Tag: Hydrology and Land Surface Processes

Yin Writes on Improvements in Global Forecasts of Near-Surface Variables

September 12, 2019

ESSIC/CISESS Assistant Research Scientist Jifu Yin (STAR/SMCD) is the first author of a new article in the Journal of Hydrology called “Improvements in the Forecasts of Near-Surface Variables in the Global Forecast System (GFS) via Assimilating ASCAT Soil Moisture Retrievals.” With the development of the coupled system of NCEP- Global Forecast System (GFS) and NASA – Land Information System (LIS), the authors investigated the impact of assimilating the ASCAT soil moisture dataproducts on …

Wild Earns NSF Award for New Regional Food-Energy-Water Research Project

July 24, 2019

ESSIC/CISESS Assistant Research Professor Thomas Wild recently earned an award with the National Science Foundation (NSF) for a proposal titled “INFEWS/T1: Decision-Driven Advances in Integrated Assessment Modeling of the Food-Energy-Water Nexus”. The award will provide $2.5M of funding for five years. This research project will develop a new, integrated analytical approach that considers the interconnections among food, energy, and water systems to improve regional food-energy-water …

NOAA Awards $175 Million to UMD for Earth System Studies

June 3, 2019

Monday, 3 June 2019

New Cooperative Institute for Satellite Earth System Studies will expand UMD’s role as a national leader in this field

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has awarded a five-year $175 million cooperative funding agreement to the University of Maryland for collaborative research in Earth system science.

The agreement funds the new Cooperative Institute for Satellite Earth System Studies (CISESS), a national consortium of more than two dozen academic and nonprofit

School of Public Health/ESSIC Study Finds Climate Change Linked to Seasonal Allergies

May 10, 2019

Climate change might be worsening your spring allergies, reports a new study from University of Maryland researchers including ESSIC Professor Raghu Murtugudde. Using data from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), the researchers calculated the median spring start date (the “start-of-season” date) for each county in the contiguous US between 2001–2013. This data was then compared with findings from the National …

SMOPS Blended Soil Moisture Product Improves Land Model Simulations

April 12, 2019

ESSIC/CICS Assistant Research Scientists Jifu Yin and Jicheng Liu as well as Post-doctoral Associate Mitchell Schull have a new paper out in Water Resources Research titled “An Intercomparison of Noah Model Skills With Benefits of Assimilating SMOPS blended and Individual Soil Moisture Retrievals”. The paper compares blended and individual microwave satellite soil moisture data from Soil Moisture Operational Product System (SMOPS) and evaluates the benefits of assimilating blended and …

ESSIC/CICS Scientists Travel to Italy for Satellite Observation Meeting

March 15, 2019

Last week was the annual meeting of the Global Space-based Inter-Calibration System (GSICS), an international collaborative effort to monitor, improve, and harmonize observations from the Global Observing System weather and environmental satellites. The meeting, held in Frascati, Italy, included a “Mini-Conference” on calibration activities outside of GSICS as well as reports, briefs, and discussions on the GSICS Research Working Group, GSICS Data management Working Group, and GSICS …

Yin, Liu Develop Optimally Blended Drought Index

February 22, 2019

ESSIC/CICS Assistant Research Scientists Jifu Yin and Jicheng Liu have a recent article published in Water Resources Research titled “A Method for Objectively Integrating Soil Moisture Satellite Observations and Model Simulations Toward a Blended Drought Index”. The researchers write about the development of a method to objectively integrate widely available satellite soil moisture retrievals into a single accurate and reliable optimally blended drought index (BDI). Compared to official …

Yatheendradas, Liu’s Assimilation Efficiency article in EOS Research Spotlight

February 7, 2019

ESSIC Assistant Research Engineer Soni Yatheendradas and ESSIC/CICS-MD Assistant Research Scientist Jicheng Liu recently collaborated on a study titled “The Efficiency of Data Assimilation” published in the EOS Journal Water Resources Research. In the piece, the authors offer a framework to quantify information loss from data assimilation through measuring information in models, observations, and evaluation data. The piece was highlighted in a recent EOS Research Spotlight that details …

Thomas Published in Nature

January 7, 2019

ESSIC Post-doctoral Associate Nathan Thomas co-authored a paper published in Nature Geoscience titled, “Mangrove canopy height globally related to precipitation, temperature and cyclone frequency”. The paper measures the canopy height and aboveground biomass of mangrove forests around the world and discusses their relationship with rain, storm frequency and human activities. The study was led by Marc Simard and Temilola Fatoyinbo from the CalTech Jet Propulsion Laboratory and NASA …

UMD Researchers and Resilinc Corp. Create Index of Climate Change Risk to Company Supply Chains

November 28, 2018

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Last year a series of severe weather events including the late-winter storm that hit the U.S. Northeast, followed by weather-related damage that closed the U.S.-Mexico Laredo border, and subsequent U.S. landfall hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria contributed to a doubling of global supply chain disruption and, for the first time, made the United States the region most-impacted by such disruption. These impacts, highlighted in a recent report, form part of the impetus for a …