Category: Archive

Beaudoing part of new NASA freshwater study

May 23, 2018

ESSIC faculty specialist Hiroko Beaudoing is a co-author of a newly published NASA-led satellite study that reveals significant changes to freshwater resources across the planet. The researchers discovered that wet areas are accumulating more water while dry areas are doing the opposite. The study utilizes 14 years of research data from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), as well as other satellite observations, irrigation maps and published reports on human activity. …

Salawitch quoted in article about banned chemical emissions

May 18, 2018

ESSIC professor Ross Salawitch is quoted in an Associated Press article that discusses how a banned chemical is being emitted from a mysterious source. The article is based on a new study in which scientist reported that CFC-11 has been released since 2013 despite being phased out in 1987. Salawitch said that the emission is “rogue” and puts the ozone layer in danger, a part of the atmosphere that, he noted to colleagues, it has been his “life’s work to protect.” …

Sutton-Grier publishes new article in Wetlands

May 11, 2018

ESSIC researcher Ariana Sutton-Grier has a new article in the journal Wetlands that evaluates the benefits of wetlands ecosystems, particularly for human health. The piece is titled “Conservation of Wetlands and Other Coastal Ecosystems: a Commentary on their Value to Protect Biodiversity, Reduce Disaster Impacts, and Promote Human Health and Well-Being.” The article notes that recognizing the benefits of wetlands is important for creating policy, such as addressing the risk of …

Murtugudde publishes study and article about moisture transfer in India

May 9, 2018

ESSIC / AOSC professor Raghu Murtugudde has a new article on the India Science Wire about how an Indian mountain range provides moisture for monsoon rainfall. The mountain range, called the Western Ghats, is home to immense biodiversity, including vegetation that facilitates 25 percent of peninsular India’s rainfall through the process of evapotranspiration. Murtugudde contributed to a study about the process, which is published in Geophysical Research Letters. He notes that …

Jiang part of NOAA Bronze Medal development team

May 9, 2018

ESSIC associate research scientist Liqing Jiang was part of a development team that produced the award-winning online data submission system, Send2NCEI. The system developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) automates data management and submissions for the environmental data the agency hosts. Jiang’s federal colleagues on the Send2NCEI’s development team received the NOAA Bronze …

ESSIC participates in 20th Maryland Day

May 3, 2018

A sunny Maryland Day made for the perfect opportunity for ESSIC staff to engage with Terps of all ages about Earth sciences. ESSIC assistant research scientist Michael Peterson organized a virtual reality activity with severe weather visuals. Visitors could view imagery from the NOAA GOES-16 satellite, including Hurricane Harvey, thunderstorms in Argentina and Brazil and the lightning hotspot over Venezuela’s Lake Maracaibo. There were also lighting visuals, including two that …

Precipitation measurement group meets at NASA

May 1, 2018

The eighth meeting of the NASA-NOAA working group on the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) was held April 25 at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. The group meets approximately twice a year and ESSIC participants included ESSIC visiting research scientists Ralph Ferraro and Huan Meng. …

ESSIC scientists publish article on snowfall rates

May 1, 2018

ESSIC visiting research scientists Ralph Ferraro and Huan Meng, post-doctoral associate Jun Dong, faculty specialist Michael Folmer, associate research scientist Cezar Kongoli, and assistant research scientist Nai-Yu Wang have an article in Eos, which is published by the American Geophysical Union. The article, “Snowfall Rates from Satellite Data Help Weather Forecasters,” describes how NOAA satellite data is used to generate maps that provide information on snowfall rates …

Murtugudde’s Scientific Reports paper earned nearly 800 views last year

April 26, 2018

An article published in Scientific Reports co-authored by ESSIC / AOSC professor Raghu Murtugudde was among the journal’s 100 most read Earth sciences papers of nearly 1500 published in 2017. The article, titled “Role of Oceanic and Terrestrial Atmospheric Moisture Sources in Intraseasonal Variability of Indian Summer Monsoon Rainfall,” had nearly 800 views….

Mishonov publishes piece about suspended ocean particles

April 20, 2018

ESSIC assistant research scientist Alexey Mishonov published an article in Geophysical Research Letters on decadal patterns of suspended particles in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Ocean. The study found a long-term trend in which high particulate areas occur where the surface water kinetic energy is high. Particulate concentration is very low throughout most of the ocean….