Virginia Harvey
University of Colorado Boulder, CO·Earth & Environmental Science
Earth's atmosphere is not sealed off from space. Disturbances pass upward from weather near the ground, and the Sun's galactic neighborhood may push inward from above.
- Fields
Earth & Environmental Science
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Physics
- Topics
atmospheric science
space weather
ionosphere
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Aug 2031
What they work on
- Determine whether the Sun's crossings of cold galactic clouds compressed the heliosphere and altered Earth's radiation, atmosphere and temperature, using astrophysical, heliospheric and whole-atmosphere simulations.
- Constrain Earth's past radiation exposure by developing new cosmogenic data from marine sediments and exceptionally old ice records extending back about 7 million years.
- Characterize gravity waves from more than 400 meteorological events and the traveling ionospheric disturbances they produce, using observations and deep-learning pattern recognition to automatically identify and classify their signatures.
- Identify how background atmospheric conditions and strong vertical (nonhydrostatic) air motions control gravity-wave propagation into the ionosphere, using mesoscale model simulations of representative weather events.
More about the research
The two collaborative projects connect these layers. One asks whether the Sun's passage through cold clouds in the Milky Way has shaped Earth's climate and environment over millions of years. The other traces how storms near the ground send waves into the upper atmosphere, where they can disrupt satellite and navigation signals. Both projects treat the atmosphere as part of a larger coupled system and combine observations with computer models.
Why it matters
Weather-driven disturbances in the ionosphere can degrade GNSS navigation, satellite communications and radio links. Understanding how storms generate them could support future space-weather forecasting that keeps these services reliable. Learning whether the Sun's crossings of galactic clouds altered Earth's radiation and climate over millions of years could explain long-term shifts in Earth's history and inform studies of how habitable Earth-like planets are.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Jennifer Middleton
Columbia University, NY·Earth & Environmental Science
Test whether settling particles, rather than ocean circulation, mainly control beryllium-10 (a cosmic-ray-made radioactive isotope) in the South Pacific, using co-located seawater, particle and sediment samples from GEOTRACES GP16 and GP17-OCE.
James Sherwood
University of Massachusetts-Lowell, MA·Engineering
Establish a tenure-track faculty line in Electrical and Computer Engineering focused on space weather, especially how disturbances in the ionosphere affect communication and navigation technologies.
Brentha Thurairajah
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, VA·Earth & Environmental Science
Measure how much of the large-scale gravity wave activity in the thermosphere comes from the troposphere versus from sources above the stratosphere, using controlled SD-WACCM-X whole-atmosphere model simulations.
The school
University of Colorado Boulder: 36 labs on PI Pages, $718M a year on research, 447 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
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