Author: Travis Swaim

The Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC) has been awarded a five-year, $64.8 million cooperative agreement with NASA. Established in 1999, ESSIC is a joint center of the University of Maryland and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center that supports research, teaching and career training in Earth system science. The award will enable UMD to continue and expand its close collaboration with NASA Goddard, building on a legacy of nearly two decades of world-class …

ESSIC visiting research scientist Scott Rudlosky provided expert commentary in an on-air Weather Channel segment broadcast live March 7, 2017. During the report, Rudlosky discussed the first lightning images obtained from the GEOS-16 Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM). Rudlosky expounded on the instrument’s capabilities, including the proficiency in which lightning data would be provided to forecasters. Rudlosky furthered that GLM imagery could also be utilized by public agencies for …

ESSIC Assistant Research Scientist Amy McNally’s hydro modeling work with the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET)—(a leading provider of early warning and analysis on food insecurity)—was recognized in several ways recently.   Utilizing soil moisture data gathered from the Land Data Assimilation System (FLDAS), the FEWS-Net team issued a report detailing the current drought conditions in Somalia.  This soil moisture information was …

ESSIC Interim Director and hydrologist F. Miralles-Wilhelm is the lead author of a recently released World Bank discussion paper.  The study entitled “Physical impacts of climate change on water resources” stresses the management of water resources both in adapting to the effects of climate change and in meeting global greenhouse gas mitigation goals. …

ESSIC interim Director Fernando Miralles-Wilhelm recently contributed to a University of Maryland-led multidisciplinary study which found that feedback variables from the coupling of the earth and human systems are often overlooked in climate models used to inform on environmental, climate, and economic decision making. The research, which was authored by a team of 20 international scientists, is titled “Modeling sustainability: population, inequality, consumption, and bidirectional …

ESSIC/AOSC Professor Raghu Mutugudde recently published an Op-ed in the Indian edition of The Huffington Post. The publication, titled “India has Much to Gain from Enhancing Climate Change Awareness and Risk Perception,” discusses how climate risks affect those in India and measures that can be taken to educate and benefit the country. The piece can be found on The Huffington-In Post website. …

ESSIC / AOSC Professor Raghu Murtugudde was an invited lecturer at a World Climate Research Programme training school event held at Jeju National University, Jeju Island, Republic of Korea.  The training held from 16-21 January 2017, focused on monsoon variability in changing climates and brought early career scientists together with an international coalition of experts from India, Korea, the United States, China and the United Kingdom….