Author: Travis Swaim

When a hurricane devastates a community and restoration plans must be evaluated for cost and helpfulness, or when state standards for water and air quality must be analyzed for effectiveness, decision-makers often seek policy counsel.

That’s where Dr. Melissa Kenney comes in.

As an environmental decision scientist and a research assistant professor at ESSIC, Kenney researches how to combine scientific information and societal values to advise policy-making and inform about

ESSIC / AOSC Professor Raghu Murtugudde spoke on-air with WBAL radio host Steve Fermier, on the unusally chilly 2013-14 Maryland winter. An Earth systems scientist, Murtugudde discussed the cold weather that has persisted for much of the U.S. over the past few months. Murtugudde assured Fermier there is an end to the cold weather, citing non-linear weather patterns and the east Pacific Ocean being stuck in a phase of “La Niña,” an oceanic and atmospheric phenomenon characterized by colder …

University of Maryland alumni and associate scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanic Institute, Dr. Kristopher Karnauskas, was recently awarded a two-year, $50,000 fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Sloan, a non-profit grantmaking institution, awarded 126 fellowships in 2014 to early career scientists of “outstanding promise.” The fellowship enables recipiants to continue their work in science, math, economics, and computer science. The former PhD student advised by ESSIC Director, …

ESSIC Research Assistant Professor Melissa Kenney was one of forty scientists to attend the 2014 Climate Science Day on Capital Hill in Washington, D.C. The event, which organized more than 100 congressional meetings throughout the day, helped develop relationships between climate scientists and policy makers. During the meetings, scientists offered legislators information about climate change and its effect on respective congressional districts. In total, 14 different scientific societies …

ESSIC Faculty Research Assistant Stephanie Schollaert Uz delivered a presentation at the 2014 Ocean Sciences Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii fron 22-28 February. The talk was entitled, “50 years of statistically reconstructed chlorophyll patterns and their implications for higher trophic levels in the Tropical Pacific.”…

ESSIC / AOSC Associate Research Professor Maria Tzortziou delivered two presentations at the 2014 Ocean Sciences Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii fron 22-28 February. Tzortziou’s first talk was entitled, “Pressures and biogeochemical exchanges in highly vulnerable tidal wetland ecosystems at the land-ocean interface.” Her other presentation was entitled, “Stakeholder engagement in future satellite ocean color mission development process,” discussing applications activities for NASA’s Climate …

A new study conducted by the non-profit sustainable leadership advocacy group  Ceres,  found that more than half of all hydraulic fracturing wells in the United States are in areas experiencing drought. Ceres analyzed data from eight regions of high shale development within the U.S. and Canada.  The study found that 56 percent of U.S. hydraulically fractured wells are located in regions of drought.  The data also showed that 47 percent of these wells are in areas with …

ESSIC scientists presented over 20 talks and posters at the 94th Annual American Meteorological Society Meeting held February 2-6 in Atlanta, GA. The theme for this year’s meeting was  “Extreme Weather—Climate and the Built Environment:  New Perspectives Opportunities, and Tools.” Broad topics discussed included how extreme weather such as tornado, cyclones, floods, winter storms, wildfires, drought, and extreme solar activity influence technological innovation, scientific inquiry, …

ESSIC Visiting Associate Research Scientist Ralph Ferraro was interviewed by Space News regarding the pending launch of the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory Satellite. Several ESSIC researchers, including Ferrero, are principal investigators of the NASA Precipitation Measurement Missions (PMM), which conducts research in support of the NASA Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) and GPM projects. The satellite was successfully launched from Japan on February 27, 2014. …

Dr. Kimberly Casey, visiting research assistant and glaciologist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, is the first round winner of ESSIC’s Winter 2013-2014 Snow Prediction Pool. The winning prediction of eight inches was a “simple guess,” according to Casey. “I would feel quite lucky if I was successful at predicting both mid- and [overall] season snowfall totals,” she added. The pool’s first round ended Feb. 2, Groundhog Day and the midpoint of the season, by which time the Washington, …