Two NASA Glaciologists, Kelly Brunt and Alex Gardner, recently sat down to discuss the history, challenges, and evolution of mapping the Antarctic continent and what it means for science and society.
ESSIC/CISESS Post-doctoral Associate Daile Zhang has written an article on the legacy of lightning and thunder gods in Chinese history that is featured in this month’s issue of Weatherwise.
A giant lenticular cloud was seen in Maryland at about 5:50 pm on March 1st, 2022. ESSIC/CISESS Post-doctoral Associate Daile Zhang captured the cloud in Figure 1 below and a video posted to her Twitter account. GOES-East also detected the cloud as seen in Figure 2 and 3.
The American Meteorological Society (AMS) Annual Meeting was held virtually this year from January 23 to 27. Simultaneously, AMS held a number of specialized conferences and symposiums, focusing on topics including hydrology, climate variability and change, and atmospheric chemistry. ESSIC/CISESS scientists contributed a large number of talks and posters at the event. Talks included:
ESSIC/CISESS Research Scientist Isaac Moradi has been elected to the University State Senate as one of the Professional-Track Faculty members. The University Senate, composed of faculty, staff, students, and administrators, is one of the largest and most influential governing bodies at the University of Maryland. As a member of the senate, Moradi will help advise the University President on campus policy matters and concerns, including education, budget, personnel, campus-community, long range plans, facilities, and faculty, staff and student affairs.
ESSIC/CISESS had several talks, e-lightning sessions, posters, virtual town halls, and tutorials at this year’s American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting, held in New Orleans and online from December 13 to 17.
As part of the NASA grant, UMD, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NOAA, United States Coast Guard, Watermapping Ltd., Maryland Department of Agriculture, Environment Canada, and Marine Spill Response Corporation participated in an experiment to compare oil thickness measurements (both in situ and remotely) in the hopes of validating an oil thickness product. By finding the thickest oil layers, researchers can identify key zones to bring in remediation equipment and clean up the most harmful oil in the environment. ESSIC Senior Faculty Specialist Frank Monaldo is involved in this field work and is featured in a video that highlights this work.
On December 1 -3, two members of code 613 participated in an international workshop hosted by the European agency Eumesat and the SOLAS project: “Remote Sensing for Ocean-Atmosphere Interactions Studies and Applications Workshop”. The meeting had an assortment of presentations and discussion panels as well as demonstration of the web and cloud interfaces available for data discovery. Santiago Gassó (ESSIC) participated as one the science organizing committee members, as a panelist and convener.
ESSIC Associate Research Scientist Santiago Gassó was a keynote speaker at the international Blowing South: Southern Hemisphere Dust Symposium held November 8-10, 2021 and organized virtually from Chile. The talk was given during the Present-day: Dynamics session and it was entitled “Southern South America dust activity in relation to long range transport to Antarctica and the Southern Ocean”. No recording was taken of the talk, but slides are available upon request.
ESSIC/CISESS lightning team scientists Joseph Patton and Daile Zhang attended the 2021 Mid-Atlantic ChaserCon, held at the Science Museum of Virginia in Richmond, VA on November 6th.
