CSU Department of Atmospheric Science

Each spring, our department awards the Herbert Riehl Memorial Award and the Maria Silva Dias Award to — typically two — students nominated by their advisers for outstanding research. This year, three students received awards because the nominees were so strong.

Lena Low and Delián Colón-Burgos both won the won the Riehl Award for an outstanding technical manuscript by a master’s student. The award is named in honor of department founder Herbert Riehl.

Low’s manuscript, “Spatiotemporal variations and source apportionment of volatile organic compounds and air toxins in Northern Colorado,” includes collaborators from the National Park Service Aur Resources Division.

Colón-Burgos’ manuscript, “Convective organization in African Easterly waves observed during the NAMMA and CPEX-CV field campaigns,” was published in Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

Charles Davis won the Silva Dias award for outstanding research by a Ph.D student. The Silva Dias Award is given in recognition of outstanding research. Previously known as the Alumni Award, through a student-led initiative it was re-named for alumna Maria Silva Dias. Silva Dias, the department’s first woman Ph.D. graduate.

Davis, advised by University Distinguished Professor Susan van den Heever, used innovative research approaches to find a previously unrecognized air transport pathway with important implications for storm dynamics, aerosol-cloud interactions and bioaerosol transport. His manuscript is titled, “The Entrainment of air from rainy surface regions and its implications for bioaerosol transport in three deep convective storm morphologies.”

Photos: not pictured, Colón-Burgos

Researchers from CSU’s Department of Atmospheric Science have conducted multiple projects using weather drones, largely to study cold pools that can destabilize aircraft, form new storms, and kick up dust. Precipitation falling out of a storm cools air as it ev***rates or melts. This cooling creates dense air which spreads along the Earth’s surface as a cold pool and feels like cool, windy air underneath storms.

Experts Leah Grant, Nick Falk and Russell Perkins – all research scientists – shared 10 details about working with drones in the field:

1. Drone sensors measure wind, temperature, atmospheric pressure, relative humidity/water v***r, and particulate matter. The drones also collect filter samples for analysis in the laboratory.

2. Through field campaigns, researchers have perfected a strategy using at least six drones to take measurements at multiple vertical and horizontal locations. They call the resulting formation the flying curtain.

3. Researchers use remotes to control drones to measure a stationary position above the ground. These stationary measurements complement ground measurements and moving measurements onboard balloon launches or other manned aviation. Drones can also be used to take measurements while moving, much like a weather balloon.

4. Using GPS for navigation requires good pilots in a weather study where location needs to be exact, such as within the flying curtain when drones need to line up in formation. Sometimes they use an additional spotter for calling out adjustments.

5. Drones have one or more lithium-polymer batteries that are lightweight. They typically last 20 to 50 minutes depending on the drone. Batteries are conveniently swapped for spare charged ones, and can be recharged at a powered location, or via battery bank or generator if needed in remote locations.

6. Drones have gyroscopes and accelerometer sensors to help with stability and orientation. Staying stable can get especially tricky in the wind and rain.

7. Researchers must be careful to keep drones at a safe distance from one another, the ground, and other objects so they don’t accidentally damage the equipment.

8. Some drones are made of 3-D printed plastic. This can splinter easily, though 3-D printing can also result in lightweight material and versatile shapes.

9. Federal policy limits use of foreign-made drones in federally funded projects.

10. Typical Federal Aviation Administration rules allow drones to fly up to 400 feet above ground. Atmospheric science research teams have obtained altitude waivers to fly drones up to 1,200 feet above ground.

Postdoctoral scholar Nick Falk and graduate student Christine Neumaier spent six weeks on the Atlantic Ocean working with colleagues from University of Alabama in Huntsville looking for thunderstorms to measure cold pools, cool air that spreads out at earth’s surface underneath storms. Their research addresses how storms over the ocean form and develop. Surprisingly, they found no storms early on, while the ship was far from the equator, which is where oceanic thunderstorms are most common.

Read their story and check out photos at

CSU researchers tackle unique challenge of operating drones on a rocking ocean ship - Walter Scott, Jr. College of Engineering Postdoctoral Scholar Nick Falk and graduate student Christine Neumaier spent six weeks on the Atlantic Ocean looking for thunderstorms to measure while supported by other CSU and University of Alabama in Huntsville researchers. Their trip ended up being more exciting than anticipated.

Our department had four award winners at his week’s Walter Scott Jr., College of Engineering All-College meeting, where staff and faculty were recognized for their achievements! Here are the award winners and the descriptions for why they were recognized for these awards.

Outstanding Researcher Award – Steve Saleeby: For pioneering advances in high-resolution atmospheric modeling, foundational contributions to the NASA INCUS mission, leadership of DoE model intercomparison initiatives, success in securing major NASA and DoE funding, and exceptional mentorship in advanced modeling.

Conversation Starter Award – Phil Klotzbach: A senior research scientist in the Department of Atmospheric Science who has been with CSU for 25 years. His Atlantic basin hurricane forecast, originally pioneered by the late William Gray, and his numerous interviews before and during hurricane season are featured in tens of thousands of global news stories each year. He routinely brings international recognition to Colorado State University, the college, and the department.

George T. Abell Outstanding Early-Career Faculty Award – Maria Rugenstein: For fundamental contributions to our understanding of the key physical processes that govern climate change.,

George T. Abell Outstanding Faculty Research Award – Russ Schumacher: For exceptional work improving the prediction of heavy precipitation and floods while serving the people of Colorado as an exceptional State Climatologist.

Congratulations to all of our award winners and thank you to our awards committee as well as individuals who led nominations for their hard work!

Photo: Shumacher, Klotzbach and Saleeby, not pictured Maria Rugenstein

Graduate student Chelsea Bekemeier shared: It’s not every day that you get to head south to Antarctica. I had the privilege of doing just that for my master’s research, visiting one of the most remote places on Earth. Denman Glacier — a massive glacier that fills a canyon reaching 3,500 meters below sea level, the lowest point on continental Earth — has had fewer than 160 visitors, about 130 of them as part of our voyage last year. I spent 63 days aboard the RSV Nuyina, an Australian icebreaker, as part of the 2025 Denman Marine Voyage. The expedition brought together about 60 scientists from around the world across disciplines including oceanography, biogeochemistry, and atmospheric science. After a month of extensive training and preparation in Hobart, Tasmania, we set out for Antarctica.

The Denman Glacier region is still understudied because of its remoteness, even though it plays an important role in the global climate system. The deep canyon beneath Denman Glacier makes it especially vulnerable to a warming Southern Ocean, and if the glacier were to melt significantly, it could contribute about 1.5 meters of global sea-level rise. The glacier also sits near one of the cloudiest regions on Earth. These low-altitude mixed-phase clouds, which contain both liquid water and ice, form a broad band across the Southern Ocean and help reflect sunlight back to space, acting like a natural thermostat for the Antarctic region (See also Clouds of Life). Being there from the end of austral summer into late autumn, we watched sea ice begin to form and recorded its different stages along the way. The sea ice also provides key insights into the ocean-atmosphere exchange in this region, regulating clouds and climate.

Read the full story at https://www.atmos.colostate.edu/2026/05/from-csu-to-antarctica-the-denman-marine-voyage/

Professors Jim Hurrell and Sonia Kreidenweis have been named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, known as AAAS.

They help us understand the complexities of climate variability and change and how tiny particles in our atmosphere affect visibility and precipitation.

CSU atmospheric scientists named AAAS Fellows Colorado State University Professors Jim Hurrell and Sonia Kreidenweis have been named Fellows of the AAAS.