Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences

Xinzhao Chu

Research Interests

Xinzhao Chu and her research group focus on both lidar technology development and atmospheric/space science study. The technology development involves atomic, molecular and laser spectroscopy, lidar technology and instrument development, and cluster remote sensing technology applications including observational campaigns from the North Pole to the South Pole. The science study is currently focused on the polar mesospheric and stratospheric clouds, thermal structure and dynamics in the stratosphere, mesosphere and lower thermosphere in both polar and equatorial regions with observations, data analysis, and modeling. One of the goals is to send a resonance lidar into space to study the global middle atmosphere dynamics.

Current Research: LIDAR Technology Innovation
and Atmospheric Sciences Study

The most remarkable point for the Chu research group in FY10 is perhaps the fact that significant progress is being made simultaneously in lidar development and atmospheric science study. Three lidars are being developed: the NSF Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Fe-resonance/Rayleigh/ Mie Doppler lidar; the McMurdo Fe Boltzmann/ Rayleigh lidar; and the CAREER Na Doppler lidar. Science studies using lidar, satellite, and radiosonde data as well as models (the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts model and the Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Electrodynamics General Circulation Model) are being conducted on atmospheric gravity waves, thermal structures, and compositions. Six Ph.D. students, two master’s degree students, and one research scientist are working with me to make these things happen. We welcomed four new group members: Ph.D. students Zhangjun Wang, Zhibin Yu, and Weichun Fong, and master’s student Ian Dahlke. We enjoyed the sabbatical visit of Adrian McDonald from the University of Canterbury in the fall of 2009. We shared the happiness of Ph.D. student Chihoko Yamashita when she won the Coupling, Energetics, and Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions (CEDAR) poster prize at an NSF workshop in Santa Fe, NM in the summer of 2009.

Ambitiously aiming to achieve bias-free resonance Doppler lidar for advancing the middle atmosphere physics and chemistry, my research group and I started to develop the MRI lidar. A key was to develop a state-of-the-art pulsed alexandrite ring laser in collaboration with John Walling of Light Age, Inc. Excellent results have been achieved in the laser development and optical heterodyne detection for laser diagnosis.

An exciting award from NSF’s Office of Polar Programs is funding the Chu group to deploy an Fe Boltzmann lidar to McMurdo, Antarctica to measure the middle and upper atmosphere for three years. My colleagues and I developed this lidar more than 10 years ago. With it, I made lidar observations from the North Pole to the South Pole. In particular, I made lidar measurements at the South Pole (90°S) and Rothera (67.5°S) from 1999-2005. Now my research group is upgrading this lidar and will deploy it to McMurdo (78°S) in November 2010, to complete an observational chain in Antarctica.

The CAREER lidar is supported under my NSF CAREER grant and is for graduate education and science study with a classical lidar system. Three Ph.D. and two master students have been involved in this project, through which students have learned a lot about lidar and how to build it.

Selected Publications [ more publications ]

Click here for a complete list of published works »

Honors and Awards

• Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, National Science Foundation
• Director, Consortium Technology Center for the Consortium of Resonance and Rayleigh Lidars, National Science Foundation

Dr. Chu is a member of the CIRES Professor.