News

Scientists and engineers use hydrology

hydrology

The science that deals with water, its properties, circulation, or distribution on Earth's surface, and in the atmosphere through evapotranspiration.

Source: NASA earth observatory Source

models to simulate water flow across and beneath the Earth’s surface. Hydrology models have traditionally used simplified representations of the landscape and must be calibrated to match observations made under current conditions, which creates uncertainty when the models are used in new conditions.

Collaborator Prof. Elizabeth Barnes (Colorado State University) and co-author Prof. Noah Diffenbaugh (Stanford University) trained neural networks to predict the number of years until particular global temperature thresholds (e.g. 2 degrees warming above pre-industrial) are reached. Their approach included a quantification of uncertainty with each prediction as well.

Two coupled ocean-sea ice simulations that partially resolve 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

eddies, one global and one of the Pan-Arctic region, are used to understand the magnitudes, variability, and causes of the delivery of warm water originating in the North Atlantic onto the southern Greenland continental shelf. The largest onshore heat flux

flux

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

Source: NRC Library Source

occurs over the southeast Greenland shelf.

We developed the laws of scaling of floods (duration, peak, volume) with geomorphologic characteristics of the basin and precipitation patterns (rainfall accumulation, variability) using a multi-level Bayesian approach. The spatial organization of scaling exponents is also investigated. The baseline model quantifies the scaling of floods to geomorphologic characteristics.

The 2022 Arctic Circle Prize went to the Alfred Wegener Institute and the Multidisciplinary Drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate expedition. The award was given at the 2022 Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavik, Iceland, on October 15. The Arctic Circle Prize is awarded for extraordinary contributions to the continuous work of securing a sustainable and prosperous future in the Arctic.

Middle schools and high schools return to Argonne for hands-on STEM learning. As a world-class hub for science and engineering, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory welcomes visitors on a daily basis. But some of the Lab’s most exciting and excited visitors are the fifth to 12th graders who arrive on school buses.

Wetlands

wetland

An area of land that is periodically saturated with water, which influences the types of plants and animals that can live there. Wetlands include swamps, marshes, bogs, and other similar areas.

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

help remove pollution from fertilizers in waterways while accumulating sediments and organic matter. In this study, researchers investigated how fertilizer load is linked with accumulation of key elements (carbon, nitrogen,

nitrogen

Nitrogen, represented by the symbol N and atomic number 7, is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas that constitutes approximately 78% of Earth's atmosphere. It is vital for all life forms, as it is a fundamental part of amino acids, proteins, and DNA.

Source: Source

and phosphorus) and the variability of accumulation across locations within the same wetland and at water depths.

Sea surface temperature (SST) plays an important role in maintaining marine stratocumuli – higher SST can reduce the lower-troposphere stability, deepen the marine boundary layer, and promote the stratus-to-cumulus transition, leading to reduced cloud cover. Lower cloud cover of cumulus clouds allows more incoming solar radiation at sea surface, and further increases SST.

Collaborator Prof. Elizabeth Barnes (Colorado State University) and co-authors train neural networks to predict the occurrence of European summer heatwaves and use explainable machine learning

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

algorithms to diagnose their springtime sea-surface temperature precursors using 100 historical simulations of the MPI Grand Ensemble.

A new joint initiative between the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) Weapons and Complex Integration (WCI) Directorate and the University of California (UC) is aimed at developing next generation academic leadership with strong and enduring national laboratory connections.

The JGI is eager to work and share our tools with a widening circle of researchers. That’s why twice each year we look for novel research projects — aligned with DOE missions and from PIs who have not led any previously-accepted proposals — through the New Investigator call under our Community Science Program. Proposals are accepted year-round; the next review will be conducted in March.

Projections show winter storms in the Western U.S. intensifying under warming, but changes in their characteristics remain largely unknown. Using high-resolution climate simulations over the Western U.S., scientists identified storm events and analyzed their future changes. They revealed that, on average, future storms will cover more space and have an increased intensity.