Lori’s Job

April 22, 2019 Hey. So last fall I found out that some colleagues and I got our dust devil proposal funded (I'm the PI, which means I'm the one in charge.) My initial reaction included elation. Relief. Joy. 🤗🎉🎈🥂🎊 We'd submitted this proposal five times (FIVE!!) before we got it funded. And now we're really going to do it. We're going to get some amazing meteorology instruments, some awesome cameras, and go out to the US southwest to study some dust devils. As reality set in, my second reaction looked like this: 😨😰🙀 Because. Well. This is a big job. I want to do... read more ❯

It's a rough day. A tsunami in Indonesia has killed many people, and the pain is so fresh that there's not even a death count yet. A couple of my good friends are going through various personal crises that will affect them for the rest of their lives. And if you're in the US, then one way or another you're probably upset about what's going on with the Supreme Court nomination. I should be working on any number of other things. There are projects to complete, and new projects that need to get sorted out before they begin. But for the... read more ❯

It's July, and I've had a busy summer so far. This is my first post in a few weeks - I've been out at various meetings, and last week I spent with my family on vacation. The one week of normal work I had was spent furiously working to help a colleague put together a paper. That left me no time to share pretty pictures with the world. So finally I'm back and able to make another blog post. I decided to make it simple: just a field of pretty barchans. View is 750x500 m (0.47x0.31 mi), HiRISE... read more ❯

There are a lot of dune fields on Mars. Over the last ten years I've been part of a group that's mapped out the big dark dunes on the planet to see where they form, and to understand the sedimentary and meteorological processes that control their formation. We compiled a database showing their locations and various physical characteristics. Wait, why do piles of sand form in the first place? On Earth, it's because: 1. There's a lot of sand (not a surprise). 2. There's a lot of strong wind (also not a surprise). 3. The sand is free to be moved by the wind.... read more ❯

This is the 3rd (and final) entry in a blog series describing a paper I recently published with colleagues in JGR Planets. Here are links to the previous two entries: Part 1, Part 2. Wow, I didn't think this would take 3 entries. Science is weird. You start a project feeling out of your depth, not knowing exactly where it will take you. You stumble around, read a bunch of papers to absorb the wisdom of others, and work up the courage to do things. You struggle mightily in doing those things: making the model run, keeping access to the computer... read more ❯

In a previous post, I set the stage for my recently published paper in JGR Planets. A recap: we've got good evidence for a change in Mars's climate. Widespread ripples in Meridiani Planum formed >200,000 years ago, last migrated westward more than ~50,000 years ago, had their crests reformed into little dunes by a slightly different wind sometime after that, but have been dormant ever since. Meanwhile, we know that over that same time period, Mars' orbit and axial tilt have varied, which can affect wind patterns. Moreover, over this period, those same planetary changes led to a stepwise sequestration of atmospheric... read more ❯

Today a big thing happened: a paper I've spent a year or so working on has finally been published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets (which we just call "JGR Planets"). Scientists write a lot of papers, so it's not as momentous as, say, graduating (or watching a student graduate), but it's still a really nice feeling. I can now download a PDF of the paper, look at all the pretty formatting, lovely figures and tables, pages of analysis and what I hope will turn out to be insightful discussion, and say "Yeah, I did that, and with some... read more ❯

I set my alarm for 5:30 this morning. Sometimes I skip lunar eclipses, but I do try to see them if they're total, and if I think the sky might be cloud-free (which it often isn't in the Bay Area of CA, as low-lying marine clouds typically roll in overnight). My 8 year old is into astronomy and heard about the eclipse from one of his favorite Youtube science channels for kids (can't remember the name of it or I'd share - I'll ask him and update later on). Last night he asked me to wake him up, and I... read more ❯

There are three states of parental organization. I've done all three on occasion, but I do have my tendencies. We all have our way of getting things done. Here they are: 1. Super organized parent: These are the folks who know where every thing is, and everything has its place (you can tell where the place is, because the things are there, in their place). Appointments are made ahead of time, marked on a calendar, all people who should know about said appointments are informed (possibly more than once), and all required attendants show up at said appointments on time. My... read more ❯

The new favorite is "A Bushel and a Peck". The first half dozen times it was cute. No, really. read more ❯