- Director's Message
- Table of Contents
- Strategic Goals: Science, Facilities & Technology
- 1. Exploring atmospheric, Earth system, and solar processes, variability, and change
- 2. Investigating the interaction of the atmosphere, the broader Earth system, and human society
- 3. Improving prediction of weather, climate, and other atmospheric phenomena
- 4. Developing community models
- 5. Enabling innovative field experiments and measurement campaigns
- 6. Developing new instrumentation
- Research Catalog
Sherri Heck
General Information
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TIIMES - EOL - ASP
Graduate Research Assistant
BEACHON
Contact Information:
PO Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307-3000
Office: FL2 - 3106f & Jeffco
Telephone: 303-497-8284 & Jeffco: 303-497-1079
University of Colorado-Boulder
Department of Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences
ATOC, UCB 311, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0311
Email: sheck@ucar.edu | CU Email: sherri.heck@colorado.edu
Home Page - Vita
Research Focus FY08:
First data from the Navajo Nation site - High resolution figure
Deployment of AIRCOA - High resolution figure
Carbon Dioxide Instrumentation, Data Analysis, Education and Outreach in Kenya, Africa and Navajo Reservation
Principle Investigators: Sherri L. Heck, University of Colorado & Britton Stephens, NCAR
I am a graduate student in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder working on my doctoral thesis with Dr. Britton Stephens of TIIMES and EOL. My research entails a combination of studying regional carbon dioxide surface fluxes of forest ecosystems in complex terrain and an education and outreach (E&O) component. I am focusing on underrepresented people in terms of the E&O and under-sampled areas in terms of the carbon dioxide data.
In October 2007, in cooperation with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Marnie Carroll, the Dinè (Navajo) College Environmental Science Director, we deployed the Autonomous Robust CO2 Analyzer (AIRCOA, designed by Britt Stephens and Andy Watt, photos) at Roof Butte on the Navajo Nation in Northeastern Arizona in order to determine the regional carbon dioxide surface fluxes in this southwestern mountainous area. Dinè College Conference Report: Building a Successful Student Research Program Through Collaboration.
Working with students in the Navajo Nation on instrument operation, maintenance and data analysis possibilities.
High resolution figure
In 2008, a second carbon dioxide analyzer will be deployed atop Mount Kenya, Africa in order to study the regional carbon dioxide fluxes at this mountain site and to also help fill a key gap in available African carbon dioxide data. This project is in cooperation with Mr. John Mwikya, Deputy Principal, of the University of Nairobi and Ngotho Nyaga Ephantus, Deputy Director of the Kenya Meteorological Department.
In partnership with The Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE) and the Earth Exploration Toolbook (EET), I have created curriculum that utilizes the data from each of our sites entitled “The Breathing Forest: Exploring the Carbon Cycle and Climate Change in the Classroom using Rocky RACCOON carbon dioxide data”. Website: Rocky Raccoon: Using Data to explore Carbon in the Rocky Mountains
In the News:
Webcast: Planning for Seven Generations: The Perspective of the Next Generation (April 25, 2008)
Webcast: Panel on the Prespective of the Next Generation (April 25, 2008)
UCAR Highlight 2007 - Africa in Mind
UCAR Quarterly - The African Link
Science and Education in Kenya
I would like to thank the following divisions, institutes, etc. for this incredible opportunity: NCAR Directorate and Diversity Initiative, EOL, ESSL, Africa Initiative, TIIMES and Biogeosciences, UCAR Education and Outreach Division and GLOBE.
Overall Goals and Objectives
The project’s overarching goals are to provide valuable scientific data, promote technological transfer and help NCAR meet its diversity and education goals. By focusing on underrepresented people in terms of the education and outreach (E&O) and under-sampled areas in terms of the carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration data (these two areas often coincide), the project is providing invaluable data to the science community and bolstering science education in areas that would have most likely otherwise been ignored. It is vital to not only further educate students so as to motivate them to continue with their education and therefore improve a country’s science literacy; it is also important to fill in the key gaps of CO2 concentration data so that a more representative picture of regional to global CO2 concentration and flux distribution can be determined...more
Community Service FY08:
- Education and Outreach: Worked with students on instrument operation, maintenance and data analysis possibilities. Navajo Nation, Arizona
- Deployed carbon dioxide sensor (AIRCOA) atop Roof Butte with students and researchers at Dine College on the Navajo Nation, Arizona.
- Earthworks Education Outreach Program (Weather & Climate): Atmospheric Chemistry - Monitoring Factors that Effect Ultraviolet (UV) Radiation (Teachers: Debbie Dogancay, Patti Grammens, Cheryl Manning, Sarah Wilson | Scientists: Marsha Fisher, Lars Kalnajs, Melissa Trainer, Sarah Tessendorf, Sherri Heck) Final Report
Scientific Talks FY08:
- Carbon Dioxide Measurements: Presented to students and faculty at Dine College on the Navajo Nation (New Mexico, October 2007)
- Carbon Dioxide Fluxes in the US and Africa. Africa Initiative (Sahel Conference, Burkina Faso, Africa)
- Regional Scale Study of Carbon Dioxide Fluxes on the Navajo Nation: A Scientific and Personal Perspective (Planning for Seven Generations Conference: Indigenous and Scientific Approaches to Climate Change, Boulder, CO, March 2008)
- Poster: Regional and Local Carbon Flux Information from a Continuous Atmospheric CO2 Network in the Rocky Mountains (American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, CA, December 2007)
- University of Colorado, Department of Atmospheric Sciences – successfully defended thesis proposal and passed oral exams (April 2008)