Tornado camp participant Trent Frey spoke with the Monroe News about tornado chasing in Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas.
The team drove through Moore, Okla., about four hours before the storm hit the town. The team is in the Midwest because they need rural, flat areas in... (more)
The NSF Arctic Natural Sciences Program has chosen Professor Mark Flanner’s CAREER (Faculty Early Career Development) proposal for funding.
The CAREER Program offers NSF’s most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who... (more)
Professor Frank Marsik and recent AOSS graduate Zachary Ebenstein are participating in a study to better understand the formation and frequency of rip-currents and other dangerous currents.
Hazardous coastal currents are one of the most dangerous weather-related... (more)
The first edition of the Daily Planet Online is available here! As always, the Daily Planet is filled with exciting AOSS news, awards and events.
In this issue you will learn about the... (more)
Four AOSS students are traveling to Texas Tech University on May 6 to participate in a severe weather experiment often called “Tornado Camp.”
The experiment is scheduled to last through the first week of June. Professor Derek Posselt and Professor Chris... (more)
The College is now part of the U-M SciVal Experts faculty profiles online database. Faculty can click here to view their profile data.
The website contains grant, publication and patent data. The U-M Medical School faculty has... (more)
Esther Donahue, age 87, died February 4, 2013 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Esther was the widow of former AOSS Chair, Thomas M. Donahue. She was born Esther Marie McPherson, daughter of Helen (Beals) and Mannon McPherson, on March 21, 1925 in Morrisville, New York. Her father... (more)
Congratulations to Professor Brian Gilchrist, he has been named the new U-M representative to the USRA (Universities Space Research Association) by Vice President for Research Stephen Forrest.
In addition to being an AOSS professor, Gilchrist is also the... (more)
The Dexter Dreadbots ranked eighth in their division of 100 teams at the world FIRST robotics championship.
Associate research scientist Darren De Zeeuw mentors the high school robotics team. He says 400 teams from around the world competed at the championships held... (more)
Congratulations to Professor Mike Combi for earning the 2013 Collegiate Research Professorship from the U-M Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR).
Combi is a distinguished research professor and the director of the AOSS Research Experiences for... (more)
Congratulations to staff members Linda Chadwick and Melissa Terwilliger!
Chadwick earned the more)
Darren De Zeeuw, AOSS associate research scientist, mentors the Dexter high school robotics team, the Dreadbots. The team qualified for world FIRST robotics championship this year.
The Dreadbots competed in two regional competitions and then at the Michigan State... (more)
There is a tornado watch in effect on Thursday, April 18 from 10am to 6pm.
Warm, moist and unstable air is steaming towards Michigan this morning due to a strong spring low pressure system that has already provided a mix of severe thunderstorms, tornadoes and heavy... (more)
Mars has lost much of its original atmosphere, but what's left remains active, according to recent findings from the Mars Science Laboratory.
Curiosity's Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument, parts of which were built by SPRL, analyzed an atmosphere sample last... (more)
The Economist magazine references a paper written by Professor Natalia Andronova in a recent climate science article. The paper, written when she was at the University of Illinois, used temperature data to estimate the sensitivity of the climate system.
Climate... (more)
Congratulations to Weiye Yao and John Xun Yang, the AOSS first place winners for the Michigan Geophysical Union Student Research Symposium. Yao also earned the Student Choice Award.
First and second place awards were given to AOSS students from two categories:... (more)
Professors Allison Steiner and Derek Posselt are part of an interdisciplinary team that explored factors that may have contributed to the 2011 Lake Erie algae bloom. The team's findings were published online on Monday, April 1, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of... (more)
Graduate student David Wright along with co-authors Professors Allison Steiner and Derek Posselt has published a paper on the potential impacts of climate change on lake-effect snow.
The paper, “Sensitivity of Lake-effect Snowfall to Lake Ice Cover and... (more)
Congratulations to Professor Paul Drake for earning the Rackham Graduate School’s Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award.
These awards honor senior faculty who have consistently demonstrated outstanding achievements in scholarly research, have a sustained... (more)
Using data from the WIND spacecraft, researchers have found signs of an energy source in solar wind. NASA will be able to test this theory when a new probe is sent into the sun later this decade for a closer look.
The U-M Solar-Heliospheric Research Group (
In a commentary for the Washington Post, Professor Ricky Rood discussed the superior performance of the European forecast model.
“As early as 1995, the weather forecasts from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) were emerging as higher... (more)
Over the past few days, astronomy enthusiasts have been hoping to catch a glimpse of the PAN-STARRS comet. The excitement led the Detroit News to contact Professor Michael Combi on what to expect.
Comets are large masses of ice. Their tails become longer and brighter... (more)
The Michigan Geophysical Union (MGU) Student Research Symposium will take place on Wednesday, April 3, 2013, from 2 PM to 6 PM in the Johnson Rooms of the Lurie Engineering Center (LEC).
Earth and Environmental Sciences (EARTH) and Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space... (more)
A recent study, led by AOSS research scientist, Xianzhe Jia, and including AOSS professors Margaret Kivelson and Tamas Gombosi, provides the first detailed, quantitative model for the strange behavior in the magnetic bubble surrounding Saturn.
Visit the
Graduate student Soner Yorgun earned an Honorable Mention in the Applications to the Environmental Sciences Student Competition held at the American Meteorological Society (AMS) Conference on Artificial and Computational Intelligence.
His abstract is titled... (more)
Congratulations to the following students who earned Leaders and Honors Awards from the College:
Alex Bryan, Distinguished Leadership Award
Guangxing Lin, Towner Prize for Distinguished Academic Achievement
Alumnus Kevin Reed received an honorable mention in the 2012 Distinguished Dissertation Award competition hosted by Rackham graduate school. His dissertation is titled, “An Exploration of Tropical Cyclone Simulations in NCAR’s Community Atmosphere... (more)
The United Nations Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) has added space weather to their annual meeting agenda.
"This is a significant development," says Lika Guhathakurta of NASA Headquarters. "By adding space weather to the... (more)
Congratulations to Professor Fisk, the new U.S. Representative to the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR).
COSPAR is an international scientific organization founded in 1958. According to the COSPAR website, it’s objectives are “to... (more)
Doctoral student Robert Alexander spoke with National Public Radio (NPR) about composing solar music. Alexander uses a process called sonification to create solar music by turning data collected by NASA satellites into sound.
The interview... (more)
Measurements from the MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) Neutron Spectrometer show decreases in the flux of epithermal and fast neutrons from Mercury’s north polar region that are consistent with the presence of water... (more)
According to a new survey released by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, science and engineering majors such as AOSS earn the highest starting salaries when compared to liberal arts and business majors.
Aerospace engineering... (more)
Congratulations to Professor Mark Moldwin, he has been named the 2013 Center for Research on Learning and Teaching in Engineering (CRLT-Engin) Faculty Associate.
Moldwin has... (more)
Professor Jim Slavin’s paper, “MESSENGER observations of a flux-transfer-event shower at Mercury” has been selected as an AGU Research Spotlight. The highlight was published online and is featured in the AGU newspaper, Eos.
On January 23, 2013, twenty-nine middle school students from O.L. Smith Middle School in Dearborn visited AOSS as guests of the Student Space Systems Fabrications Lab. Professor Mark Moldwin, the student group sponsor, encouraged the young visitors to... (more)
Congratulations to doctoral student Colin Zarzycki for winning the Best Oral Presentation Award at this year’s American Meteorological Society Weather Analysis and Forecasting Symposium. His presentation was titled: “Assessing the Ability of... (more)
The American Meteorological Society offers an array of undergraduate scholarships and graduate fellowships with the support of its members, corporations, and government agencies nationwide. The scholarships and fellowships help further the education of outstanding... (more)
The Curiosity rover is expected to conduct its first drilling in late January or early February. The targeted drilling site is layered bedrock at Yellowknife Bay.
“We are very excited that drilling is starting, after months of... (more)
COE/AOSS' memorial service for Jason will be held Friday, January 18, 2013, at Tishman Hall in the Bob and Betty Beyster Building,... (more)
The University of Michigan Solar Car Team will have a display in the Michigan Hall at the Auto Show. “Our car doesn't look like any other car at the auto show. At times, it can even be mistaken as a boat,” AOSS student and team member Jeffrey... (more)
Black carbon, the tiny particles released into the atmosphere by burning fuel, is the second most important contributor to global warming, according to a new study co-authored by Professor Mark Flanner.
The study, published in the Journal of... (more)
CADRE (CubeSat investigating Atmospheric Density Response to Extreme driving) was named Runner-Up in the CubeSat Class at the Air Force Research Laboratory’s University NanoSat Flight Competition Review.
Team... (more)
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Jason Daida, AOSS associate research scientist and lecturer at the University, who died Wednesday night after a battle with cancer. He was 53.
Daida was an instructor for Engineering 100 and 101 courses, and... (more)
Congratulations to the following faculty members:
Dr. Darren McKague, Thomas M. Sawyer, Jr. Teaching Award
Professor Aaron Ridley, Education Excellence Award
Dr. Susan Lepri, Kenneth M. Reese Outstanding... (more)
2012 was the warmest year on record for the continental United States. Professor Richard Rood shared his expertise on this hot topic with Michigan Radio, the Los Angeles Times and the Detroit Free Press.
Rood told Cynthia Canty... (more)
If you’ve watched the Block M video, you may have noticed a Block M launched into near-space at the end of the clip. Guess who launched it? The High Altitude Solutions research group!
The group is... (more)
The Journal of Geophysical Research published the work of Assistant Research Scientist Dr. Xianzhe Jia and Professor Margaret Kivelson on the mysterious electromagnetic periodicities of Saturn’s magnetosphere.
Jia and Kivelson’s paper, “Driving... (more)
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is pleased to announce the availability of scholarships (includes internships) to college sophomore students majoring in STEM disciplines related to oceanic and atmospheric science,... (more)
Professor Thomas Zurbuchen provided testimony to the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology on Wednesday, December 12.
The topic was: “The Future of NASA: Perspectives on Strategic Vision for America’s Space... (more)
The Fall/Winter 2012 issue of the Daily Planet is available on the web at http://aoss.engin.umich.edu/pages/dailyplanet. The Daily Planet has news about AOSS alumni, students... (more)
Entrepreneurship is alive and well in AOSS!
Students from the AOSS Chapter of the American Meteorological Society are serving up breakfast goodies to support their trip to the 2013 AMS Annual Conference in Austin, Texas.
So far... (more)
Congratulations to Professor Thomas Zurbuchen, whom Governor Rick Snyder appointed to the Northern Michigan University Board of Trustees.
"One of the major reasons I accepted this appointment is my conviction that all universities are giving opportunity to... (more)
When Curiosity landed on Mars, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory team cheered. Then they spent the next 90 days living on Martian time.
Mars days, called sols, are about 40 minutes longer than Earth days. The start of the sol is always changing... (more)
Congratulations to Professor Samson, whose learning technology startup LectureTools was acquired by Echo360, an educational technology company specializing in active learning tools.
"As part of this deal, the LectureTools group will expand... (more)
The NASA Sounder Science Team Meeting this November will feature Professor Huang’s paper on innovative use of atmospheric infrared sounder data, entitled “Assessing Stability of CERES-FM3 Daytime Longwave Unfiltered Radiance with AIRS... (more)
AOSS is seeking applications for a tenured or tenure-track faculty position. The position is to be filled with an experimentalist with a strong research interest in scientific instrumentation, in particular space flight hardware development, related to Space, Planetary or... (more)
The Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences (AOSS) in the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor invites applications for an open rank, tenure or tenure-track faculty position. We welcome applicants who are working in the intersections... (more)
AOSS is seeking applications for an Engineer in Research Senior. The position is to be filled with a mechanical engineer with significant experience working constructively as a member of project teams.
GENERAL DUTIES:
Work in project teams with scientists,... (more)
Are you a student interested in private sector meteorology?
Apply to the AMS Board for Private Sector Meteorology’s Student Mentorship Program!
New energy economy, risk management, and climate change. Solar and wind... (more)
“There has been little written about how Hurricane Sandy highlights the dangerous absence of climate change in US politics,” Rood wrote in a commentary for Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail.
Rood states that the storm reveals the weather-related... (more)
At the 7th annual Engineering Graduate Symposium, the top three prizes in the Earth Sciences and Remote Sensing track went to AOSS students.
Colin Zarzycki earned first place for his poster, “Improving weather prediction and... (more)
The Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) of the Earth Institute at Columbia University has an immediate opening for a Senior Research Staff Assistant to support climate data analysis activities within the USAID-funded African and Latin American... (more)
NOTE: Job posting is now closed.
The Space Physics Research Laboratory (SPRL) is seeking applications for the position of Assistant Director.
University space research activities, such as those conducted in the Space Physics Research... (more)
Congratulations to AOSS Assistant Professor Sarah Aciego for winning a Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering. According to an interview with the Detroit Free Press, Aciego plans to use the money to travel to Greenland and study ice believed to be 2.5... (more)
Congratulations to the MESSENGER team for earning the 2012 Laurels for Team Achievement Award from the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA). AOSS and SPRL would especially like to congratulate Thomas Zurbuchen, Jim Slavin, Dan Gershman, Jason Gilbert, Jim Raines, Gina... (more)
The Journal of Climate published a paper from Professor Xianglei Huang, which establishes a more rigorous metric for evaluating outgoing longwave radiation and cloud radiative effect simulated by climate models than what has been traditionally used.
The paper,... (more)
I.M. Systems Group, Inc. (IMSG) (www.imsg.com), a science and technical company supporting the U.S. Federal Government, located in Rockville, Maryland, is currently seeking to hire multiple Scientific Analysts / Support... (more)
Remember when we gathered to watch Curiosity land and had to wait so long to see that picture of a shadow? A Jet Propulsion Laboratory project wants to make that experience better. The project is called Opals (Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science) and it is testing lasers... (more)
Green Corps (the Field School for Environmental Organizing) is looking for college graduates who are ready to take on the biggest environmental challenges of our day. Green Corps runs a... (more)
Nature Physics published Dr. Sokolov’s paper, titled “Explaining fast ejections of plasma and exotic x-ray emission from the solar corona.”
The paper provides an explanation of the origin of fast ejections of magnetized plasma from the Sun’s... (more)
The Journal of Climate published Professor Xianglei Huang's paper on the Walker circulation. The paper presents a simple theoretical explanation on why the Walker circulation weakening should happen in accordance with climate feedback mechanisms in response to climate... (more)
Professor Rick Rood is a member of the National Academy of Sciences' Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, which recently published a report titled “A National Strategy for Advancing Climate Modeling.”
The report explains there is a need for more... (more)
Join us in the SRB second floor lounge every weekday at 3pm for free coffee, tea, biscotti and awesome people! This is a great opportunity to meet up with classmates, professors, SPRL engineers and staff.
In Origin magazine, doctoral student Robert Alexander discusses why solar sonification is important.
"Through false color imaging we can expand our sensorium and perceive wavelengths far beyond visible light: radio waves mixed with x-rays in a swirling sea of... (more)
By Nicole Casal Moore
Dream big. That's the main lesson that the National Science Foundation's Innovation Corps program taught Harvey Elliott, an AOSS doctoral student and one of the more than 80 inventors and entrepreneurs who participated in the eight-week... (more)
Tropical storm Isaac is predicted to grow into a hurricane on Tuesday and possibly land in the Gulf Coast, according to the National Hurricane Center. How will hurricane prediction change when CYGNSS satellites launch in... (more)
AOSS Prof. Tamas Gombosi's comments on solar storms and the challenges facing space weather forecasters with predicting CME behavior using current technology were published recently in Scientific American. (Short-Circuiting Civilization: Predicting the Disruptive... (more)
The University of Michigan Solar Car Team won its 7th national championship this summer with the largest margin of victory in the history of the American Solar Challenge.
Jordan Feight, an AOSS student starting his senior year, is race manager. He spent his first two... (more)
By Nicole Casal Moore
As they waited for the landing of the heaviest and most sophisticated Mars rover, 100-plus people crossed their fingers and ate NASA's good luck snack---peanuts. And it worked.
The Mars Science Laboratory's unprecedented and precarious... (more)
Local 4 Business Editor and author Rod Meloni attended our Mars Rover Landing party and interviewed AOSS student Shannon Curry and SPRL engineer Ken Arnett. more)
Professor Allison Steiner is a co-investigator on a new project studying storm patterns around Great Plains urban areas.
Steiner says, “This study will investigate how the urbanization process can influence the weather of a region, and the findings will be... (more)
By Nicole Casal Moore
The unprecedented sky crane technique that NASA will use to land the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is designed to keep the craft's supersonic rocket jets as far from the planet’s surface as possible, minimizing the jets’ effects on... (more)
The most advanced scientific instruments to be used on Mars’ surface will land in a crater near the planet’s equator on August 5 at 10:31 P.M.
The instruments are part of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), an ambitious NASA mission to assess whether... (more)
The Weather Underground, started in AOSS in the 80’s, has been acquired by The Weather Channel.
“It is truly amazing what can come out of undergraduate projects at Michigan,” AOSS Professor Perry Samson states in an e-mail.
The Weather... (more)
AOSS Alum Martin G. Mlynczak has earned the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, the highest award NASA bestows.
Mlynczak specifically thanks Roland Drayson, John Barker, and Bill Kuhn from AOSS.
“I had the best committee ever with Roland, John, and Bill.... (more)
Improving hurricane and extreme weather prediction is the goal of a new, $151.7-million NASA satellite project led by the University of Michigan, NASA announced today.
The Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) will make accurate measurements of ocean... (more)
Professor John Barker is a co-author of “Water Effect on the OH + HCl Reaction,” a paper published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry. The paper was one of the top 20 most downloaded papers from the journal in May.
The paper presents the first... (more)
SpaceX's Dragon, the first cargo-carrying private spacecraft, made its way back to Earth Thursday, and it was helped along the way by Michigan engineers.
“Our students are flocking to companies like SpaceX,” said AOSS and Aerospace Professor Thomas... (more)
Professor Joyce Penner served as guest commentator in a recent Detroit Free Press article on climate change.
The article states, "In March, more than 15,000 warm weather records across our country were broken. Michigan had its warmest March in recorded history as locals... (more)
The 2012 HEDSS Summer School aims to promote the spread of broad, fundamental knowledge in the field of high energy density physics and to help train the new entrants to it.
The program runs August 6 to August 19, 2012 and will be... (more)
AOSS Professor Tamas Gombosi discussed NASA’s Cassini mission in a recent report from Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Findings from Cassini reveal that Saturn's geyser moon Enceladus provides a special laboratory for watching unusual behavior of plasma, or hot ionized... (more)
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The latest AOSS news is in the Spring 2012 issue of The Daily Planet. Some of the articles in this issue include:
Faculty Highlights
• Chair Jim Slavin named 2012 AGU Fellow
Michigan Engineering and AOSS Research Scientist Susan Lepri discusses the significance of the transit of Venus across the sun, and how the Solar and Heliospheric Research Group at the University of Michigan will use the event to learn about the composition of solar... (more)
Michigan Engineering’s Associate Research Scientist, Frank Marsik discusses using doppler radar to detect tornadoes.
FULL STORY: more)
Professor Aaron Ridley and student Kathryn Luczek attended an exhibition of National Science Foundation (NSF) research in Washington, D.C.
The exhibition showed members of Congress examples of basic research... (more)
The MESSENGER mission has now been in orbit around Mercury for about 14 months and its 100,000th image of the surface was just recently received here on Earth. This milestone... (more)
Michigan Engineering released a digital multimedia experience on tornadoes which included Professor Perry Samson and Dr. Frank Marsik. Samson discussed the March 2012 Michigan tornado, and other cases of extreme weather. Marsik explained Doppler radar.
You can find... (more)
The AOSS Book Award goes to high school students who have demonstrated academic and research excellence in earth and space sciences. The 2012 winners are Sho Harvey and Aman virMandair from Dexter High School, Gabby Zacks and Nan Hu from Pioneer High School and Isabel Zheng... (more)
Dr. Frank Marsik visited Bates elementary school in Dexter to discuss weather with children. AOSS students Alex Bryan, Rachael Kroodsma and Zac Ebenstein joined him.
Marsik began the day with a story about a dog that used his nose to observe weather. Then he showed... (more)
Congratulations to Professor Allison Steiner! She has been selected to receive a 2013 Henry Russel Award for her transformative research, superlative teaching and impeccable record of service. This Rackham Graduate School award is the highest honor bestowed upon early-career... (more)
AOSS junior Christopher Koh earned 3rd place in an Arts @ Michigan photography contest.
The competition, titled As I See It, focused on travel. Koh's winning photograph, Good Luck Exploring the Infinite Abyss, is of the Los Angeles... (more)
“I’ve always been excited about space in general so when I had the opportunity to study it, I jumped at it,” Gina DiBraccio said.
DiBraccio, an AOSS doctoral student, earned first place among AOSS students at the 9th annual Michigan Geophysical... (more)
AOSS Assistant Professor Jeremy Bassis was quoted in National Geographic this month. The article focuses on the upcoming 100-year anniversary of the sinking of Titanic.
“If the ship sailed today on the same trajectory, it seems likely it would encounter more... (more)
AOSS CSEM Programmer Jeff Kopmanis is staying up late these days, taking photographs of the solar system.
He took great photographs of planets over Easter weekend. On Friday night, despite turbulent upper air, Kopmanis captured a
UPDATE 1:31 a.m. Aug. 6 EDT: NASA's Curiosity rover has landed on Mars! View photos and read more)
Martin O’Leary, an AOSS research fellow, has been developing an algorithm to grade student essays.
O’Leary is competing for $60,000, which will be awarded by The Hewlett Foundation to the scoring system that most closely matches scores given by human... (more)
Graduates and undergraduates of AOSS,
The deadline for MGU poster submission has been extended to 5PM this Friday, April 6. Submit your abstract, with the title and your research advisor's name, to Kate Volk (kevolk@umich.edu).
More information: more)
Date: Wednesday, April 4th
Time: 5:30 – 6:30 pm
Loc: AOSS Auditorium (2246 Space Research Bldg.)
RSVP to... (more)
Congratulations to our own Kevin Reed who will be moving to Washington, DC in August to begin his American Geophysical Union (AGU) Congressional Science Fellowship. This is the 35th year of the Fellowship Program and Kevin is the first University of Michigan alumnus to be... (more)
Congratulations to Sushil Atreya on his appointment to the highly prestigious Committee on Astrobiology and Planetary Sciences (CAPS) of the National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences. CAPS was created from the merger of NRC's Committee on Planetary and... (more)
The Extreme Weather class (AOSS 102) will be conducting a donation drive Friday and Monday during class (10:00-11:00, Aud.C, Angell Hall) for the Washtenaw Country chapter of the American Red Cross.
AOSS Prof. Perry Samson will match the first $500... (more)
What does a solar storm sound like? Thanks to Robert Alexander (AOSS doctoral student of Prof. Zurbuchen and a member of the Solar and Heliospheric Research Group) you can find out in a new video, which was created from "sonifying" data from solar storm activity from two... (more)
The latest Space Boffins podcast features an interview with Professor Thomas Zurbuchen, who's celebrating the first year of the Mercury MESSENGER spacecraft going into orbit. His clip is right up front. (Space Boffins is a monthly space podcast presented by two British... (more)
MGU will be hosting the 9th annual Michigan Geophysical Union student research symposium this year, an event sponsored by both Earth and Environmental Sciences (EARTH) and Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences (AOSS).
Friday April 13, 2012
9:30... (more)
Robert Alexander is a doctoral student of Prof. Zurbuchen and a member of the Solar and Heliospheric Research Group.
(ScienceLine.org) Robert Alexander picked up “the hum” on a chilly January day in 2011. He was at a coffee shop near the University of... (more)
(AP News) One of the strongest solar storms in years engulfed Earth early Thursday, but scientists say the planet may have lucked out. Hours after the storm arrived, officials said there were no reports of problems with power grids, GPS, satellites or other technologies... (more)
The 2012 tornado season has begun and Professor Samson's TornadoPaths.org website has already posted 41 tornadoes over the past 48 hours (as of 3/1/12 4:15pm EST). Tragically, Wednesday's tornadoes claimed the lives of twelve people, with experts predicting... (more)
The American Meteorological Society (AMS) is extending its deadline date for the AMS Named Scholarship Program. The deadline date has been extended until 16 March 2012.
The program was designed to assist... (more)
AOSS Research Professor George Gloeckler talks about NASA's IBEX mission in the latest issue of Nature. Dr. Gloeckler was a member of the Ulysses mission, which ended in 2009, which also (like IBEX) measured neutral helium from beyond the... (more)
AOSS Professor Paul Drake's recent published collaborative work into how the magnetism of the universe got started, has caught the attention of several prominent news services, including MSNBC, Discovery News, Space.com, Cosmos Magazine, and our own U-M News... (more)
"The solar cycle is increasing, and so we are going to get more storms," says University of Michigan space weather expert Tamas Gombosi. "Once an eruption happens on the sun, even the biggest ones, we'll have at least a day's warning."
Full story at USA Today:
Congratulations to AOSS Chair Jim Slavin on being elected an AGU Fellow for "fundamental contributions to the understanding of the solar wind interactions with the planets and the structure and dynamics of the Earth's magnetosphere". Jim joins a select group of scientists who... (more)
The prominent scientific journal Nature has just published a paper coauthored by AOSS Professor Paul Drake on his recent collaborative research into how the magnetism of the universe got started. He was also quoted in a feature article for Technology & Science on... (more)
Michigan Engineering recently recorded AOSS Professor Tamas Gombosi talking about solar storms.
“We can expect an average of one solar storm per month over the next few years,” says University of Michigan professor Tamas Gombosi. Gombosi is... (more)
Congratulations to AOSS assistant Professor Jeremy Bassis for being selected for a National Science Foundation (NSF) Career award for his project, entitled "CAREER: Bound to Improve - Improved Estimates of the Glaciological Contribution to Sea Level Rise."
YOU ARE INVITED TO A CLIMATE CHANGE TOWN HALL DISCUSSION
Visit their website where you can:
-- Sign-up for the conference updates
-- View travel information
-- View lodging information
-- Participants List
-- Find out how... (more)
Chronicle of Higher Education: LectureTools, a company that grew out of a Perry Samson project to use iPads as classroom learning tools, appeared at the Consumer Electronics Show.
FULL STORY: more)
MESSENGER NEWS: Space.com and Science News are the latest science publications to name MESSENGER and its accomplishments as one of the top science stories of 2011. They join Discover (more)
Congratulations to Sue Lepri, AOSS Associate Research Scientist, for being given the PI-roll in the U-M portion of the Solar Orbiter Heavy Ion Sensor project. The Solar Orbiter Heavy Ion Sensor is a NASA-sponsored space instrument project which aims to address questions... (more)
The Winter 2011 issue of the Daily Planet is now available on the web at http://aoss.engin.umich.edu/pages/dailyplanet. Again in this issue, we have featured many of the projects and events that have involved... (more)
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Under the cold clear waters of Lake Huron, University of Michigan researchers have found a five-and-a-half foot-long, pole-shaped piece of wood that is 8,900 years old. The wood, which is tapered and beveled on one side in a way that looks deliberate,... (more)
Last Saturday (Nov. 26), NASA successfully launched the Mars Science Laboratory, which is scheduled to reach Mars in August 2012. Onboard is the car-sized rover, Curiosity, and its spacecraft components. Mission scientists include AOSS Professors Sushil Atreya and Nilton... (more)
MESSENGER was named a winner in Popular Science magazine's 24th annual "Best of What's New" in the Aviation and Space category.
Founded in 1872, Popular Science is the world's largest science and technology magazine, with a circulation of 1.3 million and 6.8... (more)
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Through a smoldering brush fire, past wind-shearing road trains, across the Australian continent, the University of Michigan's Quantum was the first American car to finish the World Solar Challenge last Thursday (October 20). The Solar Car Team... (more)
The U-M Solar Car Team has been in Australia for the last month preparing for the 2011 World Solar Challenge race. AOSS junior and team meteorologist, Jordan Feight, has been blogging for us on more)
With a $1.3-million grant from NASA, University of Michigan Professor Nilton Renno is researching how water and salts might combine on Mars to form pockets of brine. In mini Mars chambers, he is recreating the Red Planet's conditions and examining how and when the brines... (more)
The latest AOSS news is in the Summer/Fall issue of the Daily Planet (http://aoss.engin.umich.edu/pages/dailyplanet) . Some of the articles in this issue... (more)
Zahid Hasan's passion and zeal for robotics and technology, and his entrepreneurial spirit have served him well over the years, from earning him the distinction of being the first university student to be published in Aviation Week magazine’s ... (more)
The Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences (AOSS) Department at the University of Michigan (UM) is seeking tenured or tenure-track applicants at the assistant professor or higher level in the general areas of Climate Modeling and Integrated Assessment for Engineered... (more)
The solar wind sandblasts the surface of planet Mercury at its poles, according to new data from a University of Michigan instrument on board NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft.The sodium and oxygen particles the... (more)
AOSS professor Thomas Zurbuchen will participate in tomorrow's media teleconference: NASA'S MESSENGER Reveals New Details of Planet Mercury.
NASA will host a media teleconference at 2 p.m. EDT on Thursday, Sept. 29, to discuss new data and images from the... (more)
Congratulations to AOSS Assistant Professor Christiane Jablonowski as one of this year's recipients of the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). This is the nation's highest honor for researchers at the outset of their independent research... (more)
U-M News Service recently featured a story about AOSS professor Perry Samson’s LectureTools entitled, “How to hold students' attention in large lectures: Reach out through their laptops and cell phones”.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (UM News Service: August 24,... (more)
On Sept 27, President Mary Sue Coleman expanded on the University's current commitment to sustainability by announcing future goals in academics and operations. The university community was invited to watch Coleman deliver this announcement at 11 a.m. via the following live... (more)
AOSS Assistant Professor Allison Steiner was invited by Michele Obama to... (more)
The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) is expected to reenter the Earth's atmosphere later today, Friday September 23, 2011. One of the instruments on UARS was the High Resolution Doppler Imager which was built at the Space Physics Research Laboratory of the... (more)
AOSS junior and U-M Solar Car team meteorologist, Jordan Feight, will be blogging for AOSS and providing updates during the race as the team competes in the 2011 1,800 mile World Solar Challenge across the outback of Australia in October.
AOSS Professor Sushil Atreya is a scientist on the Juno Science Team and snapped this picture when the rocket made a planned sharp turn within seconds of the launch (Sushil said it looked like it was heading into the ocean).
Juno will fly by the earth in about two... (more)
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Aerosol particles, including soot and sulfur dioxide from burning fossil fuels, essentially mask the effects of greenhouse gases and are at the heart of the biggest uncertainty... (more)
On Nov. 4, 2010, Comet Hartley 2, a small comet not even a mile in diameter, became the focus of two NASA spacecraft, giving comet researchers such as AOSS Research Professor Michael Combi a close-up view of a comet fading away.
NASA's EPOXI spacecraft came within 450... (more)
BUDAPEST (June 2011) : The International Community for Auditory Display honored Alexander et al. with the Outstanding Achievement Award for Best Use of Sound for their paper "Audification as a Diagnostic tool for Exploratory Heliospheric Data Analysis." This award was... (more)
As a Design Science Ph.D pre-candidate, Robert Alexander's research lies at the intersection of technology and creativity. The core of his research lies in data sonification with the Solar Heliospheric Research Group. He's working to construct software interfaces for... (more)
A few days after the Phoenix Mars lander touched down in May 2008 it sent back a picture of the ground underneath it. The spacecraft, which had aimed for a spot where its backhoe arm could reach ice, looked to be standing on a patch of it. Tests would confirm this in the... (more)
Brett Garwood and Shea Holman of Dexter High School and Suraj Jaipalli and Eva Koester of Ann Arbor Huron High School were named Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences <http://aoss.engin.umich.edu> 2011 Book Award winners for their academic and research... (more)
The E-MAGINE PROJECT evolved from AOSS assistant research scientist Darren McKague’s IMAGINE project. Dr. McKague is advising the current group of students who will be traveling to Africa to develop a solar powered, cell phone-based Internet system for rural Kenya. The... (more)
Numerical Techniques for Global Atmospheric Models, Lecture Notes in Computational Science and Engineering, Lauritzen, P. H., C. Jablonowski, M. A. Taylor and R. D. Nair (Eds.)(2011)
This book surveys recent developments in numerical techniques for ... (more)
The National Research Council of the National Academies sponsors a number of awards for graduate, postdoctoral and senior researchers at federal laboratories and affiliated institutions. These awards include generous stipends ranging from $42,000 - $75,000 per year for recent... (more)
The Space Physics Research Lab within the Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences (AOSS) Department at the University of Michigan (UM) is seeking an electrical design engineer to develop instrument subsystems for laboratory, ground-based, airborne, and space... (more)
Erdal Yiğit, a post-doc in the AOSS department, recently contributed to the community newsletter CAWSES as a "Highlight on Young Scientists" by writing a short essay entitled Thermospheric effects of lower... (more)
The USPS issued a new stamp featuring the MESSENGER spacecraft this year (May 2011). On-board MESSENGER is the SPRL/AOSS built instrument, FIPS. The first image on the left is a mechanical drawing of the MESSENGER spacecraft with an arrow pointing to where the instrument FIPS... (more)
Congratulations to AOSS PhD students Kevin Reed, Ahmed Tawfik, and Paul Ullrich for each winning the Fall AGU Outstanding Student Papers for Atmospheric Science award! AGU announced the winners in the May 3 edition of themore)
The recent published work of AOSS assistant research scientist Xianzhe Jia, along with AOSS Research Professor Margaret G. Kivelson and others, on the interior structure of Jupiter's moon Io is gaining worldwide news coverage. The report, Evidence of a Global Magma... (more)
The journal Science recently published the work of AOSS assistant research scientist Xianzhe Jia, along with AOSS Research Professor Margaret G. Kivelson and others, on the interior structure of Jupiter's moon Io. The report, Evidence of a Global Magma Ocean in... (more)
AOSS held their first graduation celebration for students that graduated in academic year 2010-11 on Friday, April 29. Family and friends joined AOSS faculty and staff as they gathered to honor AOSS students who have graduated this year.
“Rood has a great blog called ‘Climate Change’ that is archived at wunderground.com and it's really refreshing to read the breadth and depth of his research…
“The goal, he says, is to take climate discourse out of the political arena and... (more)
The Space Physics Research Lab within the Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences (AOSS) Department at the University of Michigan (UM) is seeking a design or systems engineer (depending on project needs) to develop complex instrumentation for space and atmospheric research... (more)
Alex Gardner, a research fellow in the Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences department, has a lead-author paper in press in Nature, which was published online today.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (U-M News Service) — Melting glaciers and ice caps on Canadian Arctic... (more)
Along with co-author Christine Shearer, AOSS Professor Ricky Rood discusses the impact of the current situation surrounding the news media and the scientific community when it comes to reporting on climate change and extreme weather events, and the importance of reframing the... (more)
Students enrolled in Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences 583 — a space systems design class taught by Lecturer Darren McKague — are working on sending balloons to high altitudes, though these balloons aren’t for gazing at beautiful ... (more)
On April 4, MESSENGER began its yearlong science campaign to understand the innermost planet. An onboard device dubbed FIPS (Fast Imaging Plasma Spectrometer), designed and built at the University of Michigan will take atmospheric measurements. The spacecraft will... (more)
Congratulations to everyone who participated and organized this year's exceptional MGU Annual Meeting. This year's AOSS student winners include:
On board MESSENGER is the Fast Imaging Plasma Spectrometer (FIPS), a space instrument built by AOSS/SPRL at the University of Michigan. NASA will release the first orbital image of Mercury's surface, including previously unseen terrain, on Tuesday afternoon, March 29.... (more)
On board MESSENGER is the Fast Imaging Plasma Spectrometer (FIPS), a space instrument built by AOSS/SPRL at the University of Michigan. On March 17th, at 9:10 p.m. EDT, engineers in the MESSENGER Mission Operations Center at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics ... (more)
AOSS Professor Perry Samson has launched a new web site that is tracking wind flow over Japan. It's an interactive site for people to "see where their air comes from". Trajectory lines represent calculated estimates of air paths to a location on a selected day. At this... (more)
AOSS is proud to host the 8th annual Michigan Geophysical Union (MGU) student research symposium, sponsored by AOSS and Geological Sciences. The event will be held Thursday, March 24, 2011, from 9:30 am - 3:30 pm, in the François-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB)... (more)
Attention Undergraduates and Graduates! Abstracts for MGU are due Monday, March 7.
AOSS is proud to host the 8th annual Michigan Geophysical Union (MGU) student research symposium, sponsored by AOSS and Geological Sciences.
Both graduate and ... (more)
Congratulations to three outstanding AOSS students for their selection for three College Awards.
Dara Fisher, AOSS senior, is one of two recipients for this year’s Arlen Hellwarth Prize. This prestigious award is presented to two undergraduate student leaders... (more)
Michigan Engineering asked Frank Marsik, associate research scientist in the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences, to share his thoughts about the winter... (more)
Newly published research by AOSS Assistant Professor Mark Flanner shows that the decreases in Earth's snow and ice cover over the past 30 years have exacerbated global warming more than models predict they should have, on average.
Full Story:
AOSS SPRL research engineer Steve Musko led a team of SPRL engineers and techs in the development of the Penguin systems for AOSS professor Aaron Ridley. Steve worked with Virginia Tech students who installed the systems in Antarctica in late December. The VT students... (more)
The Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences (AOSS) Department at the University of Michigan (UM) is seeking tenured or tenure-track applicants at the assistant professor or higher level for a climate/climate change or hydrosphere-atmosphere-interactions ... (more)
The Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Sciences of University of Michigan at Ann Arbor invites applicants for a postdoctoral research position in IR remote sensing and relevant satellite data analysis.
The successful applicant will join a research group... (more)
A group of 30 University of Michigan students (including one from the... (more)
UPDATE (11/20/10): RAX has been deployed successfully into orbit! Full story at RAX website
UPDATE (11/19/10): RAX’s ride to space, STP-S26, has been officially cleared... (more)
A 6.5-pound satellite is scheduled to become the first standalone spacecraft built by U-M students to go into orbit and perform a science mission.
The Radio Aurora Explorer (RAX) is slated for launch Nov. 19 from Kodiak, Alaska. Its primary mission is to study how... (more)
The Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences (AOSS) Department at the University of Michigan (UM) is seeking tenured and tenure-track applicants at all levels for a climate/climate change or hydrosphere-atmosphere-interactions modeler with expertise in scientific computing.... (more)
A Michigan Town Hall on Decadal Strategy of Solar and Space Physics
You are invited to a Town Hall meeting to brainstorm and possibly coordinate inputs from Michigan to the next decadal report.
DATE: Thursday, October 14, 2010
TIME: 1:30 - 4:30 PM
AOSS Professors Anna Michalak and Allison Steiner are part of a team of 27 researchers from U-M and other institutions who have been awarded a $5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to determine how climate change and our response to it affects the quality of... (more)
The HIRad instrument, jointly developed between AOSS, the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, and the University of Central Florida, is part of the group of planes that tracked Hurricane Earl and subsequent hurricanes this season. The Hurricane Imaging Radiometer (HIRad) is... (more)
An essay written by Mark B. Moldwin, Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences, University of Michigan, and published in Volume 1, Issue 2 of The Coronal Courant, for the Solar Physics Division of the American Astronomical Society
“The field of space... (more)
“What is happening in Pakistan cannot be described in a single word – like disaster or catastrophe. We are watching a combination of climate, weather, population, societal capacity, and geopolitics whose scope and ramifications are far beyond a ‘historic... (more)
The AOSS Undergraduate program has a new concentration to excite incoming undergrads and current undergrads still seeking a focus. Beginning Fall term of 2010, Climate Impact Engineering will join the current... (more)
Please join us in congratulating Shasha Zou who is the 2010 recipient of the prestigious F. L. Scarf Award. The award, which is given by the Space Physics and Aeronomy Section of the AGU, recognizes an outstanding dissertation that contributes directly to solar-planetary... (more)
Scientists and policymakers should look beyond carbon dioxide for strategies to curb and to understand global warming, say a group of high-profile climate scientists led by AOSS professor Joyce Penner.
Penner is a professor in the Department of... (more)
AOSS Associate Professor Anna Michalak is one of three recipients of one of the highest honors bestowed by U-M upon junior faculty, the Henry Russel Award. Anna, who came to U-M in 2005, focuses her research on characterizing complexity and... (more)
Congratulations to AOSS Assistant Professor Allison Steiner for her NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award. This is the NSF’s most prestigious award in support of junior faculty who “exemplify the role of teacher-scholars... (more)
AOSS professor Perry Samson’s LectureTools was recently highlighted in an article in the Wall Street Journal, “As Laptops Evolve, Education Transforms”. Historically, popular opinion held that laptops in the classroom cause distraction and hinder learning.... (more)
The National Research Council of the National Academies sponsors a number of awards for graduate, postdoctoral and senior researchers at federal laboratories and affiliated institutions. These awards provide generous stipends ($42,000 - $75,000 per year for recent Ph.D.... (more)
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (U-M News Service) — Despite the distraction potential of laptops in college classrooms, new research shows that they can actually increase students' engagement, attentiveness, participation and learning.
To achieve this, however, the instructor... (more)
The latest AOSS news is in the Spring issue of the Daily Planet. Some of the articles in this issue include:
--- AOSS Faculty move into National Leadership... (more)
In December 2009, long-time AOSS professor Andy Nagy officially retired. You can read about his early career at the University of Michigan, enjoy some pictures taken throughout his more than 50 years at the University, and leave your own comments and stories about Andy on the... (more)
Prof. Wiin Nielsen, recruited to the University of Michigan from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in 1963 as the first chair of the Department of Meteorology and Oceanography, died April 26, 2010 in his native Denmark. Under his... (more)
The University of Michigan has several important messages for students, parents and other guests attending the May 1 commencement featuring President Barack Obama: Arrive early, allow plenty of time for parking, and don’t bring purses, bags or other personal items to... (more)
Need help writing a paper? Looking for a tutor? The University of Michigan offers a variety of academic support services to help you succeed academically. This website is designed to help you learn about the wide range of services on campus. Use these resources to reach... (more)
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (U-M SHRG) — It’s been about 3 years since the last extremely hot interplanetary coronal mass ejection (ICME) was observed by the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE)! In fact, for a while, many people believed that the latest... (more)
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (U-M News Service) — Trailing like a serpent's spine along the western coast of South America, the Andes are the world's longest continental mountain range and the highest range outside Asia, with an average elevation of 13,000 feet. The question of... (more)
Applications are invited for highly motivated individuals for a postdoctoral research position with the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Sciences at the University of Michigan. The department has excellent facilities, including computer networks, engineering... (more)
“Congratulations are in order for Perry Samson who has been selected as one of three recipients of the 2010 State Universities of Michigan’s Professor of the Year Award. The award is bestowed by the Presidents Council, State Universities of Michigan and the ... (more)
From our vantage point on Earth, Saturn may look like a peaceful orb with rings worthy of a carefully raked Zen garden, but NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has been shadowing the gas giant long enough to see that the rings are a rough and tumble roller derby. It has also... (more)
The National Park Service has awarded a five-year grant to the National Council for Science & the Environment (NCSE) to develop and administer the George Melendez Wright Climate Change Internship Program through its Campus to Careers Program.
NCSE's Campus to... (more)
NPR's Living on Earth recently interviewed the AOSS' Solar-Heliospheric Research Group about their Solar Wind Sonification Project including composer Robert Alexander.
Scientists can now listen to a set of solar wind data that’s usually represented visually, as numbers or graphs. University of Michigan researchers have “sonified” the data. They’ve created an acoustic, or musical, representation of it.
The City of Paris, France, has launched its call for proposal for the 2010 Edition of the “Research in Paris” program. The aims of this program are
-- to offer postdoctoral, young and senior researchers from all over the world an... (more)
Members of two scientific organizations have recently elected AOSS Professors Mary Anne Carroll and Aaron Ridley, along with AOSS Research Scientist Natasha Andronova to national leadership positions. In addition to her recent election as an American Association for the... (more)
Former AOSS postdoctoral fellow, Jasper Kok, was interviewed by NPR regarding his recently published study explaining the mysterious movement of sand blowing on Mars. Most of his research was conducted while he was pursuing his PhD at U-M under the guidance of AOSS Professor... (more)
The Detroit News published a rebuttal written by AOSS professor Joyce Penner, along with U-M directors Knute Nadelhoffer (U-M Biological Station) and Don Scavia (Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute, U-M), to a recent editorial rejecting UN climate change... (more)
U-M has moved up on the Kiplinger list of 100 Best Values in Public Colleges 2009-10, advancing to 19th as a value to in-state students and 24th for out-of-state students.
Full article at
U-M's dedication to environmental stewardship on its campus has resulted in it being named a 2009 Tree Campus USA institution by the Arbor Day Foundation.
Full article at
NASA seeks highly motivated advanced undergraduate and early graduate students for participation in a summer 2010 research program in Earth system science using its DC-8 flying laboratory. The Student Airborne Research Program (SARP), is managed by the National... (more)
Three preliminary flybys of Mercury by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft, which includes the AOSS/SPRL built instrument, FIPS, have produced a vast amount of new information about Mercury's surface, atmosphere and magnetic field and has been named by more)
In the October issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research, AOSS Professor Nilton Renno first theorized that self-images from the lander show blobs of liquid water on the landers legs.... (more)
Dr. Bart Van Der Holst has been awarded the 2009-2010 College of Engineering Kenneth M. Reese Outstanding Research Scientist Award. Bart is one of the brightest scientists of his generation, with imagination, flare and enormous technical ability that is most impressive. Since... (more)
Christiane Jablonowski, one of AOSS' junior faculty members, is to be congratulated on her recognition as an exceptional early career scientist. Christiane Jablonowski was selected by the Department of Energy to receive Early Career Scientist research funding for,... (more)
The discovery of liquid water by the Phoenix Mars lander is number 63 on Discover Magazine's list of the top 100 stories of 2009. In the October... (more)
AOSS Professor Mary Anne Carroll and Joyce Penner, Ralph J. Cicerone Distinguished University Professor of Atmospheric Science, are among 10 University of Michigan faculty members newly elected as Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of... (more)
Margaret Kivelson, most recently a UCLA distinguished professor of Space Physics as well as a frequent visitor to AOSS as a scientist and a mentor, will be joing AOSS as a Research Professor. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts... (more)
U-M student Aubrey Parker, an Undergraduate in Chemical Engineering and Spanish, who is attending the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, had her blog for the
"From the point of view of taking students to observe the process of how the world is organizing (or not) to address the impacts of global warming the conference was a great success. There was exposure to community-based adaptation, financing responses to climate change, new... (more)
NASA’s MESSENGER (http://messenger.jhuapl.edu) mission team, which includes Professor of Space Science and Aerospace Engineering and Associate Dean for Entrepreneurship Thomas Zurbuchan and AOSS Lead Mission... (more)
In the first video showing the auroras above the northern latitudes of Saturn, Cassini has spotted the tallest known “northern lights” in the solar system, flickering in shape and brightness high above the ringed planet.
“I was wowed when I saw these... (more)
The University of Michigan has been granted "Observer Organization" status for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen December 7-18, 2009. As part of this official designation, a select... (more)
The MESSENGER spacecraft has been named one of Time magazine’s best 50 inventions of 2009. The NASA probe, built by the Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., came in at number 11. Onboard MESSENGER is the AOSS/SPRL built instrument, FIPS (Fast Imaging Plasma... (more)
The University of Michigan Formula One SAE racing team, called MRacing, will be interviewed by Michigan AOSS alum Andrew Humphrey, CBM and their Formula One race car will be shown live on Local 4 News Morning tomorrow (Saturday). Here are the... (more)
This Sunday morning Michigan AOSS Alum, Meteorologist and Reporter Andrew Humphrey will show pictures of University of Michigan students and alumni who received awards from the UofM African American Alumni Council. Here are the details:
WHAT: Michigan... (more)
The latest AOSS news is in the Summer/Fall issue of the Daily Planet. Some of the articles in this issue include:
Michigan tops OSU in bomb-detection competition
Alumni makes it... (more)
Job Title
Assistant Research Scientist
Job Duties
Conduct model development, model usage, and data analysis of planetary upper atmospheres. Use numerical tools... (more)
Peter Monaghan discusses "what's happening" and "what's next" in meteorology and climatology. The fields are growing, especially in the private sector.
Now in it's 6th season, the AOSS RedZeppelin softball team is off to its best season yet. Check out the team, the stats, the Hall of Fame and Webgems at: http://sitemaker.umich.edu/redzeppelin1/home
The joint NASA/European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft Ulysses has sent its last transmission to Earth after 18 years orbiting the sun. The mission was originally scheduled to last just five years. Read the more)
AOSS Professor Thomas Zurbuchen has been appointed one of three new MESSENGER Co-Investigators by NASA Science Mission Directorate Associate Administrator Edward Weiler.
Zurbuchen, is the Instrument Scientist for the Energetic Particle and Plasma Spectrometer. As a... (more)
Did you know that in 1854 the first engineering faculty member purchased U-M’s original meteorological instruments?
Did you know that engineering was part of LS&A until 1895?
These are just a couple of the interesting historical facts about AOSS and... (more)
U-M students have found yet another way to manifest their rivalry with Ohio State: bomb detection. A team of U-M students, with team advisors AOSS Professor Nilton Renno and more)
Thirty years ago, with soil measurements from the Viking landers, the possibility that martian dust storms might be electrically active like Earth’s thunderstorms and thus, might be a source of reactive chemistry, was discussed and considered among planetary scientists.... (more)
The latest AOSS news is in the Spring issue of the Daily Planet. Some of the articles in this issue include:
Liquid Water on Mars?
Students send Obama letter on climate change
AOSS... (more)
Our grand prize winner is Monty Grover, from Plainfield, IN.
Ellen Stibler, Ossining NY
Chris Jacobson, Ossining NY
Jonathan J. Rutz, Wichita Falls TX
Julie Gaddy, New Market MD
Michael... (more)
VORTEX2, sponsored by NOAA and NSF, is the largest and most ambitious effort ever made to understand tornadoes. More than 100 scientists and crew in up to 40 science and support vehicles are participating in this unique, fully nomadic, field program in... (more)
Congratulations to Perry Samson, Arthur Thurnau Professor of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences in the College of Engineering, for being selected as one of five winners of the new U-M Teaching Innovation Prize. Professor Samson is recognized both for his web-based... (more)
TV5's Chris Glonginger visited the UM campus recently to find out all about the buzz around our own Perry Sampson's annual Weather Dance game. The Weather Dance game is based on the Final Four March Madness basketball tournament but round winners are based on the temperature... (more)
Several photographs taken by NASA’s Phoenix Mars spacecraft show what look like water droplets clinging to one of its landing struts.
Some of the scientists working on the mission are asserting that that is exactly what they were. They contend that there are... (more)
Dr. Thomas H. Zurbuchen, Professor of Space Science and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan and Vice Chair of the Universities Space Research Association's (USRA) 102 member Council of Institutions, in testimony delivered during a recent Capitol Hill hearing... (more)
Six engineering students have invented an electronic data logger kit that makes it easier for medical researchers to conduct clinical drug trials in ambulances.
Medical researchers chose the students' prototype over a design from an engineering firm. Their solution... (more)
The first global maps of atmospheric carbon dioxide levels based on data from NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory will be created by AOSS assistant professor Anna Michalak and her colleagues.
The team will use sophisticated mathematical techniques to fill... (more)
Despite scientific consensus to the contrary, a few climate change skeptics don’t believe humans are causing global warming. They blame the sun’s cycles, or they base a divergent theory on a tiny piece of the planet’s temperature history.
At an... (more)
In his Semiannual State of the Lab Address on 27 October, 2008, Dr. Charles Elachi announced a new program that will enable graduate students to spend substantial periods of time at JPL on research projects under the guidance of JPL advisors, possibly in collaboration with... (more)
We, the Student Council on Climate Change at the University of Michigan, would like to share our research, ideas and suggestions on how to take action for a positive effect on the Earth's climate. Throughout the past four months we have had brilliant minds, experts in the... (more)
The Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI) is proud to announce its second LPI Career Development Award. This award will be given to graduate students who have submitted a first-author abstract for presentation at the 40th Lunar and Planetary Science... (more)
This past fall, Natasha Andronova spent time working with the two teams of science students from the Huron Valley Oxbow Elementary School in White Lake Township preparing presentations for a State science competition. The girls visited AOSS prior to their regional... (more)
As of November 2008, Chris Ruf is now the Editor in Chief of the Transactions on Geosciene and Remote Sensing. TGARS publishes advances in sensing instruments and techniques used for the ... (more)
The University of Michigan’s Departments of Geological Sciences (GS) and Atmospheric Oceanic and Space Sciences (AOSS) announce five tenure-track positions in the field of Global Change: Cryosphere and Sea-Level Impacts. Pending final approval, the objective of this... (more)
In her annual state-of-the-university address given to the 2008 Faculty Senate Assembly, U-M President Mary Sue Coleman used the AOSS 583 class project to bring the Internet to rural Africa as an example of the "Michigan Difference." AOSS 583 is taught each spring by Thomas... (more)
NASA's Cassini spacecraft is scheduled to fly within 16 miles of Saturn's moon Enceladus on Oct. 9 and measure molecules in its space environment that could give insight into the history of the solar system. AOSS Chair Tamas Gombosi is the interdisciplinary scientist for... (more)
It’s my pleasure to welcome you to another academic year and hope that you are settling into a new routine. The 2008-09 year should prove to be high-paced and exciting with many events and activities already planned for the year.
One of our more fun events is... (more)
The Center for Radiative Shock Hydrodynamics (CRASH), one of only five new predictive science research centers funded last spring, has launched its web site. Visitors to the site at more)
An open discussion on the role of universities in space exploration and engineering. As interests, funding and project structures change, how should institutions of higher education that are based in hard science research react; how do these changes affect the education of... (more)
The National Center for Atmospheric Research held An Advanced Study Program Summer Colloquium on Numerical Techniques... (more)
19th Annual Argonne Symposium for Undergraduates in Science, Engineering and Mathematics
November 7-8, 2008
Argonne National Laboratory
Argonne, Illinois
The 19th Annual Argonne Symposium for Undergraduates in Science, Engineering and Mathematics... (more)
Amanda Mims (AOSS undergrad) was recently awarded the annual National Weather Association Meteorological Applications Award for 2008 for the paper "WindSat Ocean Surface Emissivity Dependence on Wind Speed in Tropical Cyclones". She has been invited to present... (more)
The 2008 North American Solar Challenge started July 13th from Plano, Texas and AOSS student, Brad Charboneau, is this year's meteorologist for the University of Michigan Solar Car Team. The UM solar car, Continuum, will compete against nearly twenty teams from both... (more)
Nilton Renno will be on WDET Detroit Public Radio’s “Detroit Today” Monday, 11:30 AM discussing the new equation for predicting intensity of severe storms. You can listen on the web at: more)
CampusRoost is a University funded student startup focused on streamlining every aspect of off-campus living. Their primary goal is to help UofM students... (more)
By measuring the charged particles in the planet Mercury's magnetic field, a University of Michigan sensor enabled the first observations about the surface and atmospheric composition of the closest world to the sun.
"We now know more about what Mercury's made of than... (more)
The 17th Annual U.S./Canada Great Lakes Operational Meteorology Workshop, October 8-10, 2008, offers an excellent opportunity for participants to exchange ideas and research findings related to all aspects of Great Lakes meteorology. Abstracts will be accepted through... (more)
With more than 2000 particpants, this year's Weather Dance winners had some stiff competition. See the winners: http://aoss.engin.umich.edu/pages/2008weatherdancewinners
Be sure to check... (more)
Simulations by AOSS Professor Nilton Renno and doctoral candidate Manish Mehta correctly predicted that the pulsed jets of the more)
Numerical Techniques for Global Atmospheric Models
June 1-13, 2008
Boulder, Colorado
Hosted by: The Advanced Study Program (ASP) of the Societal-Environmental Research and Education Laboratory (SERE); Climate and... (more)
Applications are now being accepted for the 2008-09 Weather Underground Scholarship. The $5,000 award is for AOSS undergraduates and the application process is simple and easy.
The Weather Underground is pleased to announce the following scholarship opportunity for... (more)
The AOSS WeatherDance game during the NCAA college basketball tournaments gives armchair forecasters a chance to shine. Weather Dance, based on teams in the men's and women's tournaments, lets players predict which team's city will be hotter or colder on game day in each... (more)
AOSS Professor Paul Drake will be director of the new Center for Radiative Shock Hydrodynamics, which is funded primarily by a $17-million, five-year cooperative agreement from the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Office of Advanced Simulation and... (more)
Planning for the AOSS 2008 Tornado Camp is underway! The tentative dates are early May, for 2-3 weeks. This year Tornado Campers wil sign up for AOSS 498 for spring semester. Additional information:
Numerical Techniques for Global Atmospheric Models
June 1-13, 2008
Boulder, Colorado
Hosted by: The Advanced Study Program (ASP) of the Societal-Environmental Research and Education Laboratory (SERE); Climate and... (more)
In January, the MESSENGER spacecraft, with the SPRL built FIPS instrument onboard, transmitted to Earth the first high-resolution image of Mercury by a spacecraft in over 30 years since the three Mercury flybys of Mariner 10 in 1974 and 1975. At the same time, FIPS... (more)
The Space Physics Research Laboratory within the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences at the University of Michigan has a limited number of research assistant positions openings for undergraduate students enrolled in programs at accredited schools. This... (more)
The MESSENGER spacecraft, with the SPRL built FIPS instrument onboard, is set for its first flyby of the planet Mercury on January 14. This is the first return by NASA to Mercury in 33 years. more)
The Space Physics Research Laboratory within the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences at the University of Michigan has a limited number of research assistant positions openings for undergraduate students enrolled in programs at accredited schools. This... (more)
After chairing the College of Engineering Committee on Entrepreneurial Environment and Programs for Students and working with students in this area for a year, AOSS Associate Professor Thomas Zurbuchen has been selected as the first Director of the new Center for... (more)
Congratulations to AOSS faculty members Joyce Penner and Natasha Andronova and AOSS students Minghuai Wang and Li Xu — part of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that was a co-winner with Al Gore of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. Joyce was one of the... (more)
It is a match made in innovation heaven, backers say, when small companies that struggle with manpower and funding issues are matched with graduate students who hunger for practical application of their... (more)
On June 5, NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft, with CoE’s Fast Imaging Plasma Spectrometer (FIPS) aboard, performed flawlessly as it skimmed the cloud tops of Venus at 30,000 miles per hour,... (more)
One week ago, the MESSENGER spacecraft, with the SPRL built FIPS instrument onboard, transmitted to Earth the first high-resolution image of Mercury by a spacecraft in over 30 years since the three Mercury flybys of Mariner 10 in 1974 and 1975. At the same time, FIPS... (more)
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