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Joseph Patton's weekly weather bulletin

Lightning Team Gives Weekly Weather Bulletin

ESSIC/CISESS lightning team scientist Joseph Patton posted a weather briefing video summarizing the overall national weather patterns with a focus on Hurricane Ian. The lightning team, which also includes Daile Zhang and Scott Rudlosky, plan to post the videos weekly.

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Kimberly Slinski. Image credit: Kimberly Slinski/Adam Wood/Faye Levine/University of Maryland. Effects by Nuwan Paditha (Click image to download hi-res version)

Predicting Droughts from Space

Kimberly Slinski can’t stop droughts from happening, but she can see them coming. Her warnings help entire regions of the world prepare for water shortages, crop failures and food insecurities that follow severe droughts. As an assistant research scientist in the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, Slinski uses satellite data to monitor water availability in drought-prone regions around the world.

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Zhanqing Li. Image credit: John T. Consoli/Faye Levine/University of Maryland. Effects by Nuwan Paditha (Click image to download hi-res version)

Balancing the Climate Budget

Trying to predict, combat and prepare for climate change is a bit like managing the budget of a major multinational corporation. But instead of knowing where all the money goes, you have to know where all the energy goes. How much sunlight hits the planet?

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A screenshot of the cover photo of State of the Climate

ESSIC Scientists Contribute to State of the Climate Report

Several ESSIC/CISESS scientists have contributed to State of the Climate, the annual peer-reviewed summary of the global climate published by the American Meteorological Society. The recently-released State of the Climate in 2021 is the 32nd issue and features six chapters authored by dozens of international scientists. ESSIC/CISESS scientists Bob Adler, Jeannette Wild, Alexey Mishonov, Chelsea Parker, and Sinead Farrell contributed to the chapters “Global Climate”, “Global Ocean”, and “The Arctic”.

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A screenshot of the virtual attendees at the summer intern party

CISESS Welcomes Summer Interns in 2022

This past summer, ESSIC’s Cooperative Institute for Satellite Earth System Studies (CISESS) welcomed 22 interns to assist in the research of 24 ESSIC/CISESS scientists. Of the interns, three were graduate students, 14 were undergraduates and five were high school students. Several of these students were returning interns from previous semesters.

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Stormy skies spell trouble afoot for the citizens of College Park

ESSIC Scientist Explains the Science Behind College Park’s Severe Storm

On Tuesday, July 12, the College Park area was ravaged by three storm complexes fueled by the influx of hot and humid air and powered by strong high-altitude winds. The storms brought down countless trees and caused thousands of people to lose power. ESSIC scientist Will Miller provides some commentary on the storm’s trajectory and intensification.

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A coral, severely bleached to white

NOAA Coral Reef Watch Provides Critical Early Warnings for the 2022 Mass Coral Bleaching Event on the Great Barrier Reef

For more than 20 years, NOAA Coral Reef Watch (CRW) has been the world’s leader in observing, predicting, and communicating changes in the coral reef environment to a diverse, global user community. In mid-December 2021, CRW’s daily global 5km-resolution satellite coral bleaching heat stress products detected a significant build-up of oceanic heat stress on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), Australia. This signified the GBR was starting its 2021-2022 summer season with a much earlier onset of accumulated heat stress than ever recorded before. At the same time, CRW’s modeled Four-Month Coral Bleaching Heat Stress Outlook indicated the significant heat stress would continue, leading to a potential mass coral bleaching event on the GBR (following on the heels of confirmed mass bleaching events in 2016, 2017, and 2020).

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