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Lidar Exploration of the Atmosphere, Space and BeyondWe focus on exploring the Earth's atmosphere, space, and beyond with LIDAR observations, theoretical studies, and numerical modeling. Our research involves the studies of advanced spectroscopy principles and photonics, development of innovative lidar technologies and instrumentation, and investigations of fundamental physical, chemical, and dynamical processes in the Sun-Earth system. Using the atmospheric metal species as tracers, our research is exploratory and has led to many science discoveries, especially on the studies of cosmic dust, space-atmosphere interactions, and wave dynamics. We hope to discover and understand the universal processes that make a planetary atmosphere habitable and sustainable for life. Our metal studies likely provide "metal signatures" for the search of exoplanets, and we aim to open a new window for human exploration of the universe.
Our Na Doppler and Fe Boltzmann lidars running at Arrival Heights under Antarctic skies. Photo credits: Danny Hampton, Ian Geraghty, and Zimu Li We have made unique, simultaneous lidar observations of atmospheric metals that come from ablation and sputtering of cosmic dust (burning meteors). Cosmic dust plays key roles in the universe's recycling process and cosmic dust might have brought the original life to Earth -- astronomer Carl Sagan said "the cosmos is within us. We're made of star stuff". Tons of cosmic dust bombard the Earth every day, having significant effects, e.g., they deposit metals to the upper atmosphere affecting space weather, form smoke particles for aerosol formations in the stratosphere and troposphere, and fall onto the great Southern Ocean fertilizing plankton. It is still a big debate of the daily influx of cosmic dust (between 5 and 300 t/d). Our lidar observations of metals, winds, and temperatures enable us to determine the cosmic dust entry velocities and narrow down the range of daily influx of cosmic dust. Using these observations and numerical models, we also study how the neutral atmosphere interacts with space plasma to protect life on Earth and how atmospheric waves couple energy and momentum from the Earth's surface to the space. The Antarctic lidar projects have been renewed for 5 more years. Come and join us for new science adventures. |
Because we always have group members working in the field, it is impossible to have a full group photo. Six pictures shown below present our energetic, creative, and hard-working group members from Boulder and from Antarctica.
Jack Iribarren chooses to return to Antarctica for another winter, not because it is easy, but because it is hard, because Jack wants to pursue the McMurdo lidar observations for science discoveries. This group photo was taken on Nov. 4, 2024 at a hot-pot dinner for Jack before his deployment. Shay & Logan didn't make to the dinner because of their schedules. |
Ariel Diddams (left) and Yingfei Chen (right) worked at McMurdo Station. Group members at the hot-pot dinner: Jess Alschuler, Kamen Schaefle, Jackson Jandreau, Zoe Kugler (in the back row), Alex Kugler, Jack Iribaren, Dr. Chu, and Robert Kaplan (in the front row). Alex and Zoe (twin sisters) are two high-school students working with us on their science project. |
Here are the group members in Boulder on July 19, 2024. From the left: Logan Walthers, Shay (Sydney) Mayer, Ariel Diddams, Jackson Jandreau, Kamen Schaefle, Dr. Chu, and Jess Alschuler. Yingfei Chen was leading winter 2024 lidar observations in Antarctica -- the bottom of the world. |
Yingfei Chen (left) and Ariel Diddams (right) taking a selfie at Arrival Heights LIDAR Lab which is outside McMurdo Station in Antarctica. |
Here are the group members in Antarctica in Feb 2024. From the left: Yingfei Chen, Gary Sutliff, Dr. Chu, and Ariel Diddams. |
Happy lidar crew in Antarctica: Yingfei Chen, Shannen Graham-Howard, Ari Diddams, and Dr. Chu. |
Antarctica lidar campaigns have provided exceptional training opportunities and produced top PhDs and postdoc researchers who not only excel in scientific research and academic studies, but also have gained the real-world experiences and skills. Our students have won 11 prizes and awards from professional conferences, three FINESST fellowships, and five Graduate Student Research Awards.
In Spring 2024, PhD student, Yingfei Chen, won the Graduate Student Research Award (GSRA) from University of Colorado Boulder. This photo of Yingfei with Dr. Chu was taken on Feb. 21, 2024 when they witnessed the first sunset in Antarctica. Yingfei is leading winter 2024 lidar campaign. |
Installing a telescope mirror at Golden lidar site: From the left Ari Diddams, Jackson Jandreau, Bennett Bartel, Nikolas Welch, and Shay Mayer. Dr. Chu was holding an iPhone camera for this group selfie on April 5, 2024. |
Besides the three lidars we have developed and operated in Antarctica and at Boulder and numerous science investigations we have conducted, we always seek new opportunities for collaborations and for new technology development and new science inquiry.
Graduate students from ASEN-6265 Spectroscopy class visited Dr. Chu's laboratory at CIRES on March 22, 2024. Dr. Chu explained the Na saturation-absorption spectroscopy. |
Our group members visited an impressive quantum laboratory led by Dr. Scott Diddams for learning and seeking potential collaborations. |
Many students have braved through the harsh Antarctic winters and collected tons of invaluable lidar data. Many PhD students wrote their dissertations on the data they collected and the instruments they developed. Even so, there are still tons of data and many exciting dissertations and journal papers awaiting creative students to analyze and write. This is because numerous discoveries we made with lidar observations have opened new endeavors and raised many more science questions that are yet to be addressed. Combining with unique, long-term observational data from McMurdo and Boulder, students in the Chu Research Group can continue to make new discoveries and advance both the atmosphere-space science and lidar research fields.
A study led by Dr. Chu and Dr. Chet Gardner discovered unexpected upward (positive) sensible heat flux along with quite some other findings. Here was a talk givey by Dr. Chu at AGU conference. |
A figure taken from PhD student Jackson Jandreau's paper to Earth and Space Science, demonstrating an elegant interleaved method. |
Since December 2010, the Chu Group has made continuous, year-round lidar observations from McMurdo Station, Antarctica (excluding a gap during the COVID-19 pandemic). The McMurdo lidar campaign is notable not only for its longevity and for the many scientific findings it has produced (see publications webpage), but also for the extraordinary effort required to maintain and operate advanced lidar systems over the course of many years on the world's most remote continent. Students from the Chu Group are the only scientists who remain at McMurdo through the Antarctic winter, gathering high-quality lidar data in a truly remarkable setting. In Feb 2024, Dr. Chu led a team of five flying into McMurdo Station. The team went through lidar upgrades, refurbishment, and students trainings and got two lidars ready for winter 2024. PhD student Yingfei Chen is now leading the winter observations.
PhD students Gary Sutliff and Yingfei Chen inspected PDA dye cells at Arrival Heights Lidar Lab in Antarctica in February 2023. Dr. Chu showed the team how to replace DC3 and Yingfei gained more skills for leading the winter 2024 lidar observations. |
McMurdo HVAC lead Adam Peattie successfully repaired a broken chiller in Feb 2024. In early March Adam assisted PhD student Yingfei Chen repairing YAG laser power supply unit and they got the YAG laser up running again. |
This selfie by PhD student Gary Sutliff recorded a wonderful moment -- the first visit to Arrival Heights Lidar Lab in 2024 (Feb. 4). |
Lidar crew took a C-17 flight from Christchurch, New Zealand to McMurdo, Antarctica. (left) Ari Diddams, Gary Sufliff, Dr. Chu, Yingfei Chen, and Shannen Graham-Howard. |
Having done creative analyses and developed innovative techniques, PhD students Yingfei Chen and Jackson Jandreau confidently presented their results at AGU conference while seeking collaborations and advice from senior scientists.
PhD student Yingfei Chen presented an interesting poster at AGU conference in Dec 2023 at San Franscisco, CA, which attracted senior scientists for fruitful discussions. Excellent publications and research discoveries formed the basis for Yingfei winning Graduate Student Research Award in spring 2024. |
PhD student Jackson Jandreau presented a talk at American Geophysical Union (AGU) conference in Dec 2023, which was part of his winning proposal "Exploring Antarctic Gravity Waves and Their Effects on Global Energy Transport" for his FINESST Fellowship with NASA earned in 2022. |
We managed to move lidar containers from a campus parking lot to a new Golden site in late 2023 with tremendous help from CIRES and Aerospace Department. Ari Diddams was showing undergrad student Mariana Vadas-Arendt some tricks. |
PhD student Bennett Bartel and Shannen Graham-Howard did extensive preparation work for the containers move in October an November 2023. |
PhD student, Jackson Jandreau, trained with Dr. Chu on Na Doppler and Fe Boltzmann lidars from August 2022 to early January 2023 at McMurdo, Antarctica. Jackson then braved through winter 2023 in Antarctica and led a successful winter 2023 lidar campaign. |
Dr. Chu took a laser repair trip to McMurdo in late Feb 2023. After the successful repair and further tuning and training, Dr. Chu had big smiles with the winter crew Jackson Jandreau and Jack Iribarren at Arrival Heights Lidar Lab. |
Spring 2022, PhD students Jackson Jandreau, Yingfei Chen, Ian Geraghty, and undergraduate student Jack Iribarren trained on lasers with Dr. Chu and by themselves in the Boulder labs, preparing for the restart of McMurdo lidar campaigns in August 2022. |
PhD student Jackson Jandreau won the Outstanding Student Presentation Award (OSPA) at the AGU Fall Meeting 2021 for his work on "New Techniques to Eliminate Noise-Biases from Lidar and Radar Data for Tracing Gravity Wave Energy from the Stratosphere to the MLT" . |
Space metal detected above Boulder -- Denver 9 News report of our lidar discovery of thermosphere-ionosphere metal layers with regular occurrence. This discovery is a nice piece of work published by PhD student Yingfei Chen with Dr. Chu in spring 2021. The TV news story also featured PhD students Ian Geraghty and Jackson Jandreau. |
Besides working hard on their research papers and studying hard in their classes, PhD students Yingfei Chen, Ian Geraghty, Gary Sutliff, and Jackson Jandreau spent their time training, experimenting and building new instruments in the lidar lab with Dr. Chu. |
A new normal for the group research discussion during spring 2021. Research presentations, discussions, and even heated debates excited everyone to produce new results and write new papers. (From top-left) Jackson, Dr. Chu, Ian, Arunima, Gary, Yingfei, and Nik. |
A best year of wildlife at McMurdo Station in 2019-2020 summer season: Adelie penguins, emperor penguins, minke whales, orcas, seals, and skuas reveal the beauty of Nature. Photo credit: Dr. Cissi Lin |
Many exciting research projects are going on, and several recent publications may reflect the breadth and depth of our research. Long-term changes in the atmosphere-space system are one of the major research goals as highlighted.
The happy lidar crew on 2019 Christmas Eve at Arrival Heights Lidar Lab in Antarctica. Jackson Jandreau (left), Xianxin Li (right), Cissi Lin (front), and Dr. Chu (in the back). |
Discovery Hut at McMurdo Station facing the Royal Society Mountains -- part of the Trans-Antarctic Mountains. Photo credit: Xinzhao Chu |
After a superb winter Zimu Li flew out and Ian Geraghty endured a 13-month deployment. Ian made sure a smooth transition to 2020 winter-overs Xianxin Li and Cissi Lin. Check out this NPR article about a beautiful cake modeled after our lidar! |
PhD students Jackson Jandreau et al. worked hard on the Boulder campus for science research while taking classes. They learned a lot from discussions with atmospheric scientist Dr. Lynn Harvey. |
Lidar "Beatles" at the McMurdo sound: Zimu Li, Dr. Chu, Ian Geraghty, and Chang. Read Ian's blog and Zimu's interview |
Professor Kaoru Sato's visit to our Boulder laboratory in September 2019 discussing wave dynamics and science collaborations |
Find out where two of our lidars are located -- the McMurdo Station in Antarctica
McMurdo Station (US) and Scott Base (New Zealand) are next to each other on the Ross Island, facing the Trans-Antarctic Mountains and the Ross Ice Shelf. A few miles north of McMurdo is the Arrival Heights Observatory that is hosting the two lidars. Map credit: https://ian.macky.net/pat/map/aq/aq_blu.gif
McMurdo Station on the New Year's Day of 2020. Arrival Heights Lidar Lab is a few miles from McMurdo, beyond the dome in the far back of the picture. Photo Credit: Xinzhao Chu
Welcome to Arrival Heights Observatory where the University of Colorado Na Doppler and Fe Boltzmann lidars are shooting laser beams to the sky for probing the Antarctic atmosphere and space. Photo Credit: Chu Research Group
We always welcome new members and scientific collaborations!
Our group photo on Boulder campus in Fall 2019. From front right, Jackson Jandrea (Smead Fellow), Zimu Li (2019 Winter-Over Scientist), Nate O'Neill (Research Assistant), Dr. Mike Jones (Senior Scientist), Dr. Dongsong Sun (Visiting Professor). From the back left, Zhuoying Chen (Undgrad Research Assistant), Dr. Cissi Lin (2020 Winter-Over Scientist), Amanda Steckel (PhD Graduate Research Assistant), Xianxin Li (2020 Winter-Over Scientist), Arunima Prakash (Graduate Research Assistant), and Dr. Chu.
Three team members are missing from this this group photo. Ian Geraghty (2019 Winter-Over Scientist) was running lidars in Antarctica, Nik Sinkola (Engineering Expert) was on travel, and Manuel Lindo (Undergrad Research Assistant) was attending a class. They are shown in the following two photos.
From right, Ian Geraghty, Zimu Li, Dr. Chu, and Mike Lotto shared a happy moment right before the Thanksgiving Dinner in November 2018 at McMurdo, Antarctica.
We had a fun moment with this famous statue in front of the Old Main building in September 2019. From the front right, Arunima Prakash, Manuel Lindo, Nik Sinkola, and Dr. Mike Jones. From the back left, Dr. Cissi Lin, Amanda Steckel, Jackson Jandreau, Nate O'Neill, Zimu Li, and Dr. Chu.
Years of creativity and hard work have achieved many scientific discoveries and breakthroughs, and many past and present group members have made great contributions. Below are historic pictures for our beautiful memories of the journey.
Photo taken in November 2010 at McMurdo, Antarctica (From left: Wentao Huang, Xinzhao Chu, John A. Smith and Weichun Fong)
This is an energetic group! Many members have traveled to the end of the world to make lidar observations in Antarctica.
12 students (Zhibin Yu, Brendan Roberts, Weichun Fong, Cao Chen, Jian Zhao, Ian Barry, Zhengyu Hua, Dongming Chang, Zimu Li, Ian Geraghty, Xianxin Li, and Cissi Lin) have braved through the harsh Antarctic winters from 2011 through 2020!
Dr. Zhibin Yu and Mr. Brendan Roberts were the first two winter-over lidar scientists in 2011 and 2012
Dr. Weichun Fong and Dr. Cao Chen braved through winters 2013 and 2014 |
Lidar team at new year 2015. From the left, Dr. Chu, Richard Dean, Jian Zhao, and Ian Barry |
We are excited not only by the lovely penguins, but also by the new science discoveries we have made in the polar atmosphere and space from the McMurdo lidar data. More details can be found in our Publications.
An emperor penguin at Pegasus Airport near McMurdo |
Three Adelie penguins chatting at the McMurdo sound |
Boulder is home to a vibrant community of scientists and engineers and houses some of the world's most renowned environmental science institutes and facilities. Many of our residents allow this exploratory spirit to carry over into their free time, with vast expanses of open space in and around the community for hiking, biking, skiing and other outdoor activities.
Our Lidar Group in October 2013 on Boulder Campus.
Besides making new science discoveries, these creative researchers are also excited by making innovations in lidar technologies and developing the next-generation lidar instruments. New lidars have been or are being developed on our Boulder campus.
Creative students Zhibin Yu and John A. Smith “painted” LIDAR with the STAR Na Doppler lidar at the Table Mountain Lidar Facility, north of Boulder.
Lidar research carries us to see wonders in the world ...
Spectacular aurora display over Arrival Heights near McMurdo, Antarctica when Zhibin Yu was operating our Fe Boltzmann lidar there on May 28, 2011.
Creativity, dedication, and persistency paid off, as many PhD students earned PhD degrees and honors, such as the first place prizes at the National Science Foundation (NSF) CEDAR Students Poster Competitions, and landed up top jobs such as faculty members, NASA scientists, industry engineers, research leaders, and Antarctic explorers ...
Lidar "geeks" Dr. Zhibin Yu and Dr. John Smith earned their PhD degrees in December 2014 with Professor Xinzhao Chu in Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences
CEDAR science community recognized and honored the lidar team's achievements with a CEDAR Prize Lecture Award to Professor Xinzhao Chu |
CEDAR prize lecture was given by Dr. Chu on June 18, 2019 at Santa Fe, NM |
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