"Particles from the Volcano in the Philippines had made there way all the way to Wisconsin." an interview with Chris Trepte

Description

The realization that a purple sunset in Wisconsin traced back to the 1991 volcanic eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines fueled Chip Trepte’s interest in the movement of volcanic aerosols in the upper atmosphere.

“It was a stunning revelation to me and I realized quickly that what we understand about motions in the lower stratosphere need to be looked at more carefully,” he says, adding that he later used satellite observations to help understand how weather patterns might move particles around the planet.

Trepte is now a project scientist with the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO), the result of a partnership between NASA and the French space agency (CNES), which monitors cloud and aerosol activity. A better knowledge of the nature of clouds and how they form and evolve will help to improve climate change models. (Recorded 11 December 2018)

Participants

• Chip Trepte
  
• Josh Learn
  
• AGU Narratives
  

Interview By

• AGU Narratives