Many students at U-M Climate and Space are receiving the NASA FINESST grant, a prestigious award for Future Investigators of NASA Earth and Space Science Technology! Aidan Nakhleh has been selected with his project “Probing Energy Partitioning in the Solar Wind and Corona through Proton Entropy and Heavy Ion Charge States.”
Congratulations, Aidan!
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“Are we heading towards a Maunder-like solar minimum?” On Wednesday, Dr. Janardhan “Jerry” Padmanabhan will visit from the “cradle of space science” at the Physical Research Laboratory in India to present a special seminar on this unique solar cycle at 11:00am, May 13th, in the CSRB Auditorium (Room 2246).
Dr. Padmanabhan is an eminent solar and space scientist who works as an INSA Senior Scientist at the Physical Research Laboratory. He served as the P.I. of the Solar Wind Particle Experiment (ASPEX) onboard Aditya, the Indian first L1 mission, which launched in 2023. His research spans solar physics, solar wind, space weather, solar magnetic fields, radio astronomy, comets, astrochemistry, and exoplanets. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers in international journals.
We hope you can join us for this special seminar on Wednesday morning!
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Congratulations to our new Ph.D.! We are proud of you, and we can’t wait to see what you accomplish, Dr. Nii-Boi Quartey!
Tap the link in our bio to read more!
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Congratulations to the University of Michigan Department of Climate and Space, Class of 2026! We are so proud of you. We wish you the best in everything you do!! 💙💛💙
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Happy graduation day to the graduate students of the University of Michigan Engineering Class of 2026!
Before we celebrate at commencement, hear a special message from tonight’s graduate student speaker Onyinye Nwankwo, who will be receiving her PhD in @umclasp .
Forever, Go Blue 🎓
For information on tonight’s graduation or this weekend’s graduation, follow the link in our bio.
Our annual CLASP Commencement ceremony recognizes the amazing achievements of our students. Join us in a YouTube livestream as we celebrate our graduates during CLASP Commencement at 1:00pm ET, on Friday, May 1!
U-M Climate & Space Commencement Ceremony
Date: Friday, May 1, 2026
Time: 1:00pm ET
Location: Robotics 1060
Livestream: /live/CZjEquIYFC8?feature=share
Congratulations, Graduates!
#UMClimateSpace
Happy Earth Day!! This photo of the “crescent Earth” was captured by the Artemis II crew as they embarked on a space flight around the moon and back. It offers a unique and stunning view of our precious planet!
Photo courtesy of NASA.
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Congratulations to our students who have published their first academic paper as a first author! With more than sixteen student researchers in the ranks, the University of Michigan Department of Climate and Space celebrated the achievement of students who published their first academic paper as a first author. Students, faculty and staff gathered in the Leinweber Innovation Laboratory on Tuesday, April 14, to hear from the researchers.
During the event, each student gave a five-minute oral presentation on their research, taking questions from the audience when time allowed. They were then presented with a certificate honoring the achievement from Department Chair Allison Steiner and Professor Shasha Zou. Tap the Featured News link in our bio to read more!
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The CLASP Seminar Series on Thursday featured Dr. Travis O’Brien, who is an Associate Professor in the Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Department at Indiana University - Bloomington, and was previously a research scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. He will give a lecture on “Rivers in the Sky: What are they, how we identify them, and why this matters for our understanding of extreme weather” in a seminar at 3:30pm ET, on Thursday, April 16.
All available recordings of the CLASP Seminar Series will be posted to the website the following week. For more information, visit the CLASP Seminar Series website: https://clasp.engin.umich.edu/seminars/
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Our students at the U-M Department of Climate and Space participated in a fantastic MGU Symposium on April 9-10th! Each year, the Michigan Geophysical Union brings student researchers together to present their work, in a student-led initiative and event. We’re proud of the undergraduate and graduate students who presented! A huge thank you to the student organizers of MGU as well!!
#UMClimateSpace #Earth #undergraduateresearch #graduateresearch #collegelife
In the Artemis II mission, @NASA will test out a pair of new solar radiation forecasts, developed at University of Michigan Engineering, designed to protect astronauts venturing away from Earth. The mission launched on April 1.
The forecasts will provide warnings of harmful solar radiation released by solar flares and eruptions up to 24 hours in advance. NASA’s Space Radiation Analysis Group, or SRAG, is examining how new solar particle forecasting technologies might provide a faster response to changing space weather conditions during the Artemis missions, which will mostly fly outside the natural shielding provided by the Earth’s magnetic field.
Artemis II also launched during the most active period of the sun’s 11-year cycle in sunspot count, when eruptions are more common. An energetic solar flare, which is sometimes a precursor to particle storms, occurred just ahead of the mission.
The harmful radiation comes from protons, the positively-charged particles inside the cores of all atoms. Protons freely fly through the solar wind, the stream of electrically conductive gas that emanates from the sun, and they become especially dangerous when accelerated by the shock waves from solar flares and eruptions. The particles can travel near the speed of light and reach Earth minutes after a solar eruption.
If they hit an astronaut, their high energies could cause DNA strand breaks or cellular damage that may lead to an increased risk of developing cancer in the long-term.
Read our article to learn more by clicking the link in our bio!
#umichengin #nasa #Artemis #solarradiation #ArtemisII
The next event in the CLASP Seminar Series will feature John Spritzer, who is a Geophysicist and Engineer in the Geomagnetism Program at the U.S. Geological Survey. He will give a lecture on the “Next Generation Geomagnetic Observatory” in a seminar at 3:30pm ET, on Thursday, April 9.
You’re welcome to join us in the CSRB Auditorium, Room 2246. Viewing will also be available via Zoom. For more information, visit the CLASP Seminar Series website: https://clasp.engin.umich.edu/seminars/
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