News

Paquita Zuidema is a research scientist at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel of School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science.

earth science

The study of the Earth's structure, properties, processes, and four and a half billion years of biotic evolution.

Source: NSF Source

Outside her office window on the school’s campus bordering Biscayne Bay, the ocean glitters on most days and marine clouds pile up in the distance. A self-described “cloud whisperer,” she has been in the business for nearly two decades.

A convection–cloud chamber enables studying the effects of turbulence and aerosol

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

particles on the evolution of clouds in a controlled, laboratory environment. the range of physical processes that may be studied increases with chamber height. We use analytical and numerical models to understand the dependence of turbulence and cloud microphysical properties on chamber height.

DOE’s Energy Earthshots Initiative Calls for Innovation and Collaboration to tackle the toughest barriers. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $200 million for Energy Earthshot Research Centers (EERCs). This funding, provided by the Office of Science, will support fundamental research to accelerate breakthroughs in support of the Energy Earthshots Initiative.

Oceans cover 71% of the Earth’s surface. Along with the atmosphere, these vast bodies of water drive weather and climate, regulate temperatures, and control the water and air circulations that distribute global heat and moisture. The best way to observe the vital microphysical links between oceans and the atmosphere is with instruments out on the open sea.

More Researchers Get Back to Sharing Science in Person. After COVID altered meeting plans the previous two years, the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023 brought a welcome return to in-person scientific conferences for many members of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility/Atmospheric System Research (ASR) community.

This online book provides an open science “living” resource on uncertainty characterization methods for the MultiSector Dynamics

multisector dynamics

Multisector dynamics aims to enhance our knowledge of the intricate interactions, interconnections, and mutually influential paths between human and natural systems.

Source: EESM (Earth & Environmental Systems Modeling) Source

(MSD) community and other technical communities confronting sustainability, climate, and energy transition challenges. The book explains various methods of uncertainty characterization, including global sensitivity analysis and exploratory modeling.

Flooding of low-lying Arctic regions has the potential to warm and thaw permafrost

permafrost

Any ground that remains completely frozen—32°F (0°C) or colder—for at least two years straight. These permanently frozen grounds are commonly found in regions with high mountains and near the North and South Poles.

Source: USGS Source

by changing the surface reflectance of solar insolation, increasing subsurface soil moisture, and increasing soil thermal conductivity. However, the impact of flooding on permafrost in the continuous permafrost environment remains poorly understood.

Clean hydrogen has long been hailed as one of the most promising fuels of the future. Produced using renewable energy

renewable energy

Renewable energy comes from unlimited, naturally replenished resources, such as the sun, tides, and wind. Renewable energy can be used for electricity generation, space and water heating and cooling, and transportation.

Source: U.S Department of Energy Source

and electrolysis to split water, it has the potential to replace some fossil fuels with a nearly emissions-free alternative. But there are real barriers to deploying clean hydrogen at scale—not least of which is the fundamental research needed to understand how to produce, use, and store it.

Tropical peatlands

peatland

Located within a terrestrial wetland environment where plant material cannot entirely decompose due to the presence of water.

Source: International Peatland Society Source

are an important global carbon sink and represent a major biophysical feedback factor in the climate system. Researchers use models with empirical data to represent 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

processes for these complex ecosystems.

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

Unfortunately, the lack of field observations for these ecosystems leads to a substantial knowledge gap when simulating real-world tropical forested peatlands.

Using an Antarctic-specific AR detection tool combined with two different Reanalysis products, we find that while ARs are infrequent, causing intense precipitation in short periods of time and account for 11 % of the annual surface accumulation. They are driven by the coupling of a blocking high over the Antarctic Peninsula with a low-pressure system known as the Amundsen Sea Low.

The Rapid Prototyping Laboratory (RPL) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory is a bright, high-ceilinged room alive with the whir of robotic arms, the hum of 3D printers, and the gust of cooling fans. Young researchers huddle around laptops and workbenches. They program robots, test cameras and sensors, build virtual-reality models of workspaces and print new mechanical attachments.

Subsurface ocean warming over the Antarctic shelf affects melt of ice shelf/sheets with implications for ice sheet stability and future sea level rise. Crucially, to demonstrate model credibility, these models simulate the observed feature of the high-latitude southern ocean temperature structure, with warmer ocean temperatures below 200m than that of the surface ocean