From the polar ice caps to the deserts of China, from the skies over Oklahoma to the Atlantic Ocean near Northeast Brazil, ESSIC scientists are busy examining the Earth's Systems through the various lenses of their particular specialties. Cutting across the traditional disciplinary boundaries of meteorology, oceanography, geology and geography, ESSIC seeks to better understand how the land, the oceans and the atmosphere react with, and influence, one another. These interrelationships profoundly affect the current and future health and welfare of our planet and all its inhabitants. Science progresses by posing informed questions and seeking the answers to them.

At ESSIC, some of the questions our researchers are exploring are: How do the ocean, atmosphere, and land surfaces interact to induce changes in climate? How can we get better at predicting long-term climate events like droughts and floods? What effects are human activities like CO2 emissions and deforestation really having on our planet? How is carbon partitioned between land and ocean reservoirs?

Determining the answers to these big questions, however, often involves examining small, and some might say, esoteric, pieces of the puzzle.

Professor and Director of ESSIC
Antonio Busalacchi