LASP Science Seminars

LASP seminars are generally held every Thursday at 1:00 PM on Zoom and in person.
If you are interested in attending, please contact one of our Science Seminar Committee members (see below) to be added to the mailing list.

We are currently seeking speakers for our Spring 2025 seminar series. If you or a colleague would like to give a seminar, please contact one of our Science Seminar Committee members:

Sonal Jain (Planetary)
Yi Qi (Space Physics)
David Wilson (Solar/Stellar)
Chihoko Cullens (Earth Atmospheres)

Upcoming Science Seminars

Check back soon for a list of upcoming Science Seminars.

Past Science Seminars

June 12, 2025

On the present and future of Earth Energy Balance measurements

Maria Hakuba

(JPL)

The upcoming Libera mission, NASA’s first Earth Venture Continuity selection, will provide seamless continuity to current broadband radiance measurements obtained by the Clouds and Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) project since March 2000. Leveraging advanced detector...

June 5, 2025

Mars and Venus: Vantage Points for Study of Atmospheric Escape and Thermosphere-Ionosphere-Magnetosphere Coupling

Mike Chaffin

(LASP, CU)

Venus, Earth, and Mars are “natural experiments” in terrestrial planet atmospheric evolution, each providing a unique window into how a planet’s volatile inventory is shaped by planetary and stellar properties. These objects host the only terrestrial...

May 8, 2025

The Great Red Spot (A Planetary Vortex)

Mike Wong

(SSL, UC Berkeley )

Jupiter’s Great Red Spot (GRS) has been observed for almost 200 years. This remarkably long-lived atmospheric feature changes over time on timescales of decades (gradual shrinking) to months (oscillations). Some variability, like the extension of red...

April 24, 2025

Storm Chasing in the Tropics and Subtropics with the NASA INCUS Mission

Susan C. van den Heever

(Colorado State University)

Convective Mass Flux (CMF) – the vertical transport of air and water by deep convective storms – drives the large-scale circulation, upper tropospheric moistening, high cloud-raditiave feedbacks, surface precipitation rates, and extreme weather. Despite the fundamental...

April 17, 2025

The Forward Contamination of Mars: Don’t Worry, Be Happy

Scot Rafkin

(SwRI, Boulder)

The possibility of indigenous life on Mars, either past or present, is a persistent theme that permeates literature, popular culture, and, of course, the exploration of Mars itself. Whether seeking organics, biomarkers, or organisms, scientific integrity...