Studying Atmosphere’s Secrets

From leading the investigation of global warming to determining the facts of fracking’s impact on the environment, Colorado universities and federal labs rank among the world’s top atmospheric researchers.

The National Research Council rates the department of atmospheric science at Colorado State University in Fort Collins as one of the best such departments in the country. The Boulder area is one of the world’s centers for atmospheric chemistry and air-quality research through the University of Colorado Boulder, as well as labs such as the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NCAR is a global leader in using supercomputers to study fields such as climate science and the environment.

Atmospheric research has to do with the Earth’s air, and the emissions, particles and weather that can affect it.

“It’s about the air we breathe, air quality,” said Jessica Gilman, research chemist with the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences in Boulder (CIRES). “We all live downwind of something, and we need to know where it’s coming from and where it’s going.”

CIRES is a joint venture between CU-Boulder and NOAA that looks for better ways to understand how natural and man-made disturbances impact the planet.

A big reason that Colorado attracts atmospheric research is its own dramatic climate, caused by a complex topography of mountains, valleys and plains, experts say.

Major research at CU-Boulder and CSU includes work related to the controversial oil and gas industry practice called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and its effect on ecosystems and communities near drilling sites. Fracking involves pumping pressurized water, chemicals and sand into well bores to crack rock and release petroleum and natural gas for extraction. The technology has been blamed for problems from water contamination to earthquakes.

In late 2012, CU-Boulder won a $12 million, five-year grant from the National Science Foundation to create the Sustainability Research Network for fracking research, including separating fact from fiction related to the practice.

“Judgments are being made about fracking without all the research being in,” said Joseph Ryan, director of the Sustainability Research Network and CU-Boulder’s Environmental Engineering Program.

“The big goal of our project is to put together a framework, a tool kit of methods, that all the different stakeholders can use to assess the environmental, economic and social tradeoffs of developing oil and gas resources.”

The Sustainability Research Network — which involves nine research institutions, including CSU, NOAA and Colorado School of Mines — is gathering data for analysis, which then will be used to make recommendations about policies, regulations and better practices for the oil and gas industry.

“We’re trying to come up with a list of what we know, what we don’t know and what we hope to learn,” Ryan said.

CIRES’ Jessica Gilman recently finished a study that shows oil and gas wells may contribute to lung-damaging ozone pollution through producing volatile organic compounds such as propane. At its Weld County test site, Gilman’s team found that oil and gas operations are the major wintertime source of VOCs, which are the “starting ingredients” for ozone pollution.

CSU’s top-flight atmospheric department, headed by Jeffrey Collett, is known for its work in areas such as radiation, atmospheric chemistry and cloud microphysics, but it is also getting involved in oil and gas research. CSU is home to the Center for Multiscale Modeling of Atmospheric Processes, one of only 17 National Science Foundation science and technology centers nationwide, and is developing a revolutionary approach to understanding the role of clouds in climate change.

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