Tag: Hydrology and Land Surface Processes

Machine Learning-Based Estimation of Tropical Cyclone Intensity from Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder Using a U-Net Algorithm

February 20, 2024

ESSIC/CISESS scientists Yong-Keun Lee and Christopher Grassotti are co-authors on a new paper in Remote Sensing led by first author Zichao Liang, a student who interned with the MiRS team during the summer of 2023. NOAA scientists Lin Lin and Quanhua Liu also co-authored the paper. The paper, titled “Machine Learning-Based Estimation of Tropical Cyclone Intensity from Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder Using a U-Net Algorithm”, assesses the use of the U-Net model to estimate surface wind speed and surface pressure over pure ocean conditions.

Photo by David R. Gonzalez of the Minnesota Department of Transportation

Sujay Kaushal Hosts Reddit Ask Me Anything

February 15, 2024

ESSIC scientist Sujay Kaushal and Ph.D. candidate Sydney Shelton hosted an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) thread on Reddit on the /r/askscience subreddit. For two and a half hours, Kaushal and Shelton answered questions from the public regarding salinization and its impact on our planet.

Great Lake Wave Unstructured v2.0 mesh resolutions: (a, b) five Great Lakes and (c, d) Lake Champlain

Great Lakes Waves Forecast System on High-Resolution Unstructured Meshes

February 8, 2024

ESSIC scientist Ali Abdolali is first author on a new paper in Geoscientific Model Development titled, “Great Lakes Waves Forecast System on High-Resolution Unstructured Meshes”.

SatERR is a bottom-up approach, where the four types of errors including measurement, preprocessing, observation operator, and representativeness errors are generated from sources and forward propagate through radiances, science products, and data assimilation systems. This approach can quantify and partition errors and uncertainties in science products, and capture leading features of the most important errors in a statistical sense for data assimilation.

Leveraging Satellite Observations with a Comprehensive Simulator

January 29, 2024

Satellite observations are vital for weather forecasts, climate monitoring, and environmental studies. In recent years, there has been a concerted effort to develop methods for quantifying and representing errors associated with satellite observations. ESSIC scientist John Xun Yang has led a team of scientists in the creation of an error inventory simulator, the Satellite Error Representation and Realization (SatERR).

Figure 1. The local perturbations in observed microwave brightness temperatures from an ascending orbit of (a) MetOp-B AMSU-A channel 14, (b) MetOp-C AMSU-A channel 14, a descending orbit of (c) NOAA-20 ATMS channel 15, and (d) SNPP ATMS channel 15 on January 15, 2022. The black triangle at the center for each panel is the Tonga volcano location. The outermost black-curved lines from the Tonga volcano location correspond to a phase speed of 330 m/s assuming that the perturbation has been generated at the time and location of initial volcanic eruption. From the 2nd outermost black-curved lines to the innermost lines, the phase speeds are 300, 270, and 230 m/s, respectively. The time information in each panel indicates the approximate observation time for the Lamb wave (between 300 m/s and 330 m/s indicated by black right-pointing triangles) and for the lead gravity wave (between 230 m/s and 270 m/s indicated by red right-pointing triangles). Red dots indicate the pixels where the brightness temperature perturbation is larger than 1.2 K.

Satellite Microwave Observations of the Hunga Tonga Eruption’s Atmospheric Waves

December 20, 2023

ESSIC/CISESS scientists Yong-Keun Lee and Christopher Grassotti are authors on a new paper in Geophysical Research Letters describing the first attempt to perform a detailed analysis of the stratospheric impact of the eruption from satellite microwave observations. The other authors on the paper are Neil Hindley from University of Bath and Quanhua (Mark) Liu from NOAA’s Center for Satellite Applications and Research.

Humans Are Disrupting Natural ‘Salt Cycle’ on a Global Scale, New Study Shows

November 1, 2023

The influx of salt in streams and rivers is an ‘existential threat,’ according to a research team led by a UMD geologist.

Caption: Skill of Significant Wave Height (Hs) >95th percentile, model vs altimeters, (A) percentage Normalized Root Mean Squared Error (NRMSEHs) (B) Normalized Bias (NBI).

A Global Hindcast of Waves and Storm Surge

October 10, 2023

ESSIC scientist Ali Abdolali is a co-author on a new paper in Frontiers in Marine Science titled, “A global unstructured, coupled, high-resolution hindcast of waves and storm surge”.

Figure: Influence of lemming herbivory on vegetation: (A) monthly fAPARchl in July and August during 2001 – 2014; (B) difference of monthly fAPARchl between August and July during 2001 – 2014; and (C) relative variations of August VGCF, SOILCF, and fAPARchl to year 2008 in format (Varix ⁄Vari2008 -1) ×100% where Vari = VGCF, SOILCF, and fAPARchl, and x=2007 – 2014.

Abiotic and Biotic Factors Impacting Tundra Productivity in Alaska

October 10, 2023

ESSIC/CISESS Scientist Qingyuan Zhang has published a paper entitled “Impacts of abiotic and biotic factors on tundra productivity near Utqiaġvik, Alaska” in Environmental Research Letters.

Around the world, agricultural practices have developed as a function of topography, soil type, crop type, annual rainfall, and tradition. Featured above (clockwise from the upper left) are agricultural lands in Minnesota, Kansas, northwest Germany, southern Brazil, Bangkok, Thailand, and eastern Bolivia. Image courtesy of NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team.

New Study Reveals Irrigation’s Mixed Effects Around the World

July 24, 2023

A new study by an international team of researchers shows how irrigation affects regional climates and environments around the world, illuminating how and where the practice is both untenable and beneficial.

Bull Run flows into Occoquan Drinking water reservoir (Photo by Sujay Kaushal)

A New Way to Monitor Water Quality

July 18, 2023

A new study led by Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC) scientist Sujay Kaushal introduces a new way to think about water quality monitoring along urban streams that could help researchers more accurately track pollutants across waterways.