Author: Travis Swaim

Raghu Murtugudde was interviewed on the University of Maryland Television news show Maryland Newsline Monday on Monday, March 12th, in a story about this year’s unusually warm winter.   The video can be viewed on Youtube as well….

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – On Feb. 21 and 22, the University of Maryland’s Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC) hosted members of the microbiology community, physical science community and public health community to discuss the impact of pathogens and algal toxins on human health. The workshop, titled “Integrating Climate and Environmental Information with Disease Surveillance to Address Pathogens and Algal Toxins of Concern to Public Health,” focused on Maryland’s Chesapeake …

The Task Force on American Innovation (TFAI), in which AAU participates, has launched the American Collegiate Innovation Video Contest.  The contest challenges students to use their creativity and imagination in a three-minute video that demonstrates how federally funded scientific research has resulted in discoveries that have benefitted society. AAU campuses are asked to encourage their students to participate.  The first-place winner will receive a $1,000 prize and a trip to …

Since winter (meteorological winter, which is December – February) has just ended, we can look back at the various forecasts that were made to see how well they did.  I took a look at 4 relatively serious winter forecasts for the College Park area that can be validated (this isn’t meant to be a serious scientific evaluation, obviously – more of an introduction to what forecasts are available and some of their characteristics).  These are climate forecasts, and therefore contain only the

Ross Salawitch, with colleagues, published a commentary in the February 14 edition of the American Geophysical Union’s Eos newspaper on recent cuts to the Canadian agency responsible for meteorological services and environmental science, Environment Canada.  The authors wrote that the reductions threaten research on the ozone layer in the upper atmosphere and on pollution in the lower atmosphere and also threatens existing international agreement.  Media coverage included EP Magazine, CBC.ca, …

Phil Arkin was quoted in Environment and Energy Daily, February 10, in an article on NOAA’s decision to abandon the 20th Century Reanalysis project – an effort to reconstruct a detailed picture of hour-by-hour changes in the atmosphere going back to the 19^th century. Read article text in full here….

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – ESSIC Director and Council on the Environment Chair Antonio Busalacchi has been elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), one of 11 CMNS faculty and staff among the 359 newly elected fellows. The fellowship is “an honor bestowed upon members by their peers,” where “fellows are recognized for meritorious efforts to advance science or its applications,” according to the AAAS website. Busalacchi was elected by his peers for …

Welcome to Climate Today, an occasional column/blog/discussion intended to entertain, illuminate and sometimes provoke visitors to this site.  This initial effort is meant to provide some of the background and context to posts that will follow, hopefully on something like a weekly schedule.

When Mark Baith, who leads the team responsible for the re-design of the ESSIC website asked me to do this a number of months ago, I reacted as I do to most such appealing but of the distant future (more