Student Olivia Lee presented research during the #GradShow2025 last week. Lee's research addresses whether marine heatwaves — extreme events — make a good analog for future Southwest US precipitation.

We're still stunned by last week's aurora borealis that took place in Colorado as the sun's charged particles collided with gases in Earth's upper atmosphere.

📽️ Credit: alum Naufal Razin

They did a few night drives to collect, as plumes are more concentrated at night due to the lower boundary layer.

Let's follow them into the field 🛻🌃🌜

They used whole air canisters to collect detailed volatile organic compound (VOC) speciation.

The CSU Plume Tracker is a Chevy Tahoe outfitted with instruments to measure air quality parameters.

Check out a tour of the instruments 🛻

The goal of driving the Plume Tracker was to find where and when ozone and its precursors occur, to collect whole air canisters for detailed volatile organic compound speciation, and to visit communities with little or no prior monitoring.

Students Jared Stickney and Andrey Marsavin share their field experience during the Front Range Ozone Éxperiment, aka FROZÉ: www.atmos.colostate.edu/2025/09/jare...