News

The final push is underway to open the Bankhead National Forest (BNF) atmospheric observatory for business. Staff from the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility are working in Alabama to have the BNF’s main and supplemental sites operating by October 1, 2024.

Outside the NREL’s Research Support Facility and Café, two unique brick pavers stand out. One is embossed with "BUILD'EM"—short for Biomass

biomass

Material that comes from living things, including trees, crops, grasses, and animals and animal waste. Some kinds of biomass, such as wood and biofuels, can be burned to produce energy.

Source: EPA Global Climate Change Source

Upcycled in Lignin

lignin

One of the main components of plant cell wall and it is a natural phenolic polymer with high molecular weight, complex composition and structure.

Source: NIH Source

for Decarbonizing Energy-Intensive Materials. These pavers represent the work of lead researcher Paul Meyer and his team, in their quest for a carbon-negative alternative to traditional concrete.

A Pacific Northwest National Laboratory undergraduate intern leads research to verify and quantify carbon mineralization

carbon mineralization

The process by which carbon dioxide becomes a solid mineral, such as a carbonate.

Source: USGS Source

at an unprecedented small scale. As we ponder how to combat the carbon emissions driving 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

a potential answer may lie beneath our feet, in Earth’s deep subsurface.

New findings will help make climate models more accurate as massive wildfires become more common. In an actively warming world, large-scale wildfires are becoming more common. These wildfires emit black carbon

black carbon

The sooty black material emitted from gas and diesel engines, coal-fired power plants, and other sources that burn fossil fuel. It comprises a significant portion of particulate matter or PM, which is an air pollutant.

Source: EPA Source

to our atmosphere, one of the most potent short-lived atmospheric warming agents.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced plans to provide $12 million in new research grants for Atmospheric System Research (ASR), Earth and Environmental Systems Modeling (EESM), and Environmental System Science (ESS) program science in the Southeast United States.

Lateral water movement from ridges to valleys is crucial for organizing water and energy at the watershed

watershed

An area of land that channels rainfall and snowmelt to creeks, streams, and rivers, and eventually flows to the lowest point in a basin.

Source: USGS Source

scale but has been neglected in traditional land models. To address this, scientists developed a water tracer tool in the WRF-Hydro model to better understand the importance of modeling lateral flow in hydrologic simulations.

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 important tools for making climate predictions and projections. While climate projections have a strong dependence on future socioeconomic

socioeconomic

A way of describing groups based on their education, income, or job type. Socioeconomic status is usually described as low, medium, and high.

Source: National Cancer Institute Source

scenarios, initial conditions are critical for making skillful climate predictions at subseasonal-to-decadal timescales.

Researchers evaluate a new slab ocean capability in the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (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

version 2 by comparing its climate simulation to the full version of E3SM, which uses a dynamic ocean model. The Slab Ocean Model (SOM) approximates a fully Dynamic Ocean Model (DOM).

Scientists use water vapor tracers in climate models to tag moisture from local evapotranspiration

evapotranspiration

The process by which water moves from the land or ocean surface to the atmosphere (evaporation) and transpiration (evaporation from plants).

Source: USGS Source

and trace its evolution through various processes. Research shows that a pumping mechanism mixes evapotranspiration vertically, highlighting its contribution to enhancing convective precipitation.

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 are tiny. Swirling suspended in the air around us, most are smaller than the smallest bug, thinner than the thinnest hair on your head, gossamer specks practically invisible to the naked eye. Newly formed ones are nano-sized. Yet their influence is gargantuan.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory has been awarded funding from DOE’s Office of Technology Transitions for four new projects that will help with commercialization of innovative clean-energy technology for a sustainable future.

University of Oklahoma cloud physicist Greg McFarquhar is a long-time student of the Southern Ocean, which influences global climate and ocean circulations. He is a veteran of more than 30 years of atmospheric research and has close to 250 peer-reviewed papers to his credit.