Ariel Morrison

Ariel Morrison
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Ariel verified their affiliation via an institutional email.
Verified
Ariel verified their affiliation via an institutional email.
Colorado State University | CSU · Department of Atmospheric Science

PhD - Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences

About

21
Publications
2,990
Reads
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495
Citations
Introduction
My research focuses on the physical processes of the Arctic climate system and how the Arctic is changing in a warming world. I use satellite observations and climate models to study the relationships between clouds and sea ice. My other research passion is geoscience education research: I use biometric data to measure student engagement in climate change classes to improve undergraduate interest in and learning retention of climate science information.
Additional affiliations
May 2020 - March 2022
University of Victoria
Position
  • Postdoctoral Research Fellow
August 2018 - May 2019
University of Colorado Boulder
Position
  • Teaching Assistant (Recitations)
August 2016 - August 2016
Boulder Preparatory High School
Position
  • Instructor
Description
  • Developed and taught new summer intensive course, ‘Introduction to Climate Change,’ designed for non-traditional high school students
Education
January 2016 - December 2018
University of Colorado Boulder
Field of study
  • Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences
August 2013 - December 2015
University of Colorado Boulder
Field of study
  • Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences
September 2006 - June 2010
Boston University
Field of study
  • Earth Sciences, Marine Sciences

Publications

Publications (21)
Article
Full-text available
Introduction Rapid reductions in Arctic sea ice in response to warming have led to increased interest in using the Arctic Ocean for commercial shipping. As the world warms, however, different strategies are being considered to stabilize or reduce surface temperatures in order to prevent critical climate change impacts. One such strategy is stratosp...
Article
Full-text available
Stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) has been proposed as a potential method for mitigating risks and impacts associated with anthropogenic climate change. One such risk is widespread permafrost thaw and associated carbon release. While permafrost has been shown to stabilize under different SAI scenarios, natural variability may mask this forced r...
Article
Full-text available
Stratospheric aerosol injection is a potential method of climate intervention to reduce climate risk as decarbonization efforts continue. However, possible ecosystem impacts from the strategic design of hypothetical intervention scenarios are poorly understood. Two recent Earth system model simulations depict policy-relevant stratospheric aerosol i...
Article
Full-text available
Permafrost, or ground that is continuously frozen for at least 2 years, contains vast stores of organic soil carbon. Stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) may prevent tipping points that lead to widespread permafrost thaw and carbon release by cooling surface and soil temperatures, but it is unclear if or when permafrost could stabilize after SAI d...
Article
Full-text available
Over the next century, the Arctic is projected to become seasonally sea ice‐free. Assessing feedback between clouds and sea ice as the Arctic loses sea ice cover is important because of clouds' radiative impacts on the Arctic surface. Here we investigate present‐day and future Arctic cloud‐sea ice relationships in a fully coupled global climate mod...
Poster
Full-text available
Arctic sea ice is rapidly disappearing in response to increasing atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. Less sea ice brings more opportunities for commercial shipping and tourism across the Arctic Ocean. But as the Arctic and the rest of the world continues to warm, extreme measures may be taken to stabilize or reduce surface temperatures. One...
Preprint
Full-text available
Stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI has been proposed as a potential method for mitigating risks and impacts associated with anthropogenic climate change. One such risk is widespread permafrost thaw and associated carbon release. While permafrost has been shown to stabilize under different SAI scenarios, natural variability may lead to a wide rang...
Preprint
Full-text available
Stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) is a potential method of climate intervention to reduce climate risk as decarbonization efforts continue. Two recent Earth system modeling experiments depict policy-relevant SAI scenarios with similar temperature targets (near 1.5°C), but with deployment delayed by 10 years between experiments. This relatively...
Preprint
Full-text available
Permafrost, or ground that is continuously frozen for at least two years, contains vast stores of organic soil carbon. Stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) may prevent tipping points that lead to widespread permafrost thaw and carbon release by cooling surface and soil temperatures, but it is unclear if or when permafrost could stabilize after SAI...
Article
Full-text available
The Southern Ocean has absorbed most of the excess heat associated with anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Since Southern Ocean observations are sparse in certain regions and seasons, much of our knowledge of ocean heat uptake is based on climate model simulations. However, climate models still inadequately represent some properties of Souther...
Article
Full-text available
Do changes in ocean heat transport (OHT), that occur with CO 2 forcing, impact climate sensitivity in Earth system models? Changes in OHT with warming are ubiquitous in model experiments: when forced with CO 2 , such models exhibit declining poleward OHT in both hemispheres at most latitudes, which can persist over multi-centennial time scales. To...
Article
Full-text available
Teaching climate change is complex because it requires a system-level understanding of many science disciplines and also because students may have preconceptions about climate change. Previous work shows students learn and retain science content better when they are engaged in the learning process. Active learning strategies engage students in lear...
Article
Teaching climate change is complex because it requires a system-level understanding of many science disciplines and also because students may have preconceptions about climate change. Previous work shows students learn and retain science content better when they are engaged in the learning process. Active learning strategies engage students in lear...
Article
Full-text available
When sea ice concentration decreases, surface albedo decreases. Yet the impact of Southern Ocean sea ice concentration decreases on top-of-atmosphere albedo is uncertain. Why? The cloud cover and opacity response to Southern Ocean sea ice variability has been challenging to quantify. Here we use observations to constrain the cloud response to South...
Article
Full-text available
While the radiative influence of clouds on Arctic sea ice is known, the influence of sea ice cover on Arctic clouds is challenging to detect, separate from atmospheric circulation, and attribute to human activities. Providing observational constraints on the two-way relationship between sea ice cover and Arctic clouds is important for predicting th...
Article
Full-text available
While the representation of clouds in climate models has become more sophisticated over the last 30+ years, the vertical and seasonal fingerprints of Arctic greenhouse warming have not changed. Are the models right? Observations in recent decades show the same fingerprints: surface amplified warming especially in late fall and winter. Recent observ...
Article
Spaceborne lidar observations from the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) satellite are used to evaluate cloud amount and cloud phase in the Community Atmosphere Model version 5 (CAM5), the atmospheric component of a widely used state-of-the-art global coupled climate model (Community Earth System Model). By...
Article
Full-text available
Carcinus maenas is an invasive species found in Northern American waters overtaking the less adaptable species and responding to various forms of conditioning. In this study, we conditioned C. maenas to reverse its innate light avoidance behavior. Within 6 days of testing, 21 out of 30 crabs were successfully trained to enter a beam of light to rec...

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