After 35 years at the University of Colorado, Interim Director for Science Erik Richard is retiring.
For the past nine months, Senior Scientist Erik Richard has served as the LASP Director for Science, supporting nearly 100 scientists and 100 graduate and undergraduate students, helping to ensure that LASP remains at the forefront of scientific innovation and discovery. This came during a time of transition at the lab, at the start of Bethany Ehlmann’s tenure as LASP director and at a particularly challenging time of changing science priorities in the nation’s funding agencies. By all accounts, Erik served the lab with distinction and aplomb.
Erik’s scientific career has an interesting arc, beginning with physical chemistry and molecular spectroscopy, to atmospheric trace-gas measurements, and finally, to solar spectrometry and space-based radiometry. Erik first came to the University of Colorado in the 1980s as a graduate student in Chemistry. After receiving his PhD in 1991, Erik spent time as a research scientist at ETH-Zurich, the University of Wisconsin, and Georgia Institute of Technology, eventually returning to CU in 1995 as a Research Associate in the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences and the NOAA Aeronomy Laboratory. There he developed instrumentation for airborne trace gas measurements, the data from which proved to be key to our understanding of photochemical ozone destruction.
In 2004, Erik began his career at LASP as a member of the SOlar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) science team, working primarily on the Spectral Irradiance Monitor (SIM) that provided the first daily measurements of the spectrally resolved solar irradiance from the ultraviolet through shortwave infrared. For the SORCE follow-on mission, the Total and Spectral Solar Irradiance Monitor (TSIS-1), Erik took on the role of SIM instrument scientist, implementing several lessons learned from SORCE to reduce uncertainty to the 0.2% level. Reference spectra from TSIS-1 SIM have been adopted as standards by the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites, improving the calibration of a host of remote sensing instruments. And changes across the spectrum compared to previous solar irradiance reference spectra have been shown to have important consequences to our understanding of fundamental climate processes, particular in polar regions.
In 2020, Erik became principal investigator for TSIS-2, the mission to provide continuity for what is now a 48-year record of total solar irradiance and a 23-year record of solar spectral irradiance. Since that time, Erik deftly navigated a number of challenges typical for a mission PI, all while continuing to produce high-fidelity TSIS-1 solar spectra and while also managing his duties as chief steward for all LASP science and before that, as assistant director of science for Earth-atmosphere. As we write, TSIS-2 is undergoing spacecraft thermal-vac testing in preparation for a March 2027 launch.
The future of solar irradiance measurements at LASP is in good hands, not only with TSIS-2 but with Erik Richard-led technological developments for what is likely the next-generation of space-based solar irradiance sensors. Erik was principal investigator for the Compact Spectral Irradiance Monitor (CSIM), a miniaturized version of the SORCE and TSIS SIM, which was integrated on a 6U CubeSat. CSIM operated from December 2018 to February 2022, demonstrating the capability to acquire solar spectral irradiance at climate quality accuracy from small platforms that can reduce risks of data gaps while also reducing costs. CSIM, along with the Compact Total Irradiance Monitor (Dave Harber, PI), make up the compact TSIS, or CTSIS, a likely follow-on to TSIS-2. Erik’s work over the past two decades on improving our understanding of the role of the Sun in the climate system will undoubtedly impact the future of Sun-climate research long after his retirement.
What will he do in retirement? Knowing Erik, he is unlikely to become bored. A model plane enthusiast, it seems natural that he will fill his time with any number of projects related to building small aircraft and flying them. That is, when he is not touring the country in his newly acquired Airstream, a hobby that has seemingly become a tradition among recent LASP retirees.
Erik, whether by land, air, or sea (perhaps he may sail on catamarans as well …), we wish you happy voyages. Thank you for your contributions to LASP – through meticulous instrument science and engineering to your leadership of the science division, you have made LASP a better place.
-By Peter Pilewskie, LASP Research Scientist and CU Boulder Professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences
