Category: Archive

Mishonov Co-Authors Poster at Austria Conference

April 10, 2019

This week, a poster co-authored by ESSIC Associate Research Scientist Dr. Alexey Mishonov will be presented at the 2019 EGU General Assembly, a gathering of international geoscientists in Vienna, Austria. The poster, titled “The Influence of the Deep Western Boundary Current on 231Pa & 230Th in the Northwest Atlantic”, reflects ongoing work to evaluate the influence of particle scavenging and the Deep Western Boundary Current on 231Pa and 230Th isotope distributions in the …

NCEI Features New Study by Mishonov and Reagan

April 10, 2019

NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) recently featured a study conducted by ESSIC Associate Research Scientist Dr. Alexey Mishonov and ESSIC / CICS-MD Senior Faculty Specialist James Reagan. The study, “Eddy‐Resolving In Situ Ocean Climatologies of Temperature and Salinity in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean”, was published in the January 2019 issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans and discussed the development of a new decadally averaged …

Local Eats: Banana Blossom

April 5, 2019

Finally. The corner of Queensbury Road and Rhode Island Avenue is now home to a Vietnamese “upscale, fast-casual” eatery. Have some pho, or make your own noodle or rice bowl … plenty of crunchy, spicy condiments and other fresh stuff to add on. I like it. I had a basic plate – rice, mushrooms, and tofu nuggets (with a spicy garlic sauce on the side). Nothing fried or heavy on the stomach, just right. Warm-coloured and -feeling decor, owners who cater to folk who have …

Wild Co-Authors Report on Ozone Trends and Uncertainties

April 4, 2019

Recently, ESSIC / CICS-MD Senior Faculty Specialist Jeannette Wild co-authored several chapters of the Long-term Ozone Trends and Uncertainties in the Stratosphere (LOTUS) Report, a two-year endeavor to characterize the status and possible recovery of global ozone using datasets from satellite and ground instruments. The study also sought to classify and determine the associated error estimates of the trends derived from the instruments. The proper understanding of the error is crucial to …

El Niño and La Niña Responsible for India’s Cold Winter, Writes Murtugudde

March 29, 2019

ESSIC/AOSC Professor Raghu Murtugudde recently wrote an article in Tech2 titled “El Niño and La Niña Tinker with Western Disturbances and India’s Winters Too”. In the article, he discusses the unusually cold winter that India has experienced this year. Though many point to the term “polar vortex” to explain these temperatures, Murtugudde points to El Niño, which affects India’s “Subtropical Westerly Jet” (SWJ), a jet stream that acts as a conduit to western disturbances; …

NOAA Coral Reef Watch – Successfully Predicting and Monitoring Coral Reef Bleaching Worldwide Since 1997

March 29, 2019

Coral reefs are some of the most diverse ecosystems in the world. They provide significant ecological, economic, and societal benefits, from supporting marine species to protecting our coastlines to generating $9.8 trillion per year globally and $3.4 billion in the United States alone. But global threats like climate change are putting corals and other reef organisms at risk. Warming ocean temperatures create heat stress for corals, causing them to eject the microscopic algae that give …

Kenney Gives Keynote Address at Patuxent River Conference

March 28, 2019

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 …

NOAA Coral Reef Watch Contest 2018 Coral Bleaching Article

March 15, 2019

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 …

ESSIC/CICS Scientists Travel to Italy for Satellite Observation Meeting

March 15, 2019

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 …

Meng Talks Satellite Snowfall Rate in Alaska Webinar

March 7, 2019

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 …