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Kenney Gives Keynote Address at Patuxent River Conference

This week, ESSIC/CICS Associate Research Professor Melissa Kenney gave a keynote address at the Patuxent River Conference, a gathering of scientists, environmental educators, and natural resource managers to discuss the health and future of the Patuxent River.  This year’s theme for the conference was “Climate Change & the Patuxent River: Local Implications of Global Issues”. In the address, Kenney spoke about the environmental management challenges that come …

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NOAA Coral Reef Watch Contest 2018 Coral Bleaching Article

Last week, staff from NOAA Coral Reef Watch (CRW), an initiative now supported by the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center-administered Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites (CICS), published a commentary piece in Frontiers in Marine Science contesting an article that claimed mass coral bleaching has been occurring on the Great Barrier Reef for the last 400 years, rather than being a recent phenomenon. In the article, “Commentary: Reconstructing Four Centuries of …

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ESSIC/CICS Scientists Travel to Italy for Satellite Observation Meeting

Last week was the annual meeting of the Global Space-based Inter-Calibration System (GSICS), an international collaborative effort to monitor, improve, and harmonize observations from the Global Observing System weather and environmental satellites. The meeting, held in Frascati, Italy, included a “Mini-Conference” on calibration activities outside of GSICS as well as reports, briefs, and discussions on the GSICS Research Working Group, GSICS Data management Working Group, and GSICS …

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Meng Talks Satellite Snowfall Rate in Alaska Webinar

On February 27, ESSIC/CICS Visiting Research Scientist Huan Meng gave an invited webinar in the Virtual Alaska Weather Symposium (VAWS) on satellite Snowfall Rate (SFR) in conjunction with Wes Adkins from NWS Juneau, AK Office. In the seminar, Meng introduced the SFR algorithm and its calibration and validation while Adkins presented SFR assessment case studies at the Juneau and Anchorage Offices. VAWS is a webinar series created by the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment (ACCAP) and Policy …

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Gassó to Teach Remote Sensing on Ocean Research Cruise

ESSIC Associate Research Scientist Santiago Gassó recently accepted an invitation to participate in the South to North Atlantic Transect (SoNoAT) cruise onboard the Polarstern, a German research vessel, as a part of a “Floating Summer School”. The cruise will depart in the summer from Pt. Stanley in the Falkland Islands and end in Bremerhaven, Germany after five weeks.  On the cruise, 50 graduate students from all over the world will be taught the principles of oceanography, climate, and …

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McNally and Mladenova Write on Link Between Earth Observations and Water-Food Nexus

ESSIC Assistant Research Scientists Amy McNally and Iliana E. Mladenova recently co-authored a paper titled “Hydrologic and Agricultural Earth Observations and Modeling for the Water-Food Nexus” in Frontiers: in Environmental Science. The paper highlights the inextricable link between sustainable access to water and food and basic human rights.  The authors present case studies of how Earth observations are being used in applications at the nexus of water and food security: crop …

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Can Planting Trees Mitigate Global Warming? Murtugudde Questions in Recent Article

ESSIC/AOSC Professor Raghu Murtugudde recently published an article in Tech2 titled, “The Trouble with Relying on Trees as Carbon Sink to Do Our Global Warming Bidding”. In the piece, Murtugudde tackles the commonly-held notion that forests are a net ‘sink’ of carbon and a major player in mitigating global warming. He writes that though trees certainly help capture carbon, they also emit a number of emit a number of Volatile Organic Carbon compounds (VOCs).  One VOC, isoprene, can …

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Vogel’s Water Quality Research Results Presented to Maryland State Legislature

Recently, satellite water quality research results from Ron Vogel, ESSIC / CICS Senior Faculty Specialist, were presented to the Maryland State Legislature’s House Subcommittee on the Environment and Transportation.  The House Subcommittee has been preparing to write legislation on designating oyster sanctuaries and asked NOAA’s Chesapeake Bay Office (NCBO) to brief the Subcommittee on NOAA’s and UMD’s research and monitoring results on the benefits of oyster restoration …

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Yin, Liu Develop Optimally Blended Drought Index

ESSIC/CICS Assistant Research Scientists Jifu Yin and Jicheng Liu have a recent article published in Water Resources Research titled “A Method for Objectively Integrating Soil Moisture Satellite Observations and Model Simulations Toward a Blended Drought Index”. The researchers write about the development of a method to objectively integrate widely available satellite soil moisture retrievals into a single accurate and reliable optimally blended drought index (BDI). Compared to official …

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