Climate &amp; Environment /today/ en ¶¶ŇőÂĂĐĐÉäriosity: In the wake of Texas floods, how do emergency alerts work, and where do they fall short? /today/2025/07/22/curiosity-wake-texas-floods-how-do-emergency-alerts-work-and-where-do-they-fall-short <span>¶¶ŇőÂĂĐĐÉäriosity: In the wake of Texas floods, how do emergency alerts work, and where do they fall short?</span> <span><span>Daniel William…</span></span> <span><time datetime="2025-07-22T10:37:06-06:00" title="Tuesday, July 22, 2025 - 10:37">Tue, 07/22/2025 - 10:37</time> </span> <div> <div class="imageMediaStyle focal_image_wide"> <img loading="lazy" src="/today/sites/default/files/styles/focal_image_wide/public/2025-07/Texas_floods.jpg?h=2fb2a41d&amp;itok=BNlhdofq" width="1200" height="800" alt="Air boat moves down swollen river with people riding horses in the background"> </div> </div> <div role="contentinfo" class="container ucb-article-categories" itemprop="about"> <span class="visually-hidden">Categories:</span> <div class="ucb-article-category-icon" aria-hidden="true"> <i class="fa-solid fa-folder-open"></i> </div> <a href="/today/taxonomy/term/16"> Climate &amp; Environment </a> </div> <a href="/today/daniel-strain">Daniel Strain</a> <div class="ucb-article-content ucb-striped-content"> <div class="container"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--article-content paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="ucb-article-text" itemprop="articleBody"> <div><p><em>In </em><a href="/today/curiosity" rel="nofollow"><em>¶¶ŇőÂĂĐĐÉäriosity</em></a><em>, experts across the ¶¶ŇőÂĂĐĐÉä Boulder campus answer pressing questions about humans, our planet and the universe beyond.&nbsp;</em></p><p><em>This week, Carson MacPherson-Krutsky, a research associate at the </em><a href="https://hazards.colorado.edu/" rel="nofollow"><em>Natural Hazards Center</em></a><em> at the University of Colorado Boulder, answers: “How do emergency alerts work, and where do they fall short?”</em></p></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="ucb-article-content ucb-striped-content"> <div class="container"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--article-content paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="ucb-article-content-media ucb-article-content-media-above"> <div> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--media paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div> <div class="imageMediaStyle large_image_style"> <img loading="lazy" src="/today/sites/default/files/styles/large_image_style/public/2025-07/Texas_floods.jpg?itok=b7pRi_k5" width="1500" height="789" alt="Air boat moves down swollen river with people riding horses in the background"> </div> <span class="media-image-caption"> <p class="small-text">Aftermath of the deadly flooding that devastated Central Texas in July 2025. (Credit: CC photo by World Central Kitchen via Flickr)</p> </span> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="ucb-article-text d-flex align-items-center" itemprop="articleBody"> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="ucb-article-content ucb-striped-content"> <div class="container"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--article-content paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="ucb-article-text" itemprop="articleBody"> <div><p>In the early hours of July 4, flash floods rose through parts of Texas’ Kerr County and surrounding regions, killing more than 130 people, including 27 children and counselors at a local summer camp.</p><p>In the wake of the disaster, numerous media reports raised questions about whether residents had enough warning to make it to safety. &nbsp;</p><p>Carson MacPherson-Krutsky knows how important timely emergency alerts are for people in the path of natural hazards like floods, wildfires, tornadoes and more. She’s a research associate in the <a href="https://hazards.colorado.edu/" rel="nofollow">Natural Hazards Center</a> at ¶¶ŇőÂĂĐĐÉä Boulder and has investigated emergency alert systems in Colorado. Simply put, she said: They’re all over the place.</p> <div class="align-right image_style-small_500px_25_display_size_"> <div class="imageMediaStyle small_500px_25_display_size_"> <img loading="lazy" src="/today/sites/default/files/styles/small_500px_25_display_size_/public/2025-07/MacPhersonKrutsky.png?itok=a-BkcOdF" width="375" height="375" alt="Carson MacPherson-Krutsky headshot"> </div> <span class="media-image-caption"> <p class="small-text">Carson MacPherson-Krutsky</p> </span> </div> <p>“The biggest takeaway is that it’s complicated,” said MacPherson-Krutsky, a geologist and social scientist by training who studies how to communicate risk and help people prepare for natural disasters. “There are multiple systems at work, and they vary from municipality to municipality.”</p><p>In a <a href="https://hazards.colorado.edu/research-projects/colorado-inclusive-language-and-access-in-emergency-alerts" rel="nofollow">report published in 2024</a>, MacPherson-Krutsky and her colleagues surveyed 222 officials from 57 of Colorado’s 64 counties about their emergency alert systems. The research was <a href="https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb23-1237" rel="nofollow">funded through a bill</a> passed by the state legislature.</p><p>One of the most basic kinds of disaster warnings, she said, are <a href="https://www.fema.gov/emergency-managers/practitioners/integrated-public-alert-warning-system/public/wireless-emergency-alerts" rel="nofollow">wireless emergency alerts</a> (WEAs). These text messages go directly to the phones of people located in a particular geographic area. Amber Alerts for abducted children use the same system. (You may be familiar with the blaring beeps and vibrations that accompany these messages).</p><p>A wide range of government groups, both local and national, can send out WEAs in the event of natural disasters or acts of violence. Personnel need to take a training, and they work through a system administered by the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and its partners.</p><p>Before dawn on July 4, for example, the National Weather Service (NWS), which is part of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), sent out several such text alerts. <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/08/texas-weather-service-warning-kerr-county/" rel="nofollow">According to The Texas Tribune</a>, one alert at 4:03 a.m. local time urged recipients to “SEEK HIGHER GROUND NOW!”</p><p>Beyond WEAs, alerts get more complicated.</p><p>In Colorado, for example, every county tends to have its own alert system, which can be managed by a wide range of groups—from sheriff’s offices to fire departments and 911 call centers. They may send out warnings over text messages, social media, TV and radio, &nbsp;word of mouth or even sirens. In many cases, residents have to sign up or download an app to receive messages.</p><div class="ucb-box ucb-box-title-hidden ucb-box-alignment-right ucb-box-style-fill ucb-box-theme-black"><div class="ucb-box-inner"><div class="ucb-box-title">&nbsp;</div><div class="ucb-box-content"><p class="text-align-center hero"><i class="fa-solid fa-bolt-lightning">&nbsp;</i><strong>&nbsp;Previously in ¶¶ŇőÂĂĐĐÉäriosity</strong></p> <div class="imageMediaStyle large_image_style"> <img loading="lazy" src="/today/sites/default/files/styles/large_image_style/public/2025-07/Adobe_shark.jpeg?itok=5l6RnnkF" width="1500" height="938" alt="Shark swimming underwater"> </div> <p class="text-align-center hero"><a href="/today/2025/06/17/curiosity-are-sharks-really-scary-their-reputation" data-entity-type="node" data-entity-uuid="a371a1ad-4b14-4dab-a42d-91f4b0f31141" data-entity-substitution="canonical" rel="nofollow" title="¶¶ŇőÂĂĐĐÉäriosity: Are sharks really as scary as their reputation?">Are sharks really as scary as their reputation?</a></p><p class="text-align-center"><a href="/today/curiosity" rel="nofollow"><em>Or read more ¶¶ŇőÂĂĐĐÉäriosity stories here</em></a></p></div></div></div><p>“Depending on who's sending the alert, they have different procedures and protocols in place for what triggers an alert, who sends it, what approvals are needed and so on,” MacPherson-Krutsky said.</p><p>Those disparities become especially glaring for people with disabilities or who speak languages other than English, MacPherson-Krutsky added. Currently, the WEA technology can only support messages in English and Spanish. The federal government has made moves to expand the languages available, but she noted that a <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/03/06/2025-03694/designating-english-as-the-official-language-of-the-united-states" rel="nofollow">recent executive order</a> from the Trump administration could make those changes harder to enact. In Colorado, more than one-third of the emergency personnel the researchers surveyed didn’t know if their emergency alert systems had the ability to translate to other languages or alert people who are deaf.</p><p>“That creates a lot of inequity,” she said. “A deaf person living in one county might receive an alert, but their brother who lives across the border wouldn’t.”</p><p>In their report, MacPherson-Krutsky and her colleagues recommended that Colorado adopt a single, state-wide system for sending out emergency alerts. Connecticut, Florida and Oregon have such a system, which counties or other localities can use at no cost to them.</p><p>She added that federal and state funding is critical for sending timely alerts in the event of natural disasters. The White House’s proposed budget for 2026 includes a more than 25% cut in funding for NOAA.</p><p>“Natural hazards researchers are worried about what these cuts would do to public safety,” MacPherson-Krutsky said. “Our colleagues at NOAA and the National Weather Service are doing such amazing work to make these warnings better. And if some of them aren’t there to advance this research, we’ll all bear the consequences of that.”</p></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div>When natural disasters strike, people across the United States often depend on timely warnings to get to safety. But in Colorado and many parts of the country, these alerts are a patchwork that vary from county to county.</div> <h2> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--ucb-related-articles-block paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div>Related Articles</div> </div> </h2> <div>Zebra Striped</div> <div>0</div> <div>On</div> <div>White</div> Tue, 22 Jul 2025 16:37:06 +0000 Daniel William Strain 54973 at /today Waleed Abdalati to testify July 16 at congressional hearing /today/2025/07/15/waleed-abdalati-testify-july-16-congressional-hearing <span>Waleed Abdalati to testify July 16 at congressional hearing</span> <span><span>Yvaine Ye</span></span> <span><time datetime="2025-07-15T07:00:00-06:00" title="Tuesday, July 15, 2025 - 07:00">Tue, 07/15/2025 - 07:00</time> </span> <div> <div class="imageMediaStyle focal_image_wide"> <img loading="lazy" src="/today/sites/default/files/styles/focal_image_wide/public/2025-07/Waleed_Abdalati1GA.jpg?h=0404c02e&amp;itok=aYWYkSt1" width="1200" height="800" alt="Waleed Abdalati"> </div> </div> <div role="contentinfo" class="container ucb-article-categories" itemprop="about"> <span class="visually-hidden">Categories:</span> <div class="ucb-article-category-icon" aria-hidden="true"> <i class="fa-solid fa-folder-open"></i> </div> <a href="/today/taxonomy/term/16"> Climate &amp; Environment </a> <a href="/today/taxonomy/term/1237"> Experts Shaping Policy </a> </div> <div class="ucb-article-content ucb-striped-content"> <div class="container"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--article-content paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="ucb-article-text" itemprop="articleBody"> <div> <div class="align-left image_style-small_500px_25_display_size_"> <div class="imageMediaStyle small_500px_25_display_size_"> <img loading="lazy" src="/today/sites/default/files/styles/small_500px_25_display_size_/public/article-thumbnail/waleed_abdalati_sq.jpg?itok=85pR8_Nh" width="375" height="375" alt="Waleed Abdalati"> </div> </div> <p class="lead"><a href="https://cires.colorado.edu/people/waleed-abdalati" rel="nofollow"><span>Waleed Abdalati</span></a><span>, a professor of geography and director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at ¶¶ŇőÂĂĐĐÉä Boulder, is scheduled to testify on July 16 at 8:00 AM MT before the Environment Subcommittee of the U.S.&nbsp;House Science, Space and Technology Committee.&nbsp;</span></p><p class="lead"><span>CIRES is the oldest and largest of the national network of Cooperative Institutes at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).&nbsp;</span></p><p class="lead"><span>The hearing, titled “Protecting Lives and Property: Harnessing Innovative Technologies to Enhance Weather Forecasting,” will examine emerging technologies for weather data collection. It will discuss how using diverse data sources can greatly improve the accuracy and timeliness of weather forecasting.</span><br>&nbsp;</p><div class="ucb-box ucb-box-title-hidden ucb-box-alignment-none ucb-box-style-fill ucb-box-theme-lightgray"><div class="ucb-box-inner"><div class="ucb-box-title">&nbsp;</div><div class="ucb-box-content"><h2 class="text-align-center"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfgHNpiy4Pc" rel="nofollow">Watch the livestream here</a></h2></div></div></div></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div>Waleed Abdalati, a climate scientist and director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, is scheduled to testify before the&nbsp;House Science, Space and Technology Committee. Watch via livestream.</div> <h2> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--ucb-related-articles-block paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div>Related Articles</div> </div> </h2> <div>Traditional</div> <div>0</div> <div>On</div> <div>White</div> Tue, 15 Jul 2025 13:00:00 +0000 Yvaine Ye 54902 at /today Why flood prediction in the US falls short and how researchers are working to fix it /today/2025/07/14/why-flood-prediction-us-falls-short-and-how-researchers-are-working-fix-it <span>Why flood prediction in the US falls short and how researchers are working to fix it</span> <span><span>Yvaine Ye</span></span> <span><time datetime="2025-07-14T13:08:40-06:00" title="Monday, July 14, 2025 - 13:08">Mon, 07/14/2025 - 13:08</time> </span> <div> <div class="imageMediaStyle focal_image_wide"> <img loading="lazy" src="/today/sites/default/files/styles/focal_image_wide/public/2025-07/Flooding_of_the_Guadalupe_River_near_Kerrville%2C_Texas_in_2025.jpg?h=b2fb8976&amp;itok=9LyKhYuf" width="1200" height="800" alt="Houses and buildings submerged in floodwater"> </div> </div> <div role="contentinfo" class="container ucb-article-categories" itemprop="about"> <span class="visually-hidden">Categories:</span> <div class="ucb-article-category-icon" aria-hidden="true"> <i class="fa-solid fa-folder-open"></i> </div> <a href="/today/taxonomy/term/16"> Climate &amp; Environment </a> </div> <a href="/today/yvaine-ye">Yvaine Ye</a> <div class="ucb-article-content ucb-striped-content"> <div class="container"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--article-content paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="ucb-article-text" itemprop="articleBody"> <div><p>Dangerous floods struck communities across the United States this July.&nbsp;</p><p>Heavy rains in New York region <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/07/15/nyregion/new-york-jersey-floods" rel="nofollow">killed at least two people </a>after swamping roads and rails this week. In New Mexico, a flash flood hit a mountain town, killing three people. Torrential rain from a tropical storm destroyed homes and claimed at least four lives in North Carolina.</p><p>In Texas, over the July 4 holiday weekend, catastrophic floods swept through the central part of the state, claiming the lives of <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/live-blog/texas-floods-live-updates-kerry-county-rcna217920" rel="nofollow">at least 120 people</a>, including more than two dozen children.</p><p>Even with advances in technology, forecasting how much rain will fall, where it will land and the impact of flooding all remain difficult, according to<a href="/instaar/zhi-li" rel="nofollow"> Zhi Li</a>, a researcher at ¶¶ŇőÂĂĐĐÉä Boulder’s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research.</p> <div class="align-right image_style-medium_750px_50_display_size_"> <div class="imageMediaStyle medium_750px_50_display_size_"> <img loading="lazy" src="/today/sites/default/files/styles/medium_750px_50_display_size_/public/2025-07/Zhi%20Li.jpeg?itok=JlDE4b0q" width="750" height="648" alt="Zhi Li"> </div> <span class="media-image-caption"> <p>Zhi Li</p> </span> </div> <p>“In Texas, different weather forecasting models were giving out different predictions,” said Li, an assistant professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, who uses computer models to simulate floods and forecast risk. “It wasn’t until just a day before heavy rain began to inundate the area that the models finally agreed there would be extreme precipitation. That left very little time for people to respond.”</p><p>¶¶ŇőÂĂĐĐÉä Boulder Today sat down with Li to discuss where the current flood prediction system falls short and what’s being done to meet the urgent need for real-time flood forecasting.</p><h2>How does the official current flood prediction system work?</h2><p><a href="https://www.weather.gov/" rel="nofollow">The National Weather Service</a><span> (NWS) is the primary government agency responsible for issuing weather forecasts and warnings in the United States. Currently, flash flood forecasting is mainly based on the amount of rainfall expected in a given region. If the predicted rainfall is likely to exceed a certain threshold and overflow riverbanks, streams or dams in the area, the NWS will issue a flash flood warning.</span></p><h2><span>Where does this system fall short?</span></h2><p><span>The current system can only predict where the floods might happen, but it doesn’t provide detailed information about how much water could overflow onto land, how far it will spread or how deep the flooding might get.</span></p><p><span>Without the data, it’s hard to know where exactly the danger is and who should evacuate. As a result, it offers little urgency or actionable information for residents.</span></p><h2><span>Is there a better way to predict floods?</span></h2><p><span>At my newly established </span><a href="https://hydrors.us" rel="nofollow"><span>Flood Lab at ¶¶ŇőÂĂĐĐÉä Boulder</span></a><span>, we’re working on developing accurate, high-resolution flood models, which are computer programs that predict how water will behave during flood events. Our latest model can predict flooding impacts at one-meter resolution, meaning we can pinpoint exactly where water will go and how deep it will get. Running these models is very computationally expensive, which is why the National Weather Service doesn’t have real-time flood models currently in use.</span></p><p><span>We’re developing a flood prediction model powered by artificial intelligence that also follows the physical laws governing how water moves. This will significantly speed up forecasting compared to traditional flood models.</span></p><h2><span>Can we prevent damage from these increasingly common, record-breaking weather events?</span></h2><p><span>We need to be aware that climate change is making extreme weather events more frequent, and that’s why deploying a real-time flood model is very necessary. It would be able to tell us with more confidence where the vulnerable regions are.</span></p><p><span>I also want to point out that our buildings and flood infrastructure were built 50 or even 100 years ago. They are aging, and they’re also not designed for the kind of severe weather we’re seeing now.</span></p><p><span>Flood mitigation is a very complex problem that needs collective effort from research communities, government agencies and industry.</span></p><h2><span>Are drier places like Colorado at risk of floods?</span></h2><p><span>Floods can happen anywhere, especially as climate change drives more weather extremes.&nbsp; Colorado has a drier climate, but it can still get very heavy thunderstorms. Because of the state’s mountainous terrain, it’s easy for water to rush down hillsides and trigger flash flooding.</span></p><p><span>And we have seen that happen. In 2013, heavy rains inundated Boulder and many towns along the Front Range, killing nine people and destroying nearly 2,000 homes.</span></p><h2><span>What else can we do in addition to deploying better flood models?</span></h2><p><span>Improving flood risk communication with the public is very important.&nbsp;Instead of just telling people there will be, say one meter or three feet per second of water flow in their area, we want to translate that into how much damage specific buildings might sustain and what actions people should take.</span></p><p><span>We’re also exploring customized alert systems. For example, we could provide tailored warnings for people with disabilities, parents with young children or others with specific needs. Current alerts are issued at the county level, but with better prediction tools, we could tell people exactly who’s at risk, where to go and when to leave.</span></p><h2><span>Will federal funding cuts impact our ability to predict future disasters?</span></h2><p><span>Budget cuts are certainly not helpful, but I also see it as an opportunity for industry and the research communities to step up.</span></p><p><span>I’m very optimistic about the future. I’ve seen firsthand how much the technology has improved in just the past few years. I believe we’ll soon have better warning systems, better flood models, and fewer lives lost to natural disasters.</span></p></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="ucb-article-content ucb-striped-content"> <div class="container"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--article-content paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="ucb-article-content-media ucb-article-content-media-above"> <div> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--from-library paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div> <div class="ucb-article-secondary-text"> <div><div class="ucb-box ucb-box-title-hidden ucb-box-alignment-none ucb-box-style-fill ucb-box-theme-lightgray"><div class="ucb-box-inner"><div class="ucb-box-title">&nbsp;</div><div class="ucb-box-content"><p><em><span lang="EN">¶¶ŇőÂĂĐĐÉä Boulder Today regularly publishes Q&amp;As with our faculty members weighing in on news topics through the lens of their scholarly expertise and research/creative work. The responses here reflect the knowledge and interpretations of the expert and should not be considered the university position on the issue. All publication content is subject to edits for clarity, brevity and&nbsp;</span></em><a href="/brand/how-use/text-tone/editorial-style-guide" rel="nofollow"><em><span lang="EN">university style guidelines</span></em></a><em><span lang="EN">.</span></em></p></div></div></div></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="ucb-article-text d-flex align-items-center" itemprop="articleBody"> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div>¶¶ŇőÂĂĐĐÉä Boulder flood modeler Zhi Li explains why current flood warnings can leave communities unprepared—and how high-resolution forecasting and better risk communication could save lives.</div> <h2> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--ucb-related-articles-block paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div>Related Articles</div> </div> </h2> <div>Traditional</div> <div>0</div> <div> <div class="imageMediaStyle large_image_style"> <img loading="lazy" src="/today/sites/default/files/styles/large_image_style/public/2025-07/Flooding_of_the_Guadalupe_River_near_Kerrville%2C_Texas_in_2025.jpg?itok=9wtkl3qA" width="1500" height="1130" alt="Houses and buildings submerged in floodwater"> </div> <span class="media-image-caption"> <p><span>Flooding of the Guadalupe River near Kerrville, Texas in 2025. (Credit: USCG/Wikimedia)</span></p> </span> </div> <div>On</div> <div>White</div> <div>Flooding of the Guadalupe River near Kerrville, Texas in 2025. (Credit: USCG/Wikimedia)</div> Mon, 14 Jul 2025 19:08:40 +0000 Yvaine Ye 54942 at /today Electricity, air and plastic recycling /today/2025/06/26/electricity-air-and-plastic-recycling <span>Electricity, air and plastic recycling</span> <span><span>Megan Maneval</span></span> <span><time datetime="2025-06-26T08:42:20-06:00" title="Thursday, June 26, 2025 - 08:42">Thu, 06/26/2025 - 08:42</time> </span> <div> <div class="imageMediaStyle focal_image_wide"> <img loading="lazy" src="/today/sites/default/files/styles/focal_image_wide/public/2025-06/2025_06_02_LucaPlastics.jpg?h=8f74817f&amp;itok=lbUp6yn7" width="1200" height="800" alt="illustration of molecules"> </div> </div> <div role="contentinfo" class="container ucb-article-categories" itemprop="about"> <span class="visually-hidden">Categories:</span> <div class="ucb-article-category-icon" aria-hidden="true"> <i class="fa-solid fa-folder-open"></i> </div> <a href="/today/taxonomy/term/16"> Climate &amp; Environment </a> </div> <div class="ucb-article-content ucb-striped-content"> <div class="container"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--article-content paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="ucb-article-text" itemprop="articleBody"> <div><p>A collaboration between four fellows in the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute shows how electricity can be used to impart "superoxide powers" to oxygen gas molecules from air, enabling the efficient recycling of PET plastics.&nbsp;</p></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div>A collaboration between four fellows in the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute shows how electricity can be used to impart "superoxide powers" to oxygen gas molecules from air, enabling the efficient recycling of PET plastics. </div> <script> window.location.href = `/rasei/2025/06/17/electricity-air-and-plastic-recycling`; </script> <h2> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--ucb-related-articles-block paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div>Related Articles</div> </div> </h2> <div>Traditional</div> <div>0</div> <div>On</div> <div>White</div> Thu, 26 Jun 2025 14:42:20 +0000 Megan Maneval 54890 at /today Wildfires threaten water quality for years after they burn /today/2025/06/24/wildfires-threaten-water-quality-years-after-they-burn <span>Wildfires threaten water quality for years after they burn</span> <span><span>Megan Maneval</span></span> <span><time datetime="2025-06-24T12:01:53-06:00" title="Tuesday, June 24, 2025 - 12:01">Tue, 06/24/2025 - 12:01</time> </span> <div> <div class="imageMediaStyle focal_image_wide"> <img loading="lazy" src="/today/sites/default/files/styles/focal_image_wide/public/2025-06/1000012586.jpg?h=2848f5af&amp;itok=X1XivyK8" width="1200" height="800" alt="river basin"> </div> </div> <div role="contentinfo" class="container ucb-article-categories" itemprop="about"> <span class="visually-hidden">Categories:</span> <div class="ucb-article-category-icon" aria-hidden="true"> <i class="fa-solid fa-folder-open"></i> </div> <a href="/today/taxonomy/term/16"> Climate &amp; Environment </a> </div> <span>CIRES</span> <div class="ucb-article-content ucb-striped-content"> <div class="container"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--article-content paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="ucb-article-text" itemprop="articleBody"> <div><p>CIRES-led research used big data to analyze more than 500 river basins—burned and unburned—to create and analyze the first large-scale dataset of post-fire water quality.&nbsp;</p></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div>CIRES-led research used big data to analyze more than 500 river basins—burned and unburned—to create and analyze the first large-scale dataset of post-fire water quality. </div> <script> window.location.href = `https://cires.colorado.edu/news/wildfires-threaten-water-quality-years-after-they-burn`; </script> <h2> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--ucb-related-articles-block paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div>Related Articles</div> </div> </h2> <div>Traditional</div> <div>0</div> <div>On</div> <div>White</div> Tue, 24 Jun 2025 18:01:53 +0000 Megan Maneval 54879 at /today Beneath crumbling walls: How rock glaciers took over the southern Rockies /today/2025/06/24/beneath-crumbling-walls-how-rock-glaciers-took-over-southern-rockies <span>Beneath crumbling walls: How rock glaciers took over the southern Rockies</span> <span><span>Megan Maneval</span></span> <span><time datetime="2025-06-24T09:54:18-06:00" title="Tuesday, June 24, 2025 - 09:54">Tue, 06/24/2025 - 09:54</time> </span> <div> <div class="imageMediaStyle focal_image_wide"> <img loading="lazy" src="/today/sites/default/files/styles/focal_image_wide/public/2025-06/20250618%20Robert%20Anderson%20Suzanne%20Anderson%20Rock%20Glaciers.jpg?h=7b3f6b7b&amp;itok=0vR80Y_h" width="1200" height="800" alt="rock glaciers in the southern Rockies"> </div> </div> <div role="contentinfo" class="container ucb-article-categories" itemprop="about"> <span class="visually-hidden">Categories:</span> <div class="ucb-article-category-icon" aria-hidden="true"> <i class="fa-solid fa-folder-open"></i> </div> <a href="/today/taxonomy/term/16"> Climate &amp; Environment </a> </div> <span>INSTAAR</span> <div class="ucb-article-content ucb-striped-content"> <div class="container"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--article-content paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="ucb-article-text" itemprop="articleBody"> <div><p>Rock glaciers are everywhere—at least in the Colorado Rockies. New research from Robert and Suzanne Anderson investigates how they formed and what benefits they might provide for alpine ecosystems.</p></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div>Rock glaciers are everywhere—at least in the Colorado Rockies. New research from Robert and Suzanne Anderson investigates how they formed and what benefits they might provide for alpine ecosystems.</div> <script> window.location.href = `/instaar/2025/06/18/beneath-crumbling-walls-how-rock-glaciers-took-over-southern-rockies`; </script> <h2> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--ucb-related-articles-block paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div>Related Articles</div> </div> </h2> <div>Traditional</div> <div>0</div> <div>On</div> <div>White</div> Tue, 24 Jun 2025 15:54:18 +0000 Megan Maneval 54876 at /today Mortenson Center innovations delivering clean water to more than 16 million worldwide /today/2025/06/23/mortenson-center-innovations-delivering-clean-water-more-16-million-worldwide <span>Mortenson Center innovations delivering clean water to more than 16 million worldwide</span> <span><span>Megan Maneval</span></span> <span><time datetime="2025-06-23T12:36:04-06:00" title="Monday, June 23, 2025 - 12:36">Mon, 06/23/2025 - 12:36</time> </span> <div> <div class="imageMediaStyle focal_image_wide"> <img loading="lazy" src="/today/sites/default/files/styles/focal_image_wide/public/2025-06/IMG_5973%20-%20Square.jpg?h=fa2ea4a2&amp;itok=AWceRC2u" width="1200" height="800" alt="A team member holds two water quality sensors used to test for water contamination."> </div> </div> <div role="contentinfo" class="container ucb-article-categories" itemprop="about"> <span class="visually-hidden">Categories:</span> <div class="ucb-article-category-icon" aria-hidden="true"> <i class="fa-solid fa-folder-open"></i> </div> <a href="/today/taxonomy/term/16"> Climate &amp; Environment </a> </div> <span>College of Engineering and Applied Science</span> <div class="ucb-article-content ucb-striped-content"> <div class="container"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--article-content paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="ucb-article-text" itemprop="articleBody"> <div><p>¶¶ŇőÂĂĐĐÉä Boulder's Mortenson Center in Global Engineering &amp; Resilience is building a new model for global water access, one that is grounded in a deep understanding of why so many past efforts have fallen short.</p></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div>¶¶ŇőÂĂĐĐÉä Boulder's Mortenson Center in Global Engineering &amp; Resilience is building a new model for global water access, one that is grounded in a deep understanding of why so many past efforts have fallen short.</div> <script> window.location.href = `/center/mortenson/clean-water`; </script> <h2> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--ucb-related-articles-block paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div>Related Articles</div> </div> </h2> <div>Traditional</div> <div>0</div> <div>On</div> <div>White</div> Mon, 23 Jun 2025 18:36:04 +0000 Megan Maneval 54872 at /today Farm-diversification research wins top international prize /today/2025/06/18/farm-diversification-research-wins-top-international-prize <span>Farm-diversification research wins top international prize</span> <span><span>Megan Maneval</span></span> <span><time datetime="2025-06-18T13:11:14-06:00" title="Wednesday, June 18, 2025 - 13:11">Wed, 06/18/2025 - 13:11</time> </span> <div> <div class="imageMediaStyle focal_image_wide"> <img loading="lazy" src="/today/sites/default/files/styles/focal_image_wide/public/2025-06/Zia%20Mehrabi%20thumbnail.jpg?h=6da65a24&amp;itok=8_8iCnWt" width="1200" height="800" alt="Zia Mehrabi"> </div> </div> <div role="contentinfo" class="container ucb-article-categories" itemprop="about"> <span class="visually-hidden">Categories:</span> <div class="ucb-article-category-icon" aria-hidden="true"> <i class="fa-solid fa-folder-open"></i> </div> <a href="/today/taxonomy/term/16"> Climate &amp; Environment </a> <a href="/today/taxonomy/term/914"> Sustainability </a> </div> <span>Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine</span> <div class="ucb-article-content ucb-striped-content"> <div class="container"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--article-content paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="ucb-article-text" itemprop="articleBody"> <div><p>¶¶ŇőÂĂĐĐÉä Boulder’s Zia Mehrabi is one of three researchers named international champions of the Frontiers Planet Prize for research that finds environmental and social benefits of agricultural diversification.</p></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div>¶¶ŇőÂĂĐĐÉä Boulder’s Zia Mehrabi is one of three researchers named international champions of the Frontiers Planet Prize for research that finds environmental and social benefits of agricultural diversification.</div> <script> window.location.href = `/asmagazine/2025/06/17/farm-diversification-research-wins-top-international-prize`; </script> <h2> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--ucb-related-articles-block paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div>Related Articles</div> </div> </h2> <div>Traditional</div> <div>0</div> <div>On</div> <div>White</div> Wed, 18 Jun 2025 19:11:14 +0000 Megan Maneval 54868 at /today Chasing hail: Researchers fly drones into storms as part of largest US hail study in 40 years /today/2025/06/17/chasing-hail <span>Chasing hail: Researchers fly drones into storms as part of largest US hail study in 40 years</span> <span><span>Daniel William…</span></span> <span><time datetime="2025-06-17T23:47:07-06:00" title="Tuesday, June 17, 2025 - 23:47">Tue, 06/17/2025 - 23:47</time> </span> <div> <div class="imageMediaStyle focal_image_wide"> <img loading="lazy" src="/today/sites/default/files/styles/focal_image_wide/public/2025-06/Storm_Chasing_Day_2_PC0424.jpg?h=890e752e&amp;itok=Bv4-peto" width="1200" height="800" alt="Two white SUVs drive down a single-lane highway in the country as gray storm clouds form overhead"> </div> </div> <div role="contentinfo" class="container ucb-article-categories" itemprop="about"> <span class="visually-hidden">Categories:</span> <div class="ucb-article-category-icon" aria-hidden="true"> <i class="fa-solid fa-folder-open"></i> </div> <a href="/today/taxonomy/term/16"> Climate &amp; Environment </a> <a href="/today/taxonomy/term/18"> Space </a> </div> <a href="/today/daniel-strain">Daniel Strain</a> <div class="ucb-article-content ucb-striped-content"> <div class="container"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--article-content paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="ucb-article-text" itemprop="articleBody"> <div> <div class="imageMediaStyle large_image_style"> <img loading="lazy" src="/today/sites/default/files/styles/large_image_style/public/2025-06/Storm_Chasing_Day_2_PC0424.jpg?itok=u2j-bPgw" width="1500" height="880" alt="Two white SUVs drive down a single-lane highway in the country as gray storm clouds form overhead"> </div> <span class="media-image-caption"> <p class="small-text">¶¶ŇőÂĂĐĐÉä Boulder researchers follow a storm brewing in south central Kansas. (Credit: Patrick Campbell/¶¶ŇőÂĂĐĐÉä Boulder)</p> </span> <p>Gray clouds swirl above a dusty highway in eastern Colorado between the towns of Akron and Atwood—what’s left of a thunderstorm that rolled through this stretch of prairie and rangeland just minutes before.</p><p>Wind whistles through patches of stubbly grass nearby. Then a hiss and a pop break the silence. A group of researchers release a blast of compressed air to fling a flying drone from a metal scaffold, or “catapult,” sitting on top of a white SUV. The uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) measures more than 6 feet from wingtip to wingtip. It catches the wind, and its rear propeller buzzes to life, lifting the plane dozens of feet into the air in a matter of seconds.</p><div class="feature-layout-callout feature-layout-callout-xlarge"><div class="ucb-callout-content"> <div class="align-center image_style-large_image_style"> <div class="imageMediaStyle large_image_style"> <img loading="lazy" src="/today/sites/default/files/styles/large_image_style/public/2025-06/Storm_Chasing_Day_2_PC0056.jpg?itok=oKInXi-I" width="1500" height="1000" alt="Man works on a small plane out of the back of an SUV"> </div> <span class="media-image-caption"> <p class="small-text">CĂ©u GĂłmez-Faulk makes adjustments to the RAAVEN drone. (Credit: Patrick Campbell/¶¶ŇőÂĂĐĐÉä Boulder)<br>&nbsp;</p> </span> </div> <div class="imageMediaStyle large_image_style"> <img loading="lazy" src="/today/sites/default/files/styles/large_image_style/public/2025-06/Storm_Chasing_Day_2_PC0214%20%281%29.jpg?itok=FYKMUoLd" width="1500" height="1000" alt="People stand in front of vehicles in the bay of a car wash as storm clouds loom overhead"> </div> <span class="media-image-caption"> <p class="small-text">The IRISS team rides out an oncoming storm near Wichita, Kansas. (Patrick Campbell/¶¶ŇőÂĂĐĐÉä Boulder)</p> </span> </div></div><p>The chase is on.</p><p>Aerospace engineering sciences Professor Brian Argrow and his team at the University of Colorado Boulder have joined a research project called the <a href="https://icechip.niu.edu/" rel="nofollow">In-situ Collaborative Experiment for the Collection of Hail In the Plains</a>, or ICECHIP. For six weeks this summer, scientists from 15 U.S. research institutions and three overseas are criss-crossing the country from Colorado east to Iowa and from Texas to North Dakota.</p><p>They’re searching for summer thunderstorms.</p><p>The group is exploring the conditions that give rise to hail in this part of the country—peaking in the summer and causing billions of dollars of damage every year. In the United States, <a href="https://www.nssl.noaa.gov/education/svrwx101/hail/" rel="nofollow">hail is most common</a> in Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming and nearby regions, which are sometimes dubbed “hail alley.” Today, ice the size of grapes and even bigger litter the side of Colorado’s State Highway 63.</p><p>The campaign is led by Rebecca Adams-Selin at the company <a href="https://aer.powerserve.net/index.html" rel="nofollow">Atmospheric and Environmental Research</a> and is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation. It’s the largest effort to study hail in the United States in 40 years.</p><p>The researchers hope to understand not just how ice forms miles above the ground, but also how homeowners and builders can protect their properties from dangerous weather. They’ll do that by using radar to peer inside hailstorms. They’ll collect and freeze hailstones, and they’ll crush hail in vice-like devices to see how strong it is. Argrow’s team is usings its drone to map the swaths of hail that storms leave behind them in their wake.</p><p>“It is about saving lives and saving property,” said Argrow, professor in the <a href="/aerospace" rel="nofollow">Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences</a> and director of the <a href="/iriss/" rel="nofollow">Integrated Remote and In-Situ Sensing</a> (IRISS) research center at ¶¶ŇőÂĂĐĐÉä Boulder. “We’re working with meteorologists and atmospheric scientists trying to increase warning times to give people a chance to get to safety and work with engineers and insurance companies to build better infrastructure to withstand these onslaughts.”</p><p>His team pilots the plane, known as the RAAVEN, short for <a href="/iriss/content/equipment-and-facilities/raaven" rel="nofollow">Robust Autonomous Airborne Vehicle - Endurant and Nimble</a>, north toward the rear flank of the thunderstorm. Then, they jump into two SUVs and follow the drone as it flies as low as 120 feet above them. A camera in the plane’s belly captures the ice trailing behind the storm. From that vantage point, the landscape, normally brown dotted with green, now also has pearly white patches for hundreds of yards in either direction.</p><p>For CĂ©u GĂłmez-Faulk, who’s piloting the drone today, the sight is a testament to thunderstorms.</p><p>“It’s awe-inspiring in a very serious sort of way,” said GĂłmez-Faulk, a graduate student in aerospace engineering sciences.</p></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="ucb-article-content ucb-striped-content"> <div class="container"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--article-content paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="ucb-article-text" itemprop="articleBody"> <div> <div class="align-center image_style-default"> <div class="field_media_oembed_video"><iframe src="/today/media/oembed?url=https%3A//youtu.be/z3D3pWsb4dQ%3Fsi%3DA2NphV7qrAZknJu9&amp;max_width=516&amp;max_height=350&amp;hash=pLScFMtjy_Ac_T9mzcoFrWzU9j_alGdMJlwO5Aw_G6A" width="516" height="290" class="media-oembed-content" loading="eager" title="Why ¶¶ŇőÂĂĐĐÉä Boulder is Flying Drones Around Tornadoes | Project TORUS"></iframe> </div> </div> <p class="text-align-center small-text">Credit: College of Engineering and Applied Science</p></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="ucb-article-content ucb-striped-content"> <div class="container"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--article-content paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="ucb-article-text" itemprop="articleBody"> <div><h2>Dark skies</h2><p>Five days earlier, Argrow and his team from ¶¶ŇőÂĂĐĐÉä Boulder join the ICECHIP armada at a Phillips 66 gas station in Greensburg, Kansas. The crew includes three graduate students, two IRISS employees and Eric Frew, professor of aerospace engineering sciences. They’re marking the first day of the project’s field season, or what the researchers call Intensive Observation Period 1 (IOP 1).</p><p>Judging by the conditions, the team should have plenty to study today. Weathervanes sitting on top of vans whip in circles as gusts blow a misty rain through Greensburg, a town in south central Kansas that is home to just over 700 people.</p><div class="ucb-box ucb-box-title-hidden ucb-box-alignment-right ucb-box-style-fill ucb-box-theme-lightgray"><div class="ucb-box-inner"><div class="ucb-box-title">&nbsp;</div><div class="ucb-box-content"> <div class="field_media_oembed_video"><iframe src="/today/media/oembed?url=https%3A//youtu.be/DkS5UYCMluw%3Fsi%3D5WNuhhmhVedB9bQl&amp;max_width=516&amp;max_height=350&amp;hash=tncrgFjq2n3_Rqxrs5D_oVOqGJxol50uJs2kHuM5y2Q" width="516" height="290" class="media-oembed-content" loading="eager" title="Weather Briefly: Hail"></iframe> </div> <p>&nbsp;</p><p class="hero"><i class="fa-solid fa-cloud-bolt">&nbsp;</i>&nbsp;What makes hail</p><p>When conditions are right in states like Kansas and Colorado, winds blowing over the prairie can start to lift upward, forming a powerful column of rising air. These updrafts can push clouds from the lowest layer of the atmosphere, the troposphere, up to the colder stratosphere, which begins miles above Earth’s surface.</p><p>Within those towering, cauliflower-like clouds, tiny drops of water may freeze, then bounce around in the air—a sort of atmospheric game of Plinko.</p><p>That’s how hail is born.</p><p>“It starts with what we call a hail embryo, or ice,” said Katja Friedrich, professor in the <a href="/atoc" rel="nofollow">Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences</a> at ¶¶ŇőÂĂĐĐÉä Boulder. “It goes through the cloud, and it accumulates supercooled liquid, which is liquid that is below freezing. The embryos accumulate more and more until they fall.”</p><p>But there’s still a lot that scientists don’t know about what happens inside the clouds.</p><p>To help find out, Friedrich is participating in the ICECHIP campaign through an effort that’s separate from Argrow’s team and its drone. Over the summer, two researchers in her lab, Jack Whiting and Brady Herron, are traveling with the armada in a red pickup truck. They’re using a device called a microwave radiometer to collect measurements of the air that rushes into hailstorms from outside—exploring how environmental conditions can feed a storm to keep it churning, or even cause it to die off.</p><p>“It’s my dream to be doing this, to be in the field studying severe weather,” said Whiting, who graduated from ¶¶ŇőÂĂĐĐÉä Boulder with a bachelor’s degree in atmospheric and oceanic sciences in spring 2025. “There’s a good chance that these events are going to become more frequent in the future because of climate change, so it’s really important to understand these dangerous storms.”</p></div></div></div><p>“This is relatively typical this time of the year, mid-May for the Great Plains. That’s when the storms really turn up and pass through,” Argrow said. “If you live in this area, you know what this means.”</p><p>In Greensburg, they definitely do.</p><p>In 2007, a tornado ripped through the heart of this community, damaging or destroying more than 1,400 homes and buildings and killing 10 people. Just hours after the ICECHIP crew departed on May 18 this spring, another tornado touched down south of Greensburg. It traveled 11 miles before dying out, and no injuries were reported.</p><p>Argrow is no stranger to the danger storms bring. He grew up in Stroud, Oklahoma, in the heart of Tornado Alley and remembers sheltering in his family’s storm cellar during severe weather warnings.</p><p>The engineer and his colleagues previously worked on a project, led by long-time collaborator. Adam Houston of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, called Targeted Observation by Radar and UAS of Supercells (TORUS). Over two seasons, the group flew RAAVEN aircraft into supercell thunderstorms, the phenomena that give rise to dangerous tornadoes. &nbsp;</p><p>But while storm-chasers may pay a lot of attention to those kinds of weather events, hail causes more damage than tornadoes every year, said Ian Giammanco. He’s the lead research meteorologist for the Insurance Institute for Business &amp; Home Safety (IBHS), a non-profit organization supported by property insurance and reinsurance companies.</p><p>Since 2012, hail has caused an estimated $280 billion worth of damage in the United States, according to IBHS estimates. The largest piece of hail ever discovered was about 8 inches wide, the size of a large cantaloupe.</p><p>“Our role is to understand how we can design better building materials to withstand hail,” said Giammanco, whose team is joining the ICECHIP expedition on the road. “Whether it’s a lot of small hail, or these really big hailstones, we want to understand what that risk looks like.”</p><p>Ellington Smith, a graduate student on Argrow’s team, was an undergrad at Iowa State University in spring 2023 when hailstorms erupted around the state, flattening corn fields.</p><p>“Knowing what hail can do to farmland, its’ really important to be able to quantify the damage—figuring out why these hailstorms happen and how to better predict them,” Smith said.</p><h2>Intrepid aircraft</h2><p>Adams-Selin and the ICECHIP team are taking what she calls a “holistic” approach to studying those kinds of dangers.</p><p>The study armada is something to behold: At the start of the field season, the ICECHIP campaign included around 100 researchers traveling in more than 20 vehicles—including pickup trucks with mesh canopies overhead to protect them from hail damage and two Doppler on Wheels trucks. These massive vehicles carry portable, swiveling radar dishes that can peer into the heart of hailstorms.</p><p>“ICECHIP is 100% NSF funded,” Adams-Selin said. “If you want to know who is responsible for improved hail forecasts, better understanding of hail science and any of these technological advances that we are using, like mobile radar, that is all NSF funding.”</p><p>The IRISS team depends on a vehicle that is a little smaller—the RAAVEN.</p><p>It’s a tough little drone. The aircraft is based off a kit designed by the company Ritewing RC. This same design inspired a storm-chasing drone that appeared in the 2024 summer blockbuster Twisters. The body of the RAAVEN is made from the same kind of foam that’s in your car bumper. It also carries sensors for measuring wind speeds and air pressure, temperature and humidity.</p><p>If the RAAVEN is flying with the wind, it can hit speeds of 75 miles per hour or more, and the aircraft can fly for up to two hours uninterrupted.</p><p>“Radar can only tell you so much,” said Frew, who joins Argrow on the ICECHIP campaign. “To really further our understanding of the atmosphere, you have to be in it.”</p><p>For ICECHIP, the team also added a 360-degree camera that drops out of the belly of the RAAVEN after it launches.</p><p>The IRISS team’s key role on the ICECHIP campaign is to measure the swaths of hail that storms leave in their wake.</p> <div class="align-right image_style-medium_750px_50_display_size_"> <div class="imageMediaStyle medium_750px_50_display_size_"> <img loading="lazy" src="/today/sites/default/files/styles/medium_750px_50_display_size_/public/2025-06/Storm_Chasing_Day_1_PC0068.jpg?itok=BjPeoJep" width="750" height="500" alt="A weather vane sitting on a pole with grain silos in the background"> </div> <span class="media-image-caption"> <p class="small-text">A storm builds near Greensburg, Kansas. (Credit: Patrick Campbell/¶¶ŇőÂĂĐĐÉä Boulder)</p> </span> </div> <p>The team doesn’t fly the RAAVEN directly into storms for ICECHIP. Instead, it stays safely behind the bad weather, soaring in a zig-zag pattern in the wake of hailstorms as they billow across the landscape. Using the drone’s camera in real-time, the researchers view the area below that’s covered in ice. They can then measure the width of these hail swaths, capturing how big a storm’s path of destruction can grow. Argrow likens it to “a snail that leaves a trail.”</p><p>Federal Aviation Administration rules require Argrow’s team to stay in sight of the RAAVEN at all times. To do that, the researchers get in their SUVs.</p><p>GĂłmez-Faulk explained that the RAAVEN is semi-autonomous. Pilots like him can control where the aircraft goes, but it’s also programed to follow a sort of digital marker the team refers to as a “carrot.”</p><p>“There’s a carrot guide point that we set off some distance from the car, usually in front of the car,” he said. “The aircraft is going to chase that guide point as we drive.”</p><h2>Heart pounding</h2><p>Back in Greensburg, Frew emphasizes that safety is the number one priority of the IRISS team. But he acknowledges that central Kansas at the height of storm season may be an odd place to find an aerospace engineer.</p><p>Before Frew started working on projects like TORUS and ICECHIP, he didn’t know a lot about weather. His time on these studies, however, has taught him to respect the power of storms—and what engineers can accomplish when they bring their work out of the lab and into the real, windy world.</p><p>“The first time I did it, my heart was pounding. I didn’t know what to expect,” Frew said. “In order to understand this environment, someone has to go into it and take the measurements, and that’s what we’re here for.”</p></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="ucb-article-content ucb-striped-content"> <div class="container"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--article-content paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="ucb-article-text" itemprop="articleBody"> <div><p class="hero"><i class="fa-solid fa-camera">&nbsp;</i>&nbsp;IRISS snapshots from the road</p><div class="row ucb-column-container"><div class="col ucb-column"> <div class="align-center image_style-large_image_style"> <div class="imageMediaStyle large_image_style"> <img loading="lazy" src="/today/sites/default/files/styles/large_image_style/public/2025-06/Hail4.jpg?itok=ESXHC7sF" width="1500" height="1000" alt="Cars on the side of the road with storm clouds overhead"> </div> <span class="media-image-caption"> <p class="small-text">Tracking a storm near Wichita Falls, Texas</p> </span> </div> </div><div class="col ucb-column"> <div class="align-center image_style-large_image_style"> <div class="imageMediaStyle large_image_style"> <img loading="lazy" src="/today/sites/default/files/styles/large_image_style/public/2025-06/Hail5.jpg?itok=ZSQcintD" width="1500" height="1000" alt="Man lies on hood of white sub and talks to two other people in front of car"> </div> <span class="media-image-caption"> <p class="small-text">Taking a break in Tucumcari, New Mexico</p> </span> </div> </div></div><div class="row ucb-column-container"><div class="col ucb-column"> <div class="imageMediaStyle large_image_style"> <img loading="lazy" src="/today/sites/default/files/styles/large_image_style/public/2025-06/Hail1.jpg?itok=tUPOlNk8" width="1500" height="2250" alt="Clumps of hail next to a dirt road"> </div> <span class="media-image-caption"> <p class="small-text">Seeing hail in northeast Colorado</p> </span> </div><div class="col ucb-column"> <div class="imageMediaStyle large_image_style"> <img loading="lazy" src="/today/sites/default/files/styles/large_image_style/public/2025-06/Hail6.jpg?itok=HEfPlA-6" width="1500" height="2250" alt="Five people pose for photo on side of highway with suv in background"> </div> <span class="media-image-caption"> <p class="small-text">Posing for a photo in eastern New Mexico</p> </span> </div><div class="col ucb-column"> <div class="imageMediaStyle large_image_style"> <img loading="lazy" src="/today/sites/default/files/styles/large_image_style/public/2025-06/Hail8.jpg?itok=-LAS1YPc" width="1500" height="2249" alt="Hand holds three large pieces of hail"> </div> <span class="media-image-caption"> <p class="small-text">Finding hail near Morton, Texas</p> </span> </div></div></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div>For six weeks this summer, scientists from across the country, including researchers at ¶¶ŇőÂĂĐĐÉä Boulder, are criss-crossing the Great Plains to investigate how hailstorms form—and how homeowners and builders can protect their properties.</div> <h2> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--ucb-related-articles-block paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div>Related Articles</div> </div> </h2> <div>Zebra Striped</div> <div>0</div> <div>On</div> <div>White</div> Wed, 18 Jun 2025 05:47:07 +0000 Daniel William Strain 54848 at /today ¶¶ŇőÂĂĐĐÉäriosity: Are sharks really as scary as their reputation? /today/2025/06/17/curiosity-are-sharks-really-scary-their-reputation <span>¶¶ŇőÂĂĐĐÉäriosity: Are sharks really as scary as their reputation?</span> <span><span>Daniel William…</span></span> <span><time datetime="2025-06-17T11:23:21-06:00" title="Tuesday, June 17, 2025 - 11:23">Tue, 06/17/2025 - 11:23</time> </span> <div> <div class="imageMediaStyle focal_image_wide"> <img loading="lazy" src="/today/sites/default/files/styles/focal_image_wide/public/2025-06/Adobe_shark_0.jpeg?h=d3a993d4&amp;itok=YJhzhsMY" width="1200" height="800" alt="Great white shark swims through blue water"> </div> </div> <div role="contentinfo" class="container ucb-article-categories" itemprop="about"> <span class="visually-hidden">Categories:</span> <div class="ucb-article-category-icon" aria-hidden="true"> <i class="fa-solid fa-folder-open"></i> </div> <a href="/today/taxonomy/term/16"> Climate &amp; Environment </a> </div> <span>Rachel Sauer</span> <div class="ucb-article-content ucb-striped-content"> <div class="container"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--article-content paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="ucb-article-text" itemprop="articleBody"> <div><p><em>In </em><a href="/today/curiosity" rel="nofollow"><em>¶¶ŇőÂĂĐĐÉäriosity</em></a><em>, experts across the ¶¶ŇőÂĂĐĐÉä Boulder campus answer pressing questions about humans, our planet and the universe beyond.&nbsp;</em></p><p><em>This week, Andrew Martin, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, answers: “Are sharks really as scary as their reputation?”</em></p></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="ucb-article-content ucb-striped-content"> <div class="container"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--article-content paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="ucb-article-text" itemprop="articleBody"> <div> <div class="imageMediaStyle wide_image_style"> <img loading="lazy" src="/today/sites/default/files/styles/wide_image_style/public/2025-06/Adobe_shark_0.jpeg?h=d3a993d4&amp;itok=SvquSRpW" width="1500" height="563" alt="Great white shark swims through blue water"> </div> <span class="media-image-caption"> <p class="text-align-center small-text">Credit: Adobe Stock</p> </span> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="ucb-article-content ucb-striped-content"> <div class="container"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--article-content paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="ucb-article-text" itemprop="articleBody"> <div><p>A 14-foot male white shark, the largest ever tagged, is <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biggest-great-white-shark-ever-recorded-by-research-group-making-moves-along-atlantic-coast/" rel="nofollow">currently making its way</a> north up the Atlantic coast—last week pinging 22 miles off Cape Hatteras—just in time for the 50th anniversary of “Jaws” Friday.</p><div class="feature-layout-callout feature-layout-callout-medium"><div class="ucb-callout-content"><p class="hero"><i class="fa-solid fa-arrow-up-right-from-square">&nbsp;</i><a href="/asmagazine/2025/06/17/we-still-need-bigger-boat" rel="nofollow">&nbsp;<strong>We still need a bigger boat: Read more about the 50th anniversary of "Jaws"</strong></a></p></div></div><p>Yes, it’s been 50 years since moviegoers were scared out of the water by a film that presented sharks as terrifying monsters of the deep. Now, it can be difficult to separate fact from fiction in sharks’ scary reputation.&nbsp;</p><p><a href="/ebio/andrew-martin" rel="nofollow">Andrew Martin</a>, a University of Colorado Boulder professor of <a href="/ebio/" rel="nofollow">ecology and evolutionary biology</a>, has studied sharks as a PhD student at the University of Hawaii and throughout his career, which has included working at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. He addressed some common conceptions—or misconceptions—about sharks to help illuminate whether they’re as scary as they seem.&nbsp;</p><h2>Fact or fiction: “Jaws” was good for sharks.</h2><p><strong>Fiction.&nbsp;</strong></p><p>“Jaws” was a terrible thing for sharks and a terrible thing for biology. I think it scared people away from the ocean, which was a bummer, and I know Peter Benchley, author of the novel “Jaws,” has come around and realized his mistake. We were easy prey for him, in a way, because we were already a little bit scared of the ocean. I mean, what could be more terrifying? All you want to do is have fun at the beach.</p><div class="ucb-box ucb-box-title-hidden ucb-box-alignment-right ucb-box-style-fill ucb-box-theme-black"><div class="ucb-box-inner"><div class="ucb-box-title">&nbsp;</div><div class="ucb-box-content"><p class="text-align-center hero"><i class="fa-solid fa-bolt-lightning">&nbsp;</i><strong>&nbsp;Previously in ¶¶ŇőÂĂĐĐÉäriosity</strong></p> <div class="imageMediaStyle large_image_style"> <img loading="lazy" src="/today/sites/default/files/styles/large_image_style/public/2025-06/Kosmos_photo.png?itok=koiX17lV" width="1500" height="1064" alt="Spacecraft seen in a lab with the letters &quot;CCCP&quot; on its exterior"> </div> <p class="text-align-center hero"><a href="/today/node/54665" rel="nofollow">¶¶ŇőÂĂĐĐÉäriosity: A 50-year-old Soviet spacecraft will soon crash to Earth. Why, and where will it land?</a></p><p class="text-align-center"><a href="/today/curiosity" rel="nofollow"><em>Or read more ¶¶ŇőÂĂĐĐÉäriosity stories here</em></a></p></div></div></div><p>However, encounters between humans and great whites are usually with surfers, who look like seals from below. It’s really rare for a shark to go after someone.</p><h2>Fact or fiction: All sharks will attack humans.</h2><p><strong>Fiction.&nbsp;</strong></p><p>That’s definitely not true. There are hundreds of species of sharks, and I can count the number of species that have a record of attacking humans on one hand.</p><h2>Fact or fiction: Sharks are apex predators.</h2><p><strong>Depends.&nbsp;</strong></p><p>Great white sharks are pretty much an apex predator because they will feed on things that are also very high in the food chain. I don’t know how useful the term “apex” is, though, because it implies there’s only one thing at the very top, and if that’s the case then it’s humans because we literally eat everything. In general, sharks are high on the food chain but in some cases not super high. In some food chains they’re not even as high as tuna.&nbsp;</p><h2>Fact or fiction: Sharks can detect a single drop of blood in the water</h2><p><strong>Depends.&nbsp;</strong></p><p>Most things living in water have a very good sensory capacity for molecules. Still, I’ve been on shark boats where they chum—and it’s not a little bit of chum. It’s a lot of gory stuff they’re dumping in the water—and it still took a lot of time for sharks to come.</p><h2>Fact or fiction: If sharks stop moving, they die.</h2><p><strong>Fiction.&nbsp;</strong></p> <div class="align-right image_style-small_500px_25_display_size_"> <div class="imageMediaStyle small_500px_25_display_size_"> <img loading="lazy" src="/today/sites/default/files/styles/small_500px_25_display_size_/public/2025-06/Martin_headshot.png?itok=1rHdFNbD" width="375" height="525" alt="Andrew Martin headshot"> </div> <span class="media-image-caption"> <p>Andrew Martin</p> </span> </div> <p>There are a bunch of species that can sit on the ocean bottom. It’s also true that they do need to pass water over their gills, but they don’t have to move all the time. Some of them do have a pretty high activity level, and they’re moving a lot, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to die if they stop. They’re really well designed to move through the water, so it doesn’t cost them much energy. Because they’re probably always hungry, they seem to be in motion all the time, and that’s the life of almost everything on this planet.</p><h2>Fact or fiction: Sharks haven’t changed since prehistoric times.</h2><p><strong>Depends. &nbsp;</strong></p><p>We don’t have a good fossil record for their bodies, since they have cartilage instead of bones, but their teeth fossilize really well, and we have really good evidence that a lot of shark teeth haven’t changed much over time. However, we do know—mostly from phylogenetic reconstructions—that some sharks have evolved and changed over time. In the group of sharks that great whites are in, named the Lamniformes, there are several divergent groups of species that have evolved the ability to elevate their temperature well above the temperature of their environment. This ability, which involves changes in many different aspects of their biology, has evolved more than once.&nbsp;</p><p>A good example of this is thresher sharks that have a really long tail, and they can go through schools of fish, whip that tail around and knock out fish. Their body and brain temperatures are warmer than the water, so they can generate a lot of power—power is proportional to temperature—and keep their nervous system and brain warmer, so they can process information faster. The result is that they are better, more efficient and perhaps scarier predators if you are a small fish.</p></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div>This summer marks the 50th anniversary of the movie "Jaws," which made generations of audiences afraid to go in the water again. It also created a lot of misconceptions about sharks, says ¶¶ŇőÂĂĐĐÉä Boulder biologist Andrew Martin.</div> <h2> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--ucb-related-articles-block paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div>Related Articles</div> </div> </h2> <div>Zebra Striped</div> <div>0</div> <div>On</div> <div>White</div> Tue, 17 Jun 2025 17:23:21 +0000 Daniel William Strain 54859 at /today