Colloquia for Spring 2026
CSU Atmospheric Science Spring Student Celebration
May 07, 2026
Various Students
Hosted by the Department
CSU Atmospheric Science Spring Student Celebration
Ocean Heat Uptake Shapes the Pace-And Persistence-Of Climate Warming
April 30, 2026
Emily Newsom
Hosted by Maria Rugenstein
The global ocean absorbs most excess heat from greenhouse gas forcing, yet how that uptake governs surface warming from decades to centuries remains unclear. We use ocean heat uptake efficiency (OHUE)—the ratio of ocean heat uptake to global-mean surface temperature change—as a diagnostic of the ocean’s capacity to transport and store heat at depth, and link OHUE variations to ocean…
Giant Cloud Condensation Nuclei (GCCN) Dampen Precipitation Susceptibility to Submicron Aerosol
April 23, 2026
Robert Wood
Hosted by Christine Chiu
This presentation examines the role of giant cloud condensation nuclei (GCCN)—large, hygroscopic aerosol particles, primarily sea salt—in regulating warm rain formation in marine low clouds. Using theory, observations, and a new minimal Lagrangian cloud model, we show that aerosol impacts on precipitation depend strongly on particle size, not just number concentration. While submicron…
Cultural Jamboree
April 16, 2026
Phoebe Lin, "Navigating the Atmospheric Sciences as an Asian American Student" A Research Project Manager, "Growing up in Italy and Italy/US Cultural Differences" Mayumi de Andrade Miyazato, "Demystifying Brazilian Miscegenation"
Hosted by Department
Cultural Jamboree
The Role of Public-Private-Philanthropic Partnerships in Driving the Next Decade of Carbon Cycle and Climate Science Enterprise
April 09, 2026
Abhishek Chatterjee
Hosted by Chris O'Dell
Future climate predictions and societal responses to climate change require a comprehensive understanding of carbon-climate feedbacks and changes to the carbon cycle. This understanding is fundamentally tied to our ability to track and quantify the sources and sinks of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4), as well as their variability and future dynamics. Over the last decade,…
A Community Centered Approach to Air Quality Challenges - Insights From the Field
April 02, 2026
Milena Guajardo
Hosted by Emily Fischer and Melissa Burt
Air quality research often focuses on what we can measure, but meaningful impact requires understanding the full context of people's lives. This presentation shares insights from community-centered work at the intersection of atmospheric science and environmental justice, with a focus on wildfire smoke and oil and gas emissions in disproportionately impacted communities. Drawing from firsthand…
Known Unknowns of Regional Hydroclimate Change Projections
March 26, 2026
Flavio Lehner
Hosted by Maria Rugenstein
While warming targets and carbon mitigation policies are often discussed at global levels, climate change impacts and adaptation unfold at local to regional scales. When zooming into those scales, uncertainties in climate change projections grow and can complicate decision making. Here, we source these uncertainties and provide examples of how they play out in a few case studies focused on the…
The Fingerprint of Evapotranspiration: Quantifying Moisture Source Impacts on Hydroclimate Variability and Drought Risk
January 22, 2026
Yan Jiang
Hosted by Dien Wu
Precipitation regimes over global croplands are sustained by complex moisture transport pathways from land and ocean. Since oceanic and terrestrial evaporation regulate rainfall patterns and seasonality in distinct ways, disturbances in these sources can expose downwind croplands to different hydrological risks. Beyond traditional climate and hydrological modeling, a key question for food…
A Unified Scaling Framework for Drop Size Distributions: Single or Double Moments?
January 15, 2026
GyuWon Lee
Hosted by Michael Bell and Kristen Rasmussen
Drop size distributions (DSDs) are fundamental to advancing our understanding of precipitation microphysics and improving quantitative precipitation estimation and forecasting. Since Marshall and Palmer (1948) parameterized DSDs using a single-parameter exponential function, their explicit representation has become a key component of both remote sensing retrievals and numerical weather…