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Just about every time you look to the sky, you’ll see clouds. Clouds are essential for regulating the planet’s temperature and transporting water all over the globe, making them a key steward of life on Earth. While massive, clouds typically begin their lives as tiny droplets that nucleate around airborne particles known as aerosols.

aerosols

Small particles or droplets, such as wildfire smoke, volcanic gases, or salty sea spray, that float in the air. They are emitted by both natural events and human activities.

Source: NASA Global Climate Change Source

Modeling ecosystem

ecosystem

A natural community of plants, animals, and other living organisms and the physical environment in which they live and interact.

Source: A student's guide to Global Climate Change Source

productivity is challenging due to uncertainty in photosynthesis parameters. However, solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) is a unique proxy for productivity, and machine learning (ML)

machine learning (ML)

Machine Learning (ML) refers to the field and practice of using algorithms that are able to “learn” by extracting patterns from a large body of data.

Source: Center of Excellence Source

can help model the relationship between SIF and productivity.

Carbon dioxide (CO2)

carbon dioxide (CO2)

An important heat-trapping gas, also known as a greenhouse gas, that comes from the extraction and burning of fossil fuels (such as coal, oil, and natural gas), from wildfires, and natural processes like volcanic eruptions.

Source: NASA Source

emissions from humans are taken up by the atmosphere, land, and ocean. However, the robustness of carbon sinks is unclear, and complex Earth system models

earth system model (ESM)

A model that simulates how chemistry, biology, and physical forces work together. These models are similar to, but much more comprehensive than, global climate models.

Source: U.S. Department of Energy Source

are time-consuming to run. This study used a simple global carbon/climate model to track emissions, explore the long-term destination of CO2, and examine the overall implications for carbon cycle

carbon cycle

The movement and exchange of carbon through living organisms, the ocean, the atmosphere, rocks and minerals, and other parts of the Earth.

Source: a student's guide to Global Climate Change Source

dynamics.

High school students from Gallup and Grants, New Mexico, spent a day learning about Sandia and hearing career stories from staff who grew up in their hometowns. This is one of many inspiring stories that the group of 40 students from Gallup, Grants and Hiroshi Miyamura high schools heard during their visit to the Labs. The majority of these students are already on track for STEM careers, taking part in the STEM Core program at their school.

To earn money as a graduate student, Aaron Kennedy photographed snowmobile races. While surrounded by snow aiming to get the best shot of the competitors on their machines, he started to wonder how he could photograph a single snowflake. This led him to develop a camera to photograph falling and blowing snow in flight, the Open Snowflake Camera for Research and Education (OSCRE).

On a bright, sunny February morning outside of Pendleton, Oregon, a hum could be heard. Then off in the distance, above the snow-capped Blue Mountains on the horizon, a tiny dot came into focus. The hum grew to a low roar as, 500 feet above, the ArcticShark uncrewed aerial system (UAS) approached and flew overhead.

Since collecting its first data in 1992, the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility has helped power the research of atmospheric scientists worldwide. While ARM is known for its ground-based observations, many measurements, such as the complex chemical composition of aerosols aloft, cannot be made using remote-sensing techniques from the ground.

The contrasting effects of decoupled and coupled clouds on the development of the planetary boundary layer

planetary boundary layer

The lowest layer of the troposphere where wind is influenced by friction.

Source: National Weather Service Source

(PBL) are discovered, advancing our knowledge and understanding of boundary-layer processes and cloud dynamics.

cloud dynamics

The processes and behaviors that occur during the formation, development, movement, and dissipation of clouds in the Earth's atmosphere.

Source: Source

Secondary organic aerosols

secondary organic aerosol (SOA)

Secondary Organic Aerosols (SOAs) are air pollutants emitted from natural and man-made sources. They are produced through a complex interaction of sunlight, volatile organic compounds from trees, plants, cars or industrial emissions, and other airborne chemicals.

Source: EPA Environmental Protection Agency Source

(SOA) are fine particles in the atmosphere that interact with clouds and radiation and affect Earth’s energy budget. SOA formation involves chemistry in gases, aqueous

aqueous

Having to do with water.

Source: National Cancer Institute Source

aerosols, and clouds. Due to the widely varying chemistry timescales and multidimensional nature of SOA systems, simulating these aerosol processes is computationally expensive.

Plants provide a home for a wide diversity of microbes,

microbe

Microbes are tiny living things that are found all around us and are too small to be seen by the naked eye. They live in water, soil, and in the air.

Source: NIH Source

especially in their roots. In turn, these communities can provide important benefits for the host. The study identified a core set of bacterial strains that colonize switchgrass roots. Many of these bacteria differ in abundance across plants’ genotypes.

Antarctic ice sheets crashing into the ocean. Clouds zipping across the Midwestern sky. Gases from Amazonian trees drifting across hundreds of miles. Wildfires burning across the American West. Extreme heat rising in Oklahoma City. Destructive winter storms raging in Texas. All of these are related to climate – and so related to energy.

Atmospheric Rivers

atmospheric river

Long, narrow regions in the atmosphere – like rivers in the sky – that transport most of the water vapor outside of the tropics.

Source: NOAA Source

(AR) precipitation occurs when a warm moist air mass travels meridionally and is lifted by the sloping topography

topography

The land's physical attributes within a specific area or region, comprising both natural formations like mountains, valleys, and rivers, alongside human-made additions such as roads and buildings.

Source: Source

of the Antarctic coast. While topography plays a vital role in lifting AR air masses and determining the mesoscale

mesoscale

Size scale referring to weather systems smaller than synoptic-scale systems but larger than storm-scale systems. Horizontal dimensions generally range from around 50 miles to several hundred miles. Squall lines, MCCs, and MCSs are examples of mesoscale weather systems

Source: NOAA Source

variability in precipitation impacts across the Antarctic continent.