Author: Travis Swaim

Russ Dickerson, Lackson Marufu, Ken Pickering, Jeff Stehr et al. have been involved in a study of remote sensing of air pollution over the eastern US.The NASA-funded DISCOVER-AQ program brought the P3 and Kingair aircraft to Maryland where, joined by the MDE sponsored Cessna, they provided ground truth for NASA and NOAA satellites.The record high temperatures assured a treasure trove of exciting data. DISCOVER-AQ is a four-year campaign to improve the use of satellites to monitor air quality …

Maria Tzortziou and Antonio Mannino co-led the NASA-funded GEO-CAPE CBODAQ Campaign that took place in the Chesapeake Bay estuary during July 2011. Among the main objectives of the campaign was to obtain detailed atmospheric and oceanographic observations forcharacterizing short-term dynamics and spatio-temporal variability inatmospheric and coastal ecosystem processes. Participants in the oceanographic field campaign included more than 25 scientists, 2 graduate students, 4 undergraduate …

Raghu Murtugudde is overseeing a team of 13 students from the University of New Mexico studying community and regional planning, economics, sustainability, pre-medicine and law in the village of Kotumachagi, a small hamlet of Gadag district. The team is the first to participate in the international course on Sustainable Economic Development in India, and is a 9 Credit Program for Upper-Division Undergraduate and Graduate Students.   (Related: See the “Featured-@-ESSIC” article on …

Researcher: Sinead Farrell
Grant Sponsor: NASA-GSFC
Amount: $195,276
Grant Study: “Profiling the Arctic Ocean: Investigating Changes in Sea Ice Freeboard and Dynamic Topography with Satellite Altimetry”
This is an increase in funding to a March 2010 award.

Researcher: Xin-Zhong Liang
Colorado State University
Amount: $176,583
Grant Study: “Integrated Bioclimatic-Dynamic Modeling of Climate Change Impacts on Agricultural and Invasive Plant Distributions in the United States”…

106 – Investigations of Saharan Air Layer Dust Distributions and their Influence on the African Easterly Jet and African Monsoon Hydrological Cycle
Principal Investigator(s): Z. Li

The objective of our project is to use the NASA Goddard Earth Observing System version 5 (GEOS-4 and GEOS-5, respectively) atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) and data assimilation system to understand the influence of the parameterization of dust emission on simulated dust distributions, particular, the effects of varying the source scheme, model resolution, and meteorology on emission and aerosol optical thickness (AOT) distributions. We employed several satellite and in situ observation datasets to understand the controls on an observed barrier to dust transport over the Caribbean.

101 – The Impact of Using Lidar Network Data for a Summertime Cold Front Case Study
Principal Investigator(s): S. Rabenhorst

Model simulations of the impact of space-based data on regional scale weather forecasts indicate space-based data alone are insufficient to improve short-term forecasting of convective systems. Smaller scale measurements that can only be acquired from either ground-based or airborne sensors are needed. This project responds to the national priorities to implement a mesoscale network capable of high resolution monitoring of humidity and planetary boundary layer structure. The focus is investigating the impact of a water vapor lidar network to improve short-term numerical forecasts for a summertime cold front case study during 1-5 August 2006. Emphasis is also placed on the cost-benefit component of these profilers. Network density, platform, system hardware, and associated market-value prices are all significant contributing factors. The results of this study should help inform decision-makers when considering a new or improved mesoscale observing network.

Volume 1 / Issue 1

Inaugural issue of the newsletter containing helpful tips regarding the information technology infrastructure at ESSIC.

New Anti-Virus Software support from the University of Maryland
– Meet the new members of the IT staff
– Introduction to Parallel compu-ting resources
– Reporting problems in Windows 7

Zhanqing Li  published an article in the Journal of Geophysical Research (JGR) which was selected by the American Geophysical Union as a Research Spotlight in the June 7 issue of EOS. Their article presented an overview of a JGR special issue highlighting the major accomplishments for international project led by Li on the impact of air pollution on regional climate in China, the first major US-China joint field experiment on climate change sponsored by DOE and NASA….

Professor Raghu Murtugudde has been awarded the 2011 Leopold Leadership Fellowship at Stanford University’s Woods Institute for the Environment. The program provides academic researchers with the skills and connections they need to be effective leaders and communicators.
Program goals include leadership and communications training from a range of fields to ensure the fellows have the necessary skills to serve as leaders and communicators. The program also strives to increase the involvement …