Category: Archive

While some headed to the beach during the first weekend of August, eighty policy makers, scientists, activists and students put their heads together for the first DataBay Challenge at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Maryland. Hosted by the University of Maryland’s Future of Information Alliance (FIA), the Chesapeake Bay-focused programming competition sought out new ideas to creatively use data gathered about the Bay to inform the local community and …

Publication: The Washington Post Author(s): Petula Dvorak, Nia-Malika Henderson and Kimberly Kindy Date: August 24, 2014 Title: Magnitude-6.0 earthquake hits in N. Calif., hurting dozens and rattling wine country Napa, California, was a little shaken up after a 6.0-magnitude earthquake hit the western wine city on Sunday, August 24, causing Gov. Jerry Brown to declare a state of emergency. The earth quaked at 3:20 a.m., and was the largest earthquake to hit the Napa region since 1989’s …

They now offer beer and wine. The "happy hour" drink deals are decent (e.g., $4 for a glass of the drinkable house wine). The place still lacks an atmosphere, though, and the place echoes which can be annoying if there happen to be screaming kids around (it's a family-friendly place). There are picnic tables outside, so you can escape the noise if you need to. Wouldn't say I'd haunt the place, but a "pop in" now and then is …

ESSIC / AOSC Professor Raghu Murtugudde was quoted in the Indian online publication “The Hindu,” in an article entitled “Factors affecting urban warming.” Murtugudde explained that two types of Urban Heat Island (atmospheric and surface) effect temperatures differently dependent upon the time of day or night….

When it comes to policy questions regarding land use, sometimes a little science is required to evaluate the effects on the land and the costs for developers. For Dr. Melissa Kenney and her colleagues, their research on the Mississippi River Delta will help influence future state-planned land development in the region through its examination of options that are cost-effective and environmentally conscious. “The Mississippi River Delta is a really critical ecosystem and social system, and …

Publication: Washington Post Author: Terrence McCoy Date: August 5, 2014 Title: Scientists may have cracked the giant Siberian crater mystery — and the news isn’t good Scientists now theorize that methane explosions within the melting permafrost created the new craters in Siberia, but this problem is not yet solved. “Gas pressure increased until it was high enough to push away the overlaying layers in a powerful injection, forming the crater,” explained geochemist Hans-Wolfgang …

The Geoscience Data Journal (GDJ) is an online-only platform where researchers across varied scientific disciplines can publish articles and entries about data sets, data services, and best practices for data publishing. Before any article goes into the journal, however, it must pass through a series of peer reviewers. Also overseeing the journal and its entries is an editorial board. Dr. Isaac Moradi, an assistant research scientist at the University of Maryland’s Earth System Science …

The University of Maryland will soon add “Instrument on International Space Station” to its list of accomplishments, thanks to the NASA-approved Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) Lidar project. The GEDI project consists of a laser-based system that will observe the structure of forest canopy globally, examining the transformations in natural carbon storage within the carbon cycle from both anthropogenic and natural climate changes. “We’d like to know what the biomass is …

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) held hearings Tuesday, July 29th 2014to gauge public reaction of a White House plan to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions over the next 15 years. The EPA held these meetings in three cities: Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Denver. Also in Denver on that same Tuesday were officials from another federal agency focusing on air quality in the U.S. In fact, researchers from NASA’s DISCOVER-AQ mission have been in Colorado for weeks collecting air pollution …