News

In Colorado, 83% of the state’s water supply comes from surface water fed by winter snowpack and spring runoff. Colorado’s snowmelt also flows downstream to millions of other users in the Colorado River Basin. Having the most accurate snowpack measurement possible is vital for water agencies, which use the data to figure out how much ends up in home faucets and on farms for irrigation. The search for new, more accurate ways to measure snowpack is on.

Sarah Spaulding has been honored by the North American Lake Management Society for their extensive contributions to the aquatic sciences. These represent a career-long dedication and vision to improve science through coordination of research, unparalleled teaching and mentorship, and accessibility and engagement of all.

After three years of busts, 2023 was a boom year for snow in the Sierra Nevada. Data provided by INSTAARs Noah Molotch, Leanne Lestak, and Kehan Yang provide a detailed picture of snowpack across the range and at different elevations, which helps the California Department of Water Resources and other water managers better forecast snowmelt in California.

INSTAAR Fellow Keith Musselman has joined the Department of Geography. He studies how mountain snowpack supports sustainable ecosystems and water supply for people, wildlife, and agriculture.

Caj Neubauer and his colleagues are developing techniques to unlock hominin paleodietary information from fossil amino acids and other compounds in tooth enamel. Together, they are seeking to transform anthropology through their deep look into fossil molecules.

Streamflow is increasing in Alaskan rivers during both spring and fall seasons, primarily due to increasing air temperatures over the past 60 years, creating dangers and difficulties for local communities. New CU Boulder-led research quantifies consequences already observed and experienced for generations by local Indigenous communities who rely on these rivers for their livelihoods.

INSTAAR and the Dairy Arts Center collaborated on our second Art and Science Connections Collider on April 10th 2023 during Boulder Arts Week. The event began with a tour of INSTAAR’s Stable Isotope Lab (SIL) that included a look at actual ice cores from Antarctica and Greenland and a demonstration of how we analyze greenhouse gases in atmospheric samples. After the tour, the group had a general discussion in the Bartlett Science Communication Center.

The Far North is thawing, unleashing clouds of planet-heating gas. Tyler Jones, Bruce Vaughn, and Kevin Rozmiarek use detectors on drones or carried by hand to measure methane release from permafrost in Alaska.

Researchers led by INSTAAR Tyler Jones used ice core data to reconstruct seasonal temperatures throughout the Holocene. The results link especially hot summers with patterns in Earth’s orbit. The results are the first seasonal temperature record stretching back 11,000 years.

Another round of powerful atmospheric rivers is hitting California, following storms in January and February 2023 that dumped record amounts of snow. This time, the storms are warmer, and are triggering flood warnings as they bring rain higher into the mountains on top of the snowpack. Keith Musselman explains the complex risks rain on snow creates and how they might change in a warming climate.