Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences

People of the Chu Research Group

During a group meeting on April 22, 2021, our group members posed their favorite images for amusement. (From top-left) Jackson, Dr. Chu, Ian, Arunima, Gary, Yingfei, and Nik.

A new normal for the group research discussion during summer 2020. Tutorials, discussions, and even heated debates excited everyone to produce new results and write new papers. (From top-left) Nik, Dr. Chu, Jackson, Shikha, Loo Ting, Mary, Yingfei, and Arunima.

Our group in Fall 2019. From front left, Dr. Chu, Dr. Mike Jones, Dr. Cissi Lin, Amanda Steckel, Arunima Prakash, and Manuel Lindo. From back left, Jackson Jandreau, Nate O'Neill, Nik Sinkola, and Zimu Li. A team member, Ian Geraghty, is currently running lidars at McMurdo, Antarctica, so missing from this fall group photo, but shown in the following picture.

We had a fun moment with this famous statue in front of the Old Main building in September 2019.

Our group started a new summer on May 15, 2019 . From front left, Nik Sinkola, MaryAnn Ho, Arunima Prakash, Zhuoying Chen, and Dr. Chu. From back left, Mamdooh Al-Kalbani, Manuel Lindo, and Nate O'Neill. Two team members, Ian Geraghty and Zimu Li, are currently running lidars at McMurdo, Antarctica, so missing from this summer group photo, but shown in the following picture.

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 May 2019.

CU Old Main Chapel, this iconic building is listed by the U. S. National Register of Historic Places. At the back row from right, Dr. Chu, Nate O'Neill and iMamdooh Al-Kalbani. At the front from right, Zhuoying Chen, Nik Sinkola, Manuel Lindo, MaryAnn Ho and Arunima Prakash. Two team members, Ian Geraghty and Zimu Li, are currently running lidars at McMurdo, Antarctica, so missing from this summer group photo.

On a bright sunny day, we took a group photo on the Boulder campus. At the back row from right, Wuxing Zhang, Zimu Li, Jian Zhao, Ian Geraghty, and Di Ben. At the front from right, Dr. Li Wang, Dr. Mike Jones, and Dr. Chu on August 30, 2018. Graduate student Dongming Chang is wintering over at McMurdo, Antarctica to run lidar, so missing from the photo.

This energetic group consists of graduate research assistants (Jian Zhao, Muzhou Lu, Runnan Lou, Zhengyu Hua, Clare Miller, Dongming Chang, and Yufei Zhu), undergraduate research assistants (Ian Geraghty, Nate O'Neil, Colin Chen, and Mattia Astarita), visiting scholars (Zhangjun Wang, Chao Chen, and Xianxin Li), and Dr. Chu with her penguin on May 12, 2017. Unfortunately, three GRAs are missing from the photo - Runnan (attending BS/MS graduation), Clare (fulfilling RA duty), and Zhengyu (wintering over Antarctica).

We welcome new group members Anthony Lima and Zhengyu Hua, and visiting scholars Zhangjun Wang and Qiaojun Liu on July 25, 2016.
But we are still missing Ian Barry (in Antarctica), Muzhou Lu (on the east coast) and Dongming Chang (in China).

Chu group on Campus on August 4, 2015

An Energetic Research Group on Boulder's Campus

Rear row from left: John Smith (PhD student), Cyrus Abari (Visiting PhD student), Ian Barry (BS/MS Student), Zhibin Yu (PhD student) and Weichun Fong (PhD Student)
Front row from left: Dr. Chu, Xian Lu (Postdoc Visiting Fellow), Cao Chen (PhD Student), Jian Zhao (PhD Student), and Wentao Huang (Res. Scientist II)

Chu group on spirals by the Old Main in October 2013

People of the Chu Research Group

2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2012 | 2013

Senior Personnel

Prof. Xinzhao Chu (Xinzhao.Chu@Colorado.edu, 303-492-3280, CIRES 241)
Faculty
Dr. Chu explores advanced spectroscopy principles, develops new lidar technologies, and studies the fundamental physical and chemical processes that govern the structure and dynamics of the whole atmosphere. She is a Fellow of CIRES that is funded by CU and NOAA, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences. She teaches graduate classes of spectroscopy and lidar remote sensing, and undergraduate classes ASEN 3300 "Electronics and Communications" and ASEN 3113 “Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer”.

Dr. Wentao Huang (Wentao.Huang@Colorado.edu, 303-735-1466, CIRES 1B46)
Research Scientist of CIRES
Dr. Huang’s research interests are laser remote sensing technology and atmospheric science. He is a member of the lidar Consortium Technology Center (CTC). He focuses on developing and applying innovative laser and spectroscopy technologies in lidars. He was instrumental in the successful development of several lidars and the successful deployment of an iron Boltzmann lidar to McMurdo, Antarctica. He is studying the metal chemistry in the upper atmosphere with lidar observations and numerical modeling.

Dr. Xian Lu (Xian.Lu@colorado.edu, 1B56)
Postdoctoral Visiting Fellow of CIRES
I am interested in characterizing gravity waves and thermal tides in the polar region and accessing their impacts on polar dynamics, space weather and the vertical coupling of the whole atmosphere, by using lidar, radar and satellite observations. Gravity wave and tidal models in the polar region are invoked to interpret the observed wave characteristics, locate wave sources, and identify underlying mechanisms. Through comparing these observations with whole atmosphere models such as WAM (NOAA) and WACCM (NCAR), my goal is to validate model simulations and meanwhile provide observational evidences to constrain the model parameters associated with gravity wave and tides. Incorporating observations and models is intended to help better understanding the wave effects on the space environment and predicting the resulted space variabilities. My study will be focused on, but not limited to the dynamics of the polar region. Low and middle latitudes will also be covered to support my research.

Graduate Students

Bo Tan (Bo.Tan@Colorado.edu or botan.pku@gmail.com, 303-735-1575, CIRES 1B15A)
Mr. Bo Tan is a PhD student in the Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences. He is finishing his PhD on lidar, satellite and modeling studies of global teleconnection pattern and the cold problem in general circulation models.

John A. Smith (john.anthony.smith@gmail.com, 303-492-6713, CIRES 1B49)
Mr. John Smith is a PhD student in the Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences. He has completed a 3-year NASA Fellowship researching the viability of a complementary molecular Doppler wind lidar instrument for the next generation Fe-Doppler lidar currently in development. He is making numerous innovations in lidar technologies for global wind, temperature and species measurements.

Zhibin Yu (zhibintkm@gmail.com, 303-735-1575, CIRES 1B15A)
Mr Zhibin Yu is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences. He was the first winter-over student for the McMurdo lidar campaign and braved through the Antarctic winter in 2011. He is modeling the thermospheric Fe layers observed at McMurdo, Antarctica.

Weichun Fong (weichun.fong@colorado.edu)
Mr. Fong is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences. He was instrumental in the successful development of the STAR sodium Doppler lidar. He is working at McMurdo, Antarctica for new lidar observations and science discoveries.

Cao Chen (cao.chen86@gmail.com)
Mr. Cao (Chris) Chen is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences. He won the first place prize in CEDAR student poster competition at Santa Fe, NM in June 2012. He is analyzing the McMurdo lidar data for polar atmospheric dynamics.

Katrina Bossert (katrina.bossert@gmail.com)

Brendan Roberts (brendan.roberts@colorado.edu)
Mr. Brendan Roberts earned his Master of Science degree in May 2012 from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He is the second winter-over lidar engineer who has operated an Fe Boltzmann lidar at McMurdo through the Antarctic winter in 2012 and collected numerous valuable data.

Alumni

Collaborators