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Three Sandia professionals recently received 2023 Black Engineer of the Year Awards. Danielle Stephenson was lauded as a Senior Technology Fellow, Coby Davis as a Science Spectrum Trailblazer and Ned Adams as a Modern-Day Technology Leader.

Last month, Pantex Women in Nuclear hosted Introduce a Girl to Engineering, an event geared toward inspiring girls to pursue careers in STEM. Sandia employees from the Weapons Evaluation Test Laboratory and Tri-Labs, both located at the Pantex Plant outside Amarillo, Texas, participated in the event where students did hands-on activities and had career conversations with STEM professionals.

In order to better understand the mechanisms of future tropical rainfall shifts and their association with remote forcings, we utilize a recently developed framework first presented in Boos and Korty (2016, hereafter BK) that generalizes the atmospheric energy flux

flux

The amount of some type of particle or energy crossing a unit area per unit time.

Source: NRC Library Source

approach to two dimensions.

This study investigated the factors affecting cloud motion estimations from camera images using different settings of the phase correlation (PC) and optical flow (OF) methods, concluding that shorter frame intervals provides the most accurate results while image resolution has small effect.

We present the application of a new self-supervised learning approach to autonomously extract relevant features from sky images captured by ground-based cameras, for the classification and segmentation of clouds. We present the application of a novel artificial intelligence

artificial intelligence

A machine-based system that can, for a given set of human-defined objectives, make predictions, recommendations or decisions influencing real or virtual environments.

Source: U.S. Department of State Source

approach to autonomously extract relevant features from sky images, for the characterization of atmospheric conditions.

Low-level stratocumulus clouds critically impact Earth's energy budget by reflecting incoming solar radiation and are challenging to represent in climate models due to fine-scale variability in cloud properties driven by turbulent flow.

The E3SM

Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM)

The Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) project includes Earth System Models, simulations, and predictions to investigate energy-relevant science using code optimized for DOE's advanced supercomputers.

Source: NVCL Web Page Source

project’s functional organization is realigning to better address the Nation’s strategic challenges. This new organization was presented in a recent review to the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Biological and Environmental Research (BER) program.

Students from Fossil Ridge will represent the state of Colorado at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Science Bowl in Washington, D.C., to compete for the national title. Fossil Ridge High School continues their winning streak for a third year in a row to dominate this year's Colorado High School Science Bowl and emerge victorious over second-place finisher Fairview High School in the first in-person competition since 2019.

Terrestrial

terrestrial

The geographical and biological features that are associated with the Earth's solid, rocky surface, residing on or resembling the land or terrain found on our planet.

Source: NASA Source

biosphere models project large-scale biological responses to climate change.

climate change

A change in the average conditions — such as temperature and rainfall — in a region over a long period of time.

Source: NASA Climate Kids Source

Historically, leaves have received far more attention in models than fine roots, though roots are critical for plant resource acquisition.

Early access to the first U.S. Exascale computer, OLCF Frontier, coincided with the completion of the Simple Cloud Resolving E3SM Atmosphere Model Version 1 (SCREAMv1). Frontier is not yet open for general access, but through DOE’s Exascale Computing Project (ECP) E3SM developers had a 10-day window to test the performance of the new SCREAMv1 model running at a global 3.25 km resolution with 128 vertical layers and 16 prognostic variables.

In the Great Lakes region (GLR), precipitation is an essential component of the net basin supply that drives lake water levels. Understanding the hydrological cycle and moisture sources is crucial to comprehending the historical hydroclimate

hydroclimate

The scientific field that brings together hydrology and climate, including the impacts that water and its processes have on Earth’s climate, and the impacts of climate patterns and change on the global hydrological (or water) cycle.

Source: National Weather Service Source

and projecting future changes.

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

often emitted alongside greenhouse gases, can brighten clouds and cause significant cooling. However, the uncertainty associated with aerosol-cloud interactions

aerosol-cloud interaction

The interaction of airborne particles (aerosols) with clouds. Scientists study how aerosols affect clouds and how these interactions can impact the Earth's climate.

Source: DOE Source

(ACI) is large and potentially significant enough to mask a sizable portion of greenhouse gas-related warming.