Debating Divestment
March 1, 12:30 to 2 pm
Followed by a Reception at 2 pm
Location: Kittredge Central Hall, Kittredge Market, 2480 Kittredge Loop Dr., Boulder, CO 80309

Students at CU Boulder have been asking more questions about how CU's values align with its institutional investments, particularly when it comes to the oil and gas industry. This panel will explore whether a large investment fund with complex stakeholder groups can maximize both financial returns and positive social and environmental benefits, the trade offs of different approaches to shareholder activism, and how a strategic approach to investing applies to other important sustainability conversations.

Speakers include:

• Betsy Moszeter, Chief Distribution & Marketing Officer and Portfolio Manager, Green Alpha Advisors
• Devon Reynolds, PhD Candidate, CU Boulder
• P. Noel Kullavanijaya, President of Capital Markets and Investor Networks, Equilibrium Capital
• Shaun Davies, Associate Professor and Research Director of the Burridge Center for Finance, Leeds School of Business

Moderated by: Joshua Nunziato, PhD, Assistant Teaching Professor in the Social Responsibility and Sustainability division at Leeds

This event is co-sponsored by C-SEF and the Leeds Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility (CESR) in collaboration with the Leeds Burridge Center for Finance.

In-person only, no live stream. Register here: https://events.blackthorn.io/en/i0aWPX6/g/ha285x8EDJ/debating-divestment...

Advancing our understanding of tectonic processes and their associated geohazards is important for the safety of our society. In this presentation, I will address extension of the African continent along the East African Rift and volcanic hazards in Tanzania that are linked with the divergence of Africa. Previous studies have constrained the kinematics of Africa and surroundings using GNSS/GPS geodesy and suggest extension is accommodated in narrow zones bounding rigid blocks. However, in this work I will present a GNSS/GPS velocity solution comprised of 12 years of observations that constrains a new kinematic model of the region. The new model redefines the kinematics of the East Africa Rift with a broad zone of diffuse deformation identified as stretching from Africa’s east coast to parts of Madagascar. Madagascar is also shown to be slowly breaking up at 1.5 mm/yr. Extension rates in Tanzania are 3.8 mm/yr across the magma-rich Natron Rift, which hosts the Earth’s only active carbonatite volcano, Ol Doinyo Lengai. I will also present advances in volcanic hazards assessment based on data from the TZVOLCANO GNSS/GPS and seismic network, as well as additional constraints from InSAR observations. Investigations of the magma plumbing system feeding Ol Doinyo Lengai using high latency GNSS/GPS geodesy, InSAR, and inverse modeling suggest a complex multi-tiered reservoir system. Additionally, I will highlight our recent work in analyzing low latency GNSS/GPS data with unsupervised machine learning to detect anomalous surface motions towards rapid volcanic hazards assessment. Finally, I will conclude the presentation with an overview of other active and developing scientific projects as well as some of my efforts to improve inclusion and diversity in the geosciences.
 

*light refreshments will follow

CIRES Mentoring Program invites you to a project management workshop. In this session you will review the people and processes needed to effectively manage projects using the five-step model developed by the Project Management Institute. Participants will leave with an understanding of the model and two key skills to implement in their projects. This session will be facilitated by Lauren Harris, Assistant Director of Training & Development. Preregistration available here

A thorough quantification and understanding of the compounding impacts of extreme climate events and humans on water resources is essential for sustainable management of freshwater resources. This requires a monitoring system capable of “observing” the surface (e.g., lakes) as well as subsurface (e.g., groundwater) water resources at various temporal and spatial scales. Integrating various space geodesy and remote sensing techniques (e.g., GRACE/GRACE Follow-On, GNSS, InSAR and SWOT) with physics-based models and data-driven approaches offers a unique opportunity to establish an adaptable decision-support system for water resources management with wide-ranging capabilities and benefits. In this seminar, I will discuss three novel applications of remote sensing techniques yielding methodological advancements for the quantification of water resources dynamics during extreme climate events: (1) Inferring dynamics of the exceptional 2020 monsoon flooding in Bangladesh from along-orbit gravitational laser ranging measurements by the GRACE Follow-On satellites, (2) Quantifying the impact of drought and evaluating the success of managed aquifer recharge on groundwater dynamics in the Santa Clara Valley aquifer-system using InSAR observations and poroelasticity theory, and (3) Multiscale estimation of terrestrial water storage loss in California over the most recent drought (2019-) using an integrated analysis of GRACE Follow-On time-variable gravity, GNSS measurements of drought-induced elastic uplift of Earth’s crust, and InSAR poroelastic deformation measurements of fast land subsidence over Central Valley caused by groundwater depletion.

These case studies highlight the importance of Earth-observing data for developing management, adaptation, and resilience plans promoting environmental justice and security in the era of climate change.

*light refreshments will follow

Over the past 30 years, the proliferation of high-rate (1 Hz or greater) Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) data and processing techniques has allowed for high precision (sub-cm) observations of deformation kinematics. Unlike inertial seismic instruments, which have issues capturing displacements during large ground motions, GNSS instruments capture the full dynamic range of displacement, from the static offsets to the Nyquist frequency since they are computed with respect to a non-inertial global reference frame. When used together, seismic and geodetic observations can capture the full fidelity of ground motions during natural hazards. In this talk, I will show how seismogeodetic observations are used throughout the continuum of hazard response activities, from the initial seconds with operational early warning systems for earthquakes and tsunamis, to a more complete view of deformation and damage in the days to weeks after an event. I will finish by describing how I envision converting global GNSS networks into broadband seismic networks and other potential avenues using signals of opportunity such as monitoring ionospheric disturbances from tsunamis and volcanic eruptions. This new geodetic monitoring architecture, which will be fully cloud enabled, will be designed to reduce the barriers to entry for using geodetic data, improving computing equity and allowing broader inclusion with the geoscience community.

*light refreshments will follow

The Effects of Trace H2S in Laboratory Experiments of Planetary Organic Haze Chemistry

Nathan William Reed,
Tolbert group / Browne group
CU ANYL Dissertation Defense

Planetary organic hazes from methane (CH4) photochemistry and atmospheric sulfur gases are each common in planetary atmospheres, including the Archean Earth and, likely, exoplanetary atmospheres. A planetary organic haze can affect a planet’s radiative forcing and interpretations of observable spectra, as well as act as a source for prebiotic chemistry and nutrients for life. However, cross reactions between inorganic sulfur and organic molecules to form organosulfur have yet to be explored in haze chemistry. The objective of my thesis is to explore the coupling between hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and organic haze chemistry. Here I present the results of laboratory experiments using aerosol mass spectrometry, differential mobility analysis, and optical measurements to explore how trace H2S influences the compositional, physical, and optical properties of aerosol from organic haze analogs produced by CH4 photochemistry. I investigated the chemistry of aerosol formed in reducing (CH4/H2S gas mixtures in N2, varying trace H2S) and weakly reducing (CO2/CH4/H2S gas mixtures in N2, varying CO2) atmospheric conditions.

When I included trace H2S in precursor mixtures, the total organic aerosol mass increased in both conditions, despite H2S not being a carbon source. Moreover, I found evidence for the formation of organic reduced sulfur (ORS) and organic oxidized sulfur (OOS) compounds in the reducing and weakly reducing conditions, respectively. At lower CO2 mixing ratios, I attributed the total sulfate signal to be entirely OOS. Thus, in contrast to previous thought, I show that ORS and OOS are potentially significant atmospheric sulfur reservoirs. Further, I found the compositional changes in the reducing conditions lead to changes in the aerosol optical properties, as the total extinction (absorption plus scattering) of light increased with increasing H2S mixing ratios. I found that trace H2S dramatically influences the organic aerosol composition, mass, and optical properties by the formation of organosulfur (ORS and OOS) compounds and enhancing organic aerosol formation. These results have implications for Archean atmospheric chemistry, prebiotic chemistry, planetary climate, and spectral interpretations for exoplanetary atmospheres.

Thus, future work should consider the potential impacts of trace H2S on organic haze chemistry.

Utilizing historical satellite- and model-based snow data to address real-time challenges in water resource management with Dr. Noah Molotch

Seasonal snow covers over 30% of the Earth's land surface and provides the water supply for approximately one-sixth of the global population. In the western United States, meltwater from seasonal snowpack contributes 50% to 80% of annual runoff and provides the majority of water for municipal, agricultural, and industrial demands. Whereas many independent methods can be used to estimate snow water equivalent (SWE) and its spatial distribution and seasonal variability, a need exists for a systematic characterization of SWE in near-real-time.  This seminar will present recent research aimed at fusing together satellite- and model-based historical reanalyses of snow water equivalent, ground-based snow measurements, and airborne data in order to derive real-time SWE estimates.  This will be broken into three parts: 

First, historical reanalyses of SWE can be used as information for real-time SWE estimation within statistical models.  Hence, we conduct a multi-scale validation and comparison of five fine-scale SWE model-derived datasets in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California, including two datasets from historical SWE reconstruction models, a SWE Reconstruction with Data Assimilation, and two operational SWE datasets from the U.S. National Weather Service, including the Snow Data Assimilation System (SNODAS) and the National Water Model (NWM-SWE). 

Second, this study develops a statistically-based data-fusion framework to estimate SWE in real-time, which combines multi-source datasets including satellite-observed daily mean fractional snow-covered area, snow pillow SWE measurements, physiographic data, and historical SWE patterns (as noted above) into a linear regression model (LRM). We find that the statistical model explains 87% of the variance in the snow course SWE measurements with 0.1% PBIAS.  This represents an improvement over other operational models such as SNODAS (73% of explained variance and -2.4% bias) and NWM-SWE (75% of explained variance and -15.9% bias. Additionally, the statistical model explained 85% of the median variance in the Airborne Snow Observatory SWE with -9.2% PBIAS, which is substantially better than SNODAS (64% and 28.2%, respectively) and NWM-SWE (33% and -30.1%, respectively). 

Third, examples will be used to illustrate the value of the real-time SWE product, including the 2012-2016 drought, rain-on-snow flooding during the Lake Oroville Spillway disaster in 2017, and recent intense snowfall which have placed 13 California counties under a State of Emergency declaration.

Noah Molotch is an Associate Professor of Geography, a Fellow of INSTAAR at CU-Boulder, and a Research Scientist at NASA-JPL.  His research and teaching interests are focused on mountain hydrology and fostering a diverse and equitable scientific community.  Noah’s research projects utilize ground-based observations, remote sensing, and computational modeling to obtain comprehensive understanding of hydrological processes; in particular the distribution of snowmelt, soil moisture, and streamflow.  He also conducts research focused on carbon cycling in montane forests. Noah mentors a diverse group of scientists with the goal of ensuring the sustainability of water resources and ecosystem services now, and into the future.

Faults in nature are observed to slip in various modes: some faults slip continuously in a slow process called aseismic creep, while others slip at seismic speeds in earthquakes and stay highly coupled for long periods of time in between those earthquakes. However, many questions remain about this process in nature, such as the rates at which individual faults accumulate strain, and the dynamics at play when a single fault system displays multiple modes of slip over time and space. These questions are directly relevant to seismic hazard at plate boundaries and even in continental interiors. In this presentation, I investigate three examples of faults that are accumulating tectonic strain in three different settings. First, I investigate the extent of deep aseismic creep and megathrust coupling in a subduction zone setting, estimating coupling ratios and the size of the maximum-magnitude earthquake. I also analyze the kinematics of fault slip in a geothermal setting that deforms by both aseismic slip and regular earthquakes. Lastly, I systematically explore strain rates in Southern California, a region that accumulates strain due to high coupling on its major faults. Each example reveals insights into regional fault coupling from new compilations and analysis of geodetic data. Together, these examples underscore the value and utility of geodetic data in better understanding fault-related hazards and fault zone processes.

*light refreshments will follow

Please join the CMC for their monthly meeting. Join by Google Meet or phone: meet.google.com/vee-dwjy-cji?hs=224 or (US) +1 502-443-0399 PIN: 491275827

Title: The Art of Science Storytelling
Speaker: Ulyana Horodyskyj Peña, North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center (NC CASC).

Abstract: The North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center is a partnership between the US Geological Survey, the University of Colorado Boulder and five consortium partners, focused on generating science and communicating it, to help resource managers adapt to a changing world. Specifically, we foster innovative and applied research in support of Tribal, federal, state, and local natural resource management and decision-making. Learn more about communicating your science through story and how to develop effective, visual and informative slides that inspire your audience to action.

Speaker Bio: Ulyana Horodyskyj Peña is the head of communications at the North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center (NC CASC). She holds a PhD in geological sciences, with a specialty in glaciology. Prior to joining NC CASC, she was a research associate with the Alaska Climate Research Center (University of Alaska Fairbanks) and visiting assistant professor in the environmental program with Colorado College. She is a 2022/23 Voices for Science ambassador for AGU (American Geophysical Union). Ulyana wrote a multi-part blog for Scientific American while living and working abroad in Nepal on a Fulbright Fellowship in 2013/14. Additionally, her research has been covered by the Boulder Daily Camera, National Geographic, LiveScience, NPR, and the BBC.

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Climate warming Impact to Permafrost of Alaska and Western Arctic of Canada by Dr. Thian Yew Gan, University of Alberta

The Arctic, dominated by continuous and discontinuous permafrost, which occupies about 22 million km2 of exposed NH land areas, has been warming much faster than the rest of the world, commonly known as Arctic amplification.  The active layer above the permafrost is a seasonally frozen ground above the permafrost table that is frozen in winter and thaws in summer.  In the 2017 Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) airborne campaign, airborne L- and P- band SAR was used to acquire a dataset that provides estimates of seasonal active layer thickness, ALT and the vertical soil moisture profile for 51 sites across the ABoVE domain, including 39 sites in Alaska and 12 sites in Northwest Canada.  We modeled the ALT of ABoVE dataset using thawing degree day (TDD) taken from the 2-m air temperature of ERA5 dataset, using ALT = K√TDD modified from the Stefan’s Equation, where K is calibrated for the 51 swaths with an excellent fit, R2 = 0.9783.  We also obtained an excellent fit between ALT and the surface ground temperature of ERA5 at 3 levels, with R2 = 0.9719.  Therefore, ALT can be reasonably estimated using either TDD based on 2-m air temperature, or near surface soil temperature.  Arctic structures are vulnerable to the settlement of frozen ground caused by thawing of permafrost.  The SSP (Shared-Social Economic Pathway) climate change scenarios, SSP 1-2.6, SSP 2-4.5 and SSP 5-8.5 of 7 global climate models (GCMs) statistically downscaled to about 25-km resolutions are used to project climate change impact to the ALT of the 51 swatches of the ABoVE dataset.  Assuming ALT= K√TDD, the projected warming of UKESM1-0-LL GCM resulted in the largest projected ALT for the study site, up to about 0.7 m in 2080s under SSP5-8.5 climate scenarios.  Given the mean observed ALT of the study site is about 0.48 m, it means that ALT of the 51 study sites is projected to increase by 0.074m to 0.217m, or between 15 and 45% by 2080s, which is expected to impact the Arctic infrastructure.

Short Bio: Thian Yew Gan is a professor of the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada since 1993, research ambassador of German Academic Exchange Service, a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), and a lead & contributing authors of the AR6-WGI of Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC).  He has many innovative, multidisciplinary contributions to our understanding in hydrology, hydroclimatology, cryosphere, remote sensing of environment, and water resources management.  He is a pioneer in research regarding climate change impact to water resources, and has developed many practical engineering tools/models for hydrologic forecasting, and innovative algorithms to retrieve large-scale spatial information from remotely sensed data, all essential for effective management of water resources. Dr. Gan has supervised 10 postdoctoral fellows, graduated 18 PhDs and over 30 master studentsDr Gan has published two books, “Global Cryosphere – Past, Present and Future”, 1st & 2nd Edition, Cambridge University Press, and over 160 refereed papers in various reputable, peer reviewed international journals

The Innovative Research Program is designed to stimulate a creative research environment within CIRES and to encourage synergy between disciplines and research colleagues. The intent is to support small research efforts that can quickly provide concept viability or rule out further consideration. The program encourages novel, unconventional or fundamental research that might otherwise be difficult to fund. Funded projects are inventive, sometimes opportunistic, and do not necessarily have an immediate practical application or guarantee of success. This program supports pilot or exploratory studies, which may provide rapid results. Activities are not tightly restricted and can range from instrument development, lab testing, and field observations to model development, evaluation, and application.

The 2023 IRP competition opens February 13, 2023. Applications will be due March 27, 2023. Submit your proposal online. You must have a CIRES login and password to access the online application.