration (a measure of phytoplankton abundance). The participant will also use observations of subsurface velocity to relate small scale velocity structure to chlorophyll variance.
How does the polar vortex influence gravity waves?
Advisors: Cora Randall and Lynn Harvey
The Arctic polar vortex is a band of strong westerly winds that forms in the stratosphere between about 10 and 30 miles above the North Pole every winter. The winds enclose a large pool of extremely cold air. (There is an even stronger polar vortex in the Southern Hemisphere stratosphere in its winter.) The stronger the winds, the more the air inside is isolated from warmer latitudes, and the colder it gets. Waves in the upper atmosphere probably influence the behavior of the polar vortex. The student will use gridded reanalysis data together with satellite observations of temperature covariance to assess the relationship between the polar vortex and gravity waves.
How did melting ice sheets affect the connections between the Arctic Ocean and the North Atlantic?
Advisors: Alexandra Jahn
This project will explore paleoclimate records. The overall project has the goal to discover the timing and consequences of the opening of the western gateway for Arctic freshwater to the Labrador Sea. The student will analyze model simulations to investigate the oceanographic changes occurring in Baffin Bay (part of the Arctic Ocean) as result of the opening of Nares Strait to the Atlantic west of Greenland during the deglaciation.
How do chemistry and dynamics affect the Asian Summer Monsoon?
Advisor: Brian Toon
The Asian monsoon is a large-scale system referring to a seasonal shift in winds and precipitation. Precipitation changes often exert an enormous influence on agriculture, ecosystems, and economies in a densely populated part of the globe. Aerosols (fine particles suspended in the air), often sourced from smoke, pollution, volcanic eruptions and other sources can influence the behavior of the Asian monsoon — dynamically and chemically. In this project, the participant will investigate how aerosol chemistry and dynamics affect the Asian Summer Monsoon using climate model output and observational data. The student will learn to identify the layers of the atmosphere and explain the impacts of smoke and aerosols in the stratosphere.
How do Weather Events Change the Upper Ocean?
Advisor: Donata Giglio
The global array of Argo floats profile the oceans to record temperature, salinity, pressure, and an emerging set of biogeochemical measurements. This summer project will use Argo floats data, through Argovis, to quantify how weather events change the temperature, salinity, and biogeochemical characteristics of the upper ocean.
Earth’s energy budget and climate change
Advisor: Jennifer Kay
Earth’s climate system works to maintain a balance between 1) the solar energy entering the system and 2) the energy that Earth reflects or radiates back out to space — this balance is often called Earth’s radiation budget. Some of the important processes that influence Earth’s radiation budget can be difficult to observe or model. In this project, the participant will use observations and climate models to better understand Earth’s top of the atmosphere (TOA) energy budget (including short-wave and long-wave radiation, and cloud radiative effects). The participant will also work to understand the factors that influence the TOA energy budget, and how they might lead to differences between models and observations.