Category: Archive

Last week, ESSIC/CISESS Visiting Associate Research Scientist Ralph Ferraro gave a talk titled “Satellite Hydrological Products and their Utility in the Alaska Region”.  Over 50 participants listened in on the remote presentations. Passive microwave sensors on low earth orbiting satellites have the ability to monitor several parameters associated with the Earth’s hydrological cycle–falling precipitation, snow and ice parameters, soil moisture, etc.  These observations are …

ESSIC / CISESS Scientists Xiaolei Zou and Xiaxu Tian have put their expertise on striping noise and applied it to one of the key JPSS instruments, Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS). Their new technique using symmetric filters is described in their new article in the July 2019 issue of the Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology. During each ATMS scanning cycle, the antenna first scans the Earth scene, then cold space, and finally the blackbody warm target to record the …

There is no doubt that Earth is getting warmer. At the same time, many locations experience dramatic weather and climate variations every year. Heat waves, intense cold outbreaks, threatening droughts, floods, and destructive tropical storms are common in the daily news. These climate variations are taking place against the background of overall climate change, but the distinction between the two can be challenging to explain.  What factors are responsible for these variations and how do we …

Last week, SCSB’s Scott Rudlosky and ESSIC/CISESS Scientist Mason Quick contributed to a Washington Post article that detailed a lightning flash across the Tidal Basin. The author, a member of the Capital Weather Gang, sought out Rudlosky to research the size and location of the flash using data from the D.C. Lightning Mapping Array (DCLMA).  Using sensors that monitor lightning’s very high frequency radio waves, the DCLMA provides detailed insight into the structure and evolution of …