Category: Highlights

“Unseen Heroes” Awards for the S-NPP CDP Reset Recovery Team

December 19, 2022

On December 6, the NOAA Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) Program Office announced that the “Unseen Heroes” award would go to the Central Data Processor (CDP) Reset Recovery Team. It was given “in recognition of efforts to restore the Suomi-National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) satellite instruments after a central data processor reset.” This was a major effort in collaboration between the JPSS SDR teams and OSPO to recover the SNPP satellite after the instrument entered “Sun-pointing mode,” leading all of the onboard JPSS instruments to go offline and require restarting and revalidation. The CISESS and Consortium Scientist awardees were:

Figure: a-c) Station maps of cp profiles during XIXIMI 4–6 cruises; d-f) vertical sections of cp (m􀀀 1) at stations between red lines in a-c) along 24◦N in 2015–2017; g-i) maps of bottom cp in 2015–2017. Arrows and red lines in g-i indicate the line of stations used for sections shown in d-f. Bold vertical lines in the sections (d-f) indicate the location of profiles. The outer edge of light blue shading on the station maps (a-c) denotes 1000 m depth.

Mishonov Studies Nepheloid Layers in the Gulf of Mexico

November 30, 2022

Alexey Mishonov, ESSIC/CISESS Associate Research Scientist and NOAA Affiliate, has a new article in Marine Geology about the nepheloid layers in the deep Gulf of Mexico.

At the student section of ChaserCon (left to right): CISESS Scientist Guangyang Fang, Undergraduate Research Assistants Samantha Smith, Alex Friedman and Domenic Brooks, Graduate Student Alvin Cheung, and Scientist Daile Zhang.

ESSIC/CISESS Lightning Team at 2022 Mid-Atlantic ChaserCon

November 16, 2022

The ESSIC/CISESS Lightning Team members Guangyang Fang and Daile Zhang recently attended the 2022 Mid-Atlantic ChaserCon, a conference for meteorologists at National Weather Service, broadcast meteorologists, emergency managers, storm chasers and other professional and amateur meteorologists across the great Mid-Atlantic area to network and discuss local severe storms and promote ideas to raise public awareness of severe weather and emergency management. Accompanying them were Undergraduate Research Assistants Alex Friedman, Domenic Brooks, and Samantha Smith as well as an AOSC grad student Alvin Cheung.

ESSIC Scientists Earn NOAA Awards

November 16, 2022

Last week, NOAA Administrators announced the recipients of the 2022 Bronze Medal, Distinguished Career, Administrator’s Awards, and Recognition Awards for 50 Years of Service. Among the awardees were several ESSIC scientists.

Observed GPCP precipitation trend (mm day-1 per decade) during (a) 1979-2014 and (b) 1979-2020. (c) AMIP6 and (d) CMIP6 historical full forcing simulated precipitation trend (mm day-1 per decade) during 1979-2014.

Observed Variability and Trends in Global Precipitation During the Satellite Era

November 16, 2022

ESSIC/CISESS scientists Guojun Gu and Robert Adler have a new article in Climate Dynamics that examines changes in global precipitation during the satellite (post-1979) era using the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) V2.3 monthly precipitation analysis. They compared GPCP data with results from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 6 (CMIP6) and the Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project (AMIP5) with the goal of improving current understanding of the effects of major physical mechanisms on precipitation change. They also aimed to assess the skills of current climate models and discover some clues for diagnosing possible limitations in observed precipitation.

Isaac Moradi smiles for the camera, wearing a red gridded button-up and a red tie

Isaac Moradi Joins UMD Research Council

November 16, 2022

ESSIC /CISESS Research Scientist Isaac Moradi was recently elected as a member of the University of Maryland Research Council. The Research Council is task force deployed by the University Senate that provides guidance to the UMD Vice President for research on matters such as:

Ferraro Joins PTK Working Group

October 24, 2022

ESSIC Associate Director Ralph Ferraro is a member of the new Professional Track (PTK) Working Group, a committee composed of PTK and Tenure Track (TTK) faculty, staff and administrators on behalf of Provost Jennifer King Rice to review and assess current issues related to PTK faculty. The goal of the Working Group is to develop a report of recommendations to Provost Rice on PTK issues.

Top of the atmosphere normalized radiance (a), and degree of linear (b) and circular (c, multiplied by 103) polarization as a function of aerosol optical depth (AOD) at 550 um for selected near-UV to near-IR wavelengths angle 142.5 (SZAD40, VZAD40, RelAzimD120).

Circular Polarization in Atmospheric Aerosols

October 24, 2022

ESSIC Scientist Santiago Gasso is first author on a new paper in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics that provides an overview of aerosol sources of circular polarization in the atmosphere and discusses possible remote sensing signatures.

Figure: The VIIRS Flood map, Sentinel-1 SAR Flood map, and the comprehensively blended Flood map on 10/2/2022 reporting flood extent due to Hurricane Ian.

Florida Flood Maps for Hurricane Ian

October 21, 2022

Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida on the afternoon of 9/28/2022 as a massive Category 4 storm and brought record-setting winds. As of 10/4/2022, at least 105 people have been reported as casualties of Hurricane Ian, 55 of which in Lee County, Florida. Even more people are without power or their home. The NOAA STAR Flood team has produced VIIRS Flood maps, Sentinel-1 SAR Flood maps, and blended Flood maps to report the flood extent due to Hurricane Ian.

Fig. 12. The VZA-COLD detection results of a selected pixel, and high resolution images for Puerto Rico. (a) The accumulated annual NTL change maps from 2013 to 2021 with the latest detected change year presented. (b) The day-of day NTL change map in 2017 over the region enlarged from the white rectangle from Fig. 12a. (c) The time series plot of a selected pixel (red cross in Fig 12b) and the corresponding VZA COLD detection results, in which the red, green, blue, and grey colors indicate the different VZA intervals, the line represent the estimated models, the small dots are the DNB observations, and the large magenta dots are the detected changes. (d) The high-resolution Google Earth image in July 2017 and October 2017. The red squares represet the location and the size of the selected pixel in Fig 12c. The grey background in Figs.12a-b is the Esri ArcMap Dark Grey Canvas base map. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

Monitoring Nighttime Light Changes with NASA’s Black Marble

October 21, 2022

ESSIC Scientist Zhuosen Wang has a new paper in Remote Sensing of Environment that proposes the use of NASA’s Black Marble products to monitor nighttime light.

Category: Highlights

“Unseen Heroes” Awards for the S-NPP CDP Reset Recovery Team

Mishonov Studies Nepheloid Layers in the Gulf of Mexico

ESSIC/CISESS Lightning Team at 2022 Mid-Atlantic ChaserCon

ESSIC Scientists Earn NOAA Awards

Observed Variability and Trends in Global Precipitation During the Satellite Era

Isaac Moradi Joins UMD Research Council

Ferraro Joins PTK Working Group

Circular Polarization in Atmospheric Aerosols

Florida Flood Maps for Hurricane Ian

Monitoring Nighttime Light Changes with NASA’s Black Marble

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