I’m currently a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University.

My work explores where and when anthropogenic changes are most important for clouds. Human activities are perturbing the atmosphere in many different ways. We alter the aerosol environment by changing emission sources (think: factories, shipping lanes). At the same time, we drive changes in the land surface (think: deforestation, urbanization) that impact how the land exchanges energy and moisture with the atmosphere above it. On top of all of that, anthropogenic CO2 emissions drive changes to the background environment (think: climate change) that storms develop in!

I examine how those combined perturbations to the earth system drive changes in cloud and precipitation properties. My goal is to untangle the complicated interplay of microphysics, dynamics, and radiation processes (many of which are not represented explicitly in our global or regional models) that control convective initiation and development. Every cloud is different, and the balance of processes can be varied even within a single cloud field! Understanding this variability and its ultimate effects is important for water availability, extreme weather, and the climate system, and is essential to understanding how we are changing the weather and climate on the planet we live on.

I use a combination of satellite data, field observations, and cloud-resolving models in my research. With advances in computational power and new observation platforms, we have orders of magnitude more data than ever before. I’m really interested in how we can use new techniques like object-based analysis to get from data to a better process-level understanding of cloud physics.

I’m very passionate about science communication and justice in STEM, especially relating to the Global South. Outside of work, you can usually find me at the pottery studio, testing out a new recipe, or riding my bike somewhere pretty!


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