A view of Nevada 's interests from the Rockies

DRI's Storm Peak Laboratory in Colorado has statewide, national, global research interests

Sometimes you're in the clouds... Sometimes you're above them at the Storm Peak Laboratory. Lab Director Randy Borys refers to this condition as “undercast.” The picture was taken from the top of an adjacent Steamboat Springs ski lift. (Photo by Randy Borys)

Their T-shirts proclaim it "the home of the world's best weather!"

But consider that the people wearing them are generally atmospheric scientists to whom "good" weather is a raging snowstorm atop a two-mile-high peak in the Rocky Mountains. From this perspective, "the world's best weather" is the greatest asset among many that make DRI's Storm Peak Laboratory, or SPL, in Steamboat Springs, Colo., an ideal location for research.

Dr. Randy Borys, the lab's resident director, oversees a broad research program that brings scientists from DRI's Nevada campuses as well as universities and research organizations across the country to the mountaintop laboratory in the small mountain community. Borys says they come to take advantage of the opportunity to conduct state-of-the-art, continuous observations right inside the clouds and storms that occur frequently at the 10,500 foot peak of Mt. Werner. He says the fact that visiting scientists may have to take one of the famous ski resort's chairlifts to work, and ski down to the valley when they're through, hasn't been a deterrent.

"The Steamboat Springs Ski Resort has been a long and generous supporter of our research efforts on the mountain," Borys points out. "Our staff and visitors get special Storm Peak Laboratory lift access passes and, in addition to our snowmobiles, their snowcats assist in bringing supplies and research equipment during our busy season, which is also the resort's busy season. Logistically, we couldn't operate without them."

Borys, an associate research professor in DRI's Division of Atmospheric Sciences, says there's only a handful of labs with similar capabilities in the world. Only Storm Peak Lab offers the ability to observe atmospheric processes in air transported from every corner of the continental United States .

Sampling 'world's greatest weather.' University of Wyoming's Dr. William Stump collects cloud water during a winter 2003 storm to study the transport of bacteria in the atmosphere. (Photo by Randy Borys)

If the Rocky Mountain site seems geographically distant from DRI's main campuses in Reno and Las Vegas, the research conducted there continues major themes reaching back to the beginning of the institute's atmospheric research programs: How, exactly, do clouds produce precipitation, and how is humanity influencing this process?

"If there's a winter storm in Colorado, the lab is usually well inside the clouds," Borys says. "The crest of ridge where SPL is located is at the climatological snowfall maximum, meaning the point in a storm where it snows the most and the ideal spot from which to observe the microphysics of cloud processes-how cloud droplets and ice crystals are forming, and how pollutants and natural particles are interacting with the cloud.

"Typically, we'll get a substantial storm every five to seven days that will last from 24 to 48 hours. When there's a sampling program underway, our work is non-stop as long as the storm lasts. No one gets much sleep."

Borys conducted research at the forerunner to the current lab facility as a graduate student at Colorado State University. The lab was located near the present site in a small travel trailer packed with instrumentation. After joining DRI's research faculty, Borys convinced the Institute to take over management of the facility in 1990. It was fully rebuilt with donations and DRI funding in 1995.

One major SPL research topic that brings the focus back home to Nevada concerns the impact of air pollution on snowfall. Recent studies by DRI scientists and others indicate that pollutants may cause a reduction in the water content of mountain winter snowfall by as much as a quarter.

In storm clouds, tiny naturally occurring aerosol particles known as cloud condensation nuclei—or CCN—form microscopic cloud droplets. These droplets may form ice crystals or add to existing ice crystals to form snowflakes.

A 'bad weather day' for research at Storm Peak Laboratory. Dr. Randy Borys, SPL director, prepares a snow-and-rain precipitation gauge on the lab's top deck for the next storm. Behind him is a Forward Scattering Spectrometry Probe that measures the comparative sizes of cloud droplets in storms that pass over the lab. (Photo by Tyler Arroyo, the Steamboat Pilot newspaper.)

Other droplets freeze on mountain surfaces to form rime ice.

Research by Borys and DRI colleague Dr. Douglas Lowenthal, supported by that of other scientists at DRI and elsewhere, has found that CCN resulting from air pollution aerosols appear to reduce the average diameter of these microscopic cloud water droplets and increase their numbers. This has the effect of essentially tying up more of the available moisture in the cloud with less of it ending up on the ground than would occur in the absence of air pollution.

"We have analyzed many storms at SPL, some containing natural CCN and others influenced by CCN from pollutant sources—basically sulfates and nitrates—and there is a direct, unmistakable reduction of snow water content in the polluted storms." The next step in the research, he says, is to replicate the studies in the Sierra Nevada.

On a topic with a broader scale, a group of scientists from Colorado and Colorado State universities and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration gathered at SPL in April and May for a study of the global transport of aerosol particles, particularly Asian dust, to understand their influence on high altitude cirrus clouds. The objective of that research is to determine whether increasing atmospheric dust will increase the extent of high clouds and the amount of solar radiation being reflected back into space. Borys noted that lower lying storm clouds also become more reflective when pollutants reduce the size of cloud water droplets.

High altitude UV radiation assessment. On the roof of Storm Peak Lab, Dr. Melanie Wetzel adjusts instrumentation that measures direct and diffuse levels of solar radiation in ultraviolet and visible wavelengths. (Photo by Randy Borys)

Other SPL research activities take advantage of the elevation to examine the levels of ultraviolet radiation at the site, taking into consideration the thinner atmosphere at that altitude and the added reflective properties of snow and clouds on radiation exposure. Those studies are led by DRI faculty member Dr. Melanie Wetzel and are supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Another initiative utilizes the facility for biological research topics, such as long distance transport of microbes, expanding the year-round use of SPL.

SPL also has a strong educational program. Through DRI's association with the University of Nevada, Reno, Atmospheric Sciences Program, an intensive graduate course on mountain meteorology has students designing and conducting projects, complete with a formal research report. Last fall, Wetzel took a break from her SPL research to become director of that UNR graduate program, which draws its entire teaching faculty from the ranks of DRI's scientists.

SPL is also used by atmospheric scientists and students from Colorado State University, City College of New York, the University of Wisconsin, Colorado Mountain College and the University of Wyoming, as well as middle school students from Steamboat Springs and other nearby towns. Dr. Ward Hindman, a professor from CCNY who has brought his classes to the lab for years, also recently donated $10,000 to the lab for the purchase of a specially equipped snowmobile. The vehicle, being built to order, will facilitate the movement of equipment and people up and down the rugged terrain in the winter.

Borys says the lab's outstanding location and onsite research facilities are in demand from numerous federal and university researchers, and there is an ambitious program for expanding the range of research topics. "Even though we are already at the top of the mountain, I think we can only continue to reach greater heights."