Category: Archive

ESSIC/CISESS scientists Mason Quick and Scott Rudlosky (SCSB) contributed to an article that ran in the Washington Post describing thunderstorm behavior and lightning. In the piece, author Kevin Ambrose from the Capital Weather Gang investigates an unexpected lightning bolt that struck the ground near the Washington Monument last August.  Using Ambrose’s photo and timestamp, Quick and Rudlosky determined that this was a compact flash of negative lightning produced by a rapidly dissipating …

A recent article published in Nature’s “News and Views” column cited a 2006 article co-written by ESSIC Scientist Ross Salawitch as one of the most significant studies in the history of the Antarctic ozone hole and the successful environmental policy that followed. In the article, author Susan Solomon from the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology chronicles the ozone hole from the moment it was discovered to the enactment of …

ESSIC/CISESS Research Professor Xiaolei Zou and Post-doctoral Associate Xiaoxu Tian recently published an article in Tellus A: Dynamic Meteorology and Oceanography titled, “A comprehensive 4D-Var vortex initialization using a nonhydrostatic axisymmetric TC model with convection accounted for”. The article discusses the development of a four-dimensional variational (4D-Var) vortex initialization system meant to measure different variables of severe weather events, including temperature, …

Last week, ESSIC hosted retired NOAA Center for Satellite Applications and Research (STAR) scientist Dr. Norman Grody for the Seminar Series, ESSIC’s weekly event celebrating the center’s vast research.  Dr. Grody’s seminar drew over 60 in-person attendees and 30 online attendees, making it the most well-attended seminar of the year so far. Dr. Grody brought in a homemade microwave radiometer, which he constructed using information and components available on the Internet.  He was able …