Professor Sonia Lasher-Trapp
Purdue University Department of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences
CLOUD MICROPHYSICS GROUP HIGHLIGHTS
August 2008
EAS Awards Ceremony April 2008
The annual EAS Department Awards Ceremony and Banquet was held on April 11th. Several members of the Cloud Microphysics team again received awards for the past academic year!
Jen Bewley, recipient of the EAS Research Expo Outstanding Student Talk
Amanda Sheffield, recipient of EAS Outstanding Junior Award
May 2008 Graduate
Colleen Henry Reiche completed her Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science in May 2008, and was the first Ph.D. of the Purdue Cloud Microphysics Group. Colleen's dissertation, entitled The Variable Role of Giant Aerosol in Precipitation Development in Trade Wind Cumuli, showed that the cloud vertical extent appeared to be the dominant factor in determining the development of precipitation in the trade wind cumuli observed during the RICO field campaign, that the giant aerosol were important for explaining the radar echo development of these clouds, and that the number of CCN modulated the importance of the giant aerosol to overall rain production. She has just submitted a paper on her work to Atmospheric Research. Colleen has been hired by the Atmospheric Science group at Lincoln Laboratories in Boston, where she relocated as of August 2008. Good luck Colleen!!
Trivia Masters
Three members of the Cloud Microphysics Group, Colleen, Jen and Dan, were on the EAS Trivia Team for Purdue's Annual Spring Fling in May 2008. Their team went to the Championship Round, coming in second overall. They may know clouds, but they know a lot more, too! Nice job gang!
ICCP Conference in Cancun
The Cloud Microphysics Group was well-represented at the 15th International Conference on Clouds and Precipitation (ICCP) held in July in Cancun, Mexico. Graduate students Jen Bewley and Dan Arthur presented posters, and Prof. Lasher-Trapp gave an oral presentation. Prof. Lasher-Trapp was elected to serve on the International Commission on Clouds and Precipitation.
Latest Publications
Lasher-Trapp, S., S. Anderson-Bereznicki, A. Shackelford, C. H. Twohy and J. G. Hudson, 2008: An investigation of the influence of droplet number concentration and giant aerosol particles upon supercooled large drop formation in wintertime stratiform clouds. J. Appl. Meteor. and Climatol.,in press.
Reiche, C. H. and S. Lasher-Trapp, 2008: The variable importance of giant aerosol to precipitation development within small trade wind cumuli observed during RICO. Submitted to Atmospheric Research.
