Identifying storms that produce tornadoes
An ASP postdoctoral researcher, Huaqing Cai, is working on a technique that could help forecasters identify the storms most likely to spin up tornadoes. It involves applying fractal geometry to mesocyclones. More>

Random Profile: Raisa Leifer
Before becoming a computer operator in the United States, SCD's Raisa Leifer taught Russian language and literature in her native Ukraine. More>

A fast way to measure PAN
It’s been more than four decades since scientists became aware of PAN, a chemical in the atmosphere associated with ground-level ozone. But they could never devise a way to quickly measure it—until now. More>

Commuter of the Year
The City of Boulder has named SCD’s Jim Van Dyke as the transit winner in its annual Commuter of the Year awards. A Littleton resident, Jim commutes via bus, light rail, UCAR shuttle, and sometimes his bicycle. More>

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Movers hoist the engineering model of the High Resolution Dynamics Limb Sounder (HIRDLS) instrument into CG2, where it will be housed in the computer room. The engineering model is very similar in size, weight, and functionality to the actual instrument that is scheduled to be launched this month aboard NASA’s Aura spacecraft. In particular, the electronics and onboard computers are the same. If ACD’s John Gille and others in the HIRDLS group need to send new commands to the instrument during the mission, they can first test the commands on the engineering model. An important feature is that their partners at Oxford University will also be able to log in and test commands remotely. Once launched, HIRDLS will ­gather data on atmospheric chemistry in the underexplored tropopause region (the transition zone between the troposphere and the stratosphere) as well as in the stratosphere and mesosphere.