Tag: Aerosol/Cloud Physics/Radiation

If you’re into “all you can eat” hot pot, LaTao is the place to be. And a very pretty-looking place it is, awash in red (and smelling tasty as you walk in). Located at the street level of “The Enclave at 8700”, it’s the latest restaurant to find a home in College Park. All I can is, finally, a place that serves a deliciously spicy “mapo tofu”. They’re still waiting for their liquor license and are arranging for delivery/catering services, …

Associate Research Scientist Santiago Gassó was recently featured in two articles detailing the dangerous wildfires spreading across the Arctic Circle by Australia’s ABC World News and NASA Earth Observatory. While wildfires are common in Alaska, these fires were across Siberia where fires of this severity are unexpected.  The articles’ authors discovered Gassó on Twitter, where he was commenting on “smoke lids” created by the fire that billowed over 4.5 million square metres of …

Hip and airy … Denizens Brewing Co. is up and running at Riverdale Park Station. Walked in to music by The Cure, Flock of Seagulls … nice. Third day open so a few bumps (wonky w-fi, no cheese puffs as snacks because they ran out), but I can see how it’ll be a hang-out for locals (the place was quite busy). While I was there, cyclists from area clubs rolled in to check out the beer flights, etc. Not surprisingly, the place was loud. The different beers looked interesting, …

Associate Research Scientist Santiago Gassó recently attended a board meeting of the Scientific Committee of the Surface Ocean-Lower Atmosphere Study (SOLAS) in Jozankei, a city on the Hokkaido island of Japan, from April 25 to 29. SOLAS is an international, bottom-up scientific organization dedicated to understanding the key biogeochemical-physical interactions and feedbacks between the ocean and atmosphere.  This meeting was to review SOLAS-related research released last year, connect and …

The Town Center with its outdoor patio, Enomatic wine machine, and funky beers; the Farmers Market (picked up some Kalamata-olive-infused bread); the newly opened Riviera Tapas Bar … downtown Riverdale Park on Thursdays after work is kinda more happening now. Yes, good old grubby S&J’s is now a tapas bar. Not quite the José Andrés Jaleo experience, but it’s close to work and handy for a pleasant happy hour at the end of a work week (their hours are …

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 …

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 …

ESSIC / CICS-MD Post-doctoral associate Youtong Zheng recently co-authored a paper published in Science titled, “Aerosol-driven droplet concentrations dominate coverage and water of oceanic low level clouds”. The article introduces a methodology for ascribing cloud properties to cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and isolating aerosol effects from meteorological effects.  This new finding is largely based on a series of novel satellite remote sensing techniques of estimating the vertical …

Zhanqing Li, AOSC/ESSIC Professor, recently gave a Core Science Keynote Presentation at last week’s AMS Annual Conference. The presentation, titled “Can air pollution fuel extreme weather events and contribute to long-term climate changes”, discusses the major impact that aerosols can have on extreme weather events such as heavy rainfall, thunderstorms, and lightning over densely populated regions. Despite the government shutdown that impacted the conference’s overall attendance, the …