Elle Hanson (she/her)
PhD Student
Contact Information
- [email protected]
- 310 Olin Hall
- Personal Website
- Google Scholar Profile
Research Interests: Cloud microphysics on other planets, cloud modeling, remote sensing of clouds
Elle Hanson is a PhD student of Darryn Waugh studying organic ice clouds in the stratosphere of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. Her interests are quite broad, and include mesoscale & dynamic meteorology on other planets, radiative transfer measurements and modeling, planetary rings, anything involving ices and vapors, and ways to make planetary data more accessible. Elle enjoys coffee, cats, birds, programming, and cross-stitching to science fiction/fantasy audiobooks. She goes by both Lavender and Elle.
I am interested in organic and organonitrile ice clouds in Titan's stratosphere. Unlike clouds on earth, clouds on Titan are made of ices of many different compounds, including methane, ethane, benzene, cyanide, and acetonitrile. But these different species can co-condense to form an impure cloud ice particle. Mixed species ice clouds are known to form in the stratosphere on Titan, and they have implications for chemical transport and the radiative balance of the atmosphere as well as the global circulation. By cultivating a better understanding of existing observations of Titan's stratospheric ice, we may also better understand the moon's weather and climate system as a whole.