PAOC Spotlights

Atmospheres, Oceans and Planetary Studies on Display at AGU

Wed February 1st, 2017
Lauren Hinkel

Over the week of December 12th, members of MIT’s PAOC attended the American Geophysical Union’s (AGU) 49th annual Fall Meeting in San Francisco.

The event is the world’s largest Earth and space science meeting, bringing together more than 25,000 scientists. Here, researchers from around the globe gathered to share their work through about 22,000 poster presentations and invited talks; to network with colleagues and learn about trends and challenges scientists are facing today.

In addition to talks, poster sessions and other events, AGU bestowed awards and prizes on individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the advancement of Earth and space sciences, the scientific community or have increased public understanding of these fields and their impacts.

Several colleagues of PAOC and former MIT EAPS students and faculty were also honored at the Fall Meeting. Stanley Robert Hart PhD ’60 –now a senior scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution—was awarded the 2016 William Bowie Medal, which recognizes “outstanding contributions for fundamental geophysics and for unselfish cooperation in research” and is the highest honor given by AGU. Before moving to WHOI, Hart taught at MIT as a professor in EAPS. Samuel A. Bowring, MIT’s Robert R. Shrock Professor of Geology, was chosen to for the 2016 Walter H. Bucher Medal, acknowledging “original contributions to the basic knowledge of crust and lithosphere.” EAPS' Timothy Grove penned a piece in AGU’s EOS highlighting Bowring’s accomplishments, which include determining the, “duration and rate of biological evolution at the Pre-Cambrian/Cambrian boundary—the so-called explosion of life that is the single most important evolutionary event in Earth history.” He also established the Permian, considered the, “most significant biological extinction event in Earth history.”

Additionally, Principal Research Scientist Robert Reilinger was selected for the 2016 Paul G. Silver Award, which “recognizes outstanding contributions to the fields of geodesy, seismology, or tectonophysics through mentoring of junior colleagues, leadership of community research initiatives, or other forms of unselfish collaboration in research.” Tony Watts, Chair of the Joint Tectonophysics, Seismology and Geodesy sections, Silver Award Committee, cited Rob’s generosity both personally and professionally with papers and idea contributions.Maureen Long PhD '06, received the 2016 James B. Macelwane Medal, honoring "significant contributions to the geophysical sciences by an outstanding ­­early-​­career scientist." She’s currently an Associate Professor in Yale’s Department of Geology and Geophysics. Alexandra Witze XII BS '92, now a science journalist contributing to Nature and Science News, was conferred the David Perlman Award for Excellence in Science Journalism–News.

Schedule of PAOC presenters:

MONDAY:

Sai Ravela (IN11F)
“Intelligent Systems for Geosciences: Practices, Technologies, and Applications of Advanced Reasoning that Are Defining New Frontiers and Accelerating Scientific Discovery Posters (Lightning)”

Colette L Heald (PA11C-1965)
“Constraining global dry deposition of ozone: observations and modeling”

Erwan Monier, Colin Pike­-Thackray, Noelle E Selin (A11D-0041)
“Implications of climate variability for monitoring the effectiveness of global mercury policy”

Tao Feng, Noelle E Selin, Erwan Monier (A11L-0170)
“Influence of Air Pollutant Emission Controls on the ‘Climate Penalty’ in the United States”

Mingwei Li, Noelle E Selin, Tao Feng, Erwan Monier (A11L-0168)
“Effects of Climate Variability on Transpacific Transport of Ozone”

Emily R Estes (PP11A)
“Authigenic Processes in Marine Sediment: Influence on Seawater Composition and the Paleoceanographic Record | Posters”

Noelle E Selin (OS11A-1775)
“Atmospheric Transference of the Toxic Burden of Atmosphere-Surface Exchangeable Pollutants to the Great Lakes Region”

Colette L Heald (A11L-0175)
“VOC Reactivity and the Ozone Climate Penalty: Modeled Impacts of Updated Aromatic and Monoterpene Chemistry on the Ozone-temperature Connection”

Marianna Linz, Raymond Alan Plumb (A11E-0072)
“The strength of the diabatic circulation of the stratosphere and its relationship with ozone”

Sai Ravela (IN13C-1670)
“Dynamically Deformable Resampled Random Manifolds for High-dimensional, Non-linear Inference in Geoscience in the presence of Uncertainty”

Dara Entekhabi (A11R-07)
“Role of Large Eddies in the Breakdown of the Reynolds Analogy in the Unstable Atmospheric Surface Layer”

Sophie N Chu (B11G-07)
“Assessing the Resilience of a Blue Carbon Store: Characterizing the Lateral Flux of DIC from an East Coast U.S. Saltmarsh using Δ14C and δ13C”

Dara Entekhabi (U12A-03)
“Global Terrestrial Water Cycle Mapping and Science Results from the NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Satellite Mission” (Invited)

Cael B Barry (NG12A-12)
“The Size-Distribution and Volume of Earth’s Lakes: Theory and Observations”

Emily R Estes (PP13D)
“Authigenic Processes in Marine Sediment: Influence on Seawater Composition and the Paleoceanographic Record II”

Daniel Rothman (NG13A-1695)
“The Lateral Migration of Groundwater-fed Streams”

Colette L Heald (GC13B-1202)
“Exploring the direct impacts of particulate matter and surface ozone on global crop production”

Sai Ravela (IN13C-1670)
“Dynamically Deformable Resampled Random Manifolds for High-dimensional, Non-linear Inference in Geoscience in the presence of Uncertainty”

Xiang Geo, C Adam Schlosser (A13E-0315)
“Heavy Precipitation in the Regional Climate Models: Does it Pay to Play Analogue?”

Sai Ravela (IN13C)
“Intelligent Systems for Geosciences: Practices, Technologies, and Applications of Advanced Reasoning that Are Defining New Frontiers and Accelerating Scientific Discovery Posters”

Ronald G Prinn (B13B-0567)
“First Continuous High Frequency in Situ Measurements of CO2 and CH4 in Rwanda Using Cavity Ring-Down Spectroscopy, and Preliminary Results of Regional Emission Estimation”

Sara Seager (P13C-02)
“HabEx: Finding and characterizing Habitable Exoplanets with a potential future flagship astrophysics mission” (Invited)

Maria A Zawadowicz, Daniel J Cziczo (A13M-02)
“Differentiation of primary biological aerosol from mineral dust using single particle mass spectrometry”

Paul O’Gorman (GC13H-02)
“Understanding Decreases in Land Relative Humidity with Global Warming: Conceptual Model and GCM Simulations”

C Adam Schlosser, Xiang Gao, Erwan Monier, Andrei P Sokolov (U13A­-02)
“Confronting Future Risks of Global Water Stress and Sustainability: Avoided Changes Versus Adaptive Actions” (Invited)

Oliver Andrews and Corinne Le Quere (B13I­-04)
“Ocean N2O Emissions : Recent Global Estimates and Anthropogenically Influenced Changes”

Mary Knapp (P13C­-07)
“Systematic Search of the Nearest Stars for Exoplanetary Radio Emission: VLA observations in L and S Bands”

Ronald G Prinn (PA14A­-02)
“Valuing and Maintaining Independent Research with Private Sector Funding”


TUESDAY

Gabriela Serrato Marks (PP21E­-01)
“Using coral Ba/Ca records to investigate seasonal to decadal scale biogeochemical cycling in the surface and intermediate ocean.” (Invited)

Gareth James Izon (PP21D­-03)
“State of the Haze: The Causes and Consequences of a Hydrocarbon­rich Neoarchean Atmosphere”

Gareth James Izon (PP21D­-04)
“Nitrogen cycling in ~2.7 Ga oceans”


Daniel Rothman (NG21B­-07)
“The Role of Surface Water for the Branching Geometry of Mars' Channel Networks” (Invited)

Chawalit Charoenpong (PP21E­-08)
“The Nitrogen Isotope Composition of Geoporphyrins: New Results from the Paleozoic and Mesoproterozoic”

Roger E Summons (P21D­-08)
“Preservation of organic matter on Mars by sulfur”

Jordon Dennis Hemingway (B22D­-02)
“Climate oscillations reflected in the microbiome of Arabian Sea sediments”

Katherine A Castagno (EP22A­-04)
“Impacts of storm events on salt marsh sediment dynamics”

Kerry Emanuel (PP21B­-2283)
“Enhanced tropical storm activity during the African Humid Period induced by Sahara greening and reduced dust emissions”

David McGee, Christopher William Kinsley (PP21C­-2292)
“Variability of North African hydroclimate during the last two climatic cycles: New insights from dust flux and provenance”

Kerry Emanuel (GC21E­-1140)
“Assessing the impacts of 1.5°C of global warming – The Inter­Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISIMIP) approach”

Kerry Emanuel (H21A­-1376)
“Risk assessment of tropical cyclone rainfall flooding in the Delaware River Basin”

Patrick Heimbach, Gaël Forget (G21A­-0986)
“Decadal variations in sea level patterns and the recent global mean surface warming slowdown”

Patrick Heimbach (GC21F­-1153)
“Effectiveness and Sensitivity of the Arctic Observing Network in a Coupled Ocean­Sea Ice State Estimation Framework”

Dara Entekhabi (H21D­-1442)
“Vegetation­-induced turbulence influencing evapotranspiration­soil moisture coupling: Implications for semiarid regions”

Ronald G Prinn (A22G­-08)
“On the renewed growth of atmospheric methane: implications for the oxidative capacity of the troposphere”

Dara Entekhabi (H23N)
“Science Utilization and Results from the NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Satellite Mission I”

Marianna Linz (A23I)
“The Dynamical Processes of Stratosphere­Troposphere Interactions and Their Relationship with Climate I Posters”

Paul A O'Gorman, John G Dwyer (A23H­-0330)
“Recent Changes in the Variability and Seasonality of Temperature in the Northern Hemisphere”

Raymond Alan Plumb (A23I­-0352)
“Frequency­-dependent behavior of the barotropic and baroclinic modes of zonal jet variability”

Jordon Dennis Hemingway (B23F­-02)
“Hydrologic controls on Congo River particulate organic carbon source and reservoir age”

Ronald G Prinn (A23P­-02)
“Optimal Estimation of Sulfuryl Fluoride Emissions on Regional and Global Scales Using Advanced 3D Inverse Modeling and AGAGE Observations” (Invited)

Dara Entekhabi (H23N­-03)
“Fraction of the global water cycle observed by SMAP”

Dara Entekhabi (H23N­-07)
“Monitoring the Phenology of Global Agroecosystems Using SMAP Multi­temporal Vegetation Optical Depth Retrievals”

Jeffery R Scott, John Marshall (GC23H­-08)
“Climate Response Functions for the Arctic Ocean”

Dara Entekhabi (H24C)
“Science Utilization and Results from the NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Satellite Mission II”

David McGee (PP24A­-02)
“Potential decoupling between the regional monsoon intensity and local moisture conditions during the last millennium in central Brazil”

Dara Entekhabi (H24C­-03)
“Soil Moisture Controls on Evaporative Fraction
”

Christine Y. Chen, David McGee (PP24A­-04)
“Initial Results from the Deep Drilling of Lake Junin, Perú”

Dara Entekhabi (H24C­-08)
“High­-Resolution Enhanced Product based on SMAP Active­Passive Approach and Sentinel 1A Radar Data”


WEDNESDAY

Dara Entekhabi (H31G­-1487)
“Evaluation of SMAP downscaled brightness temperature observations using airborne data in Australia”

Dara Entekhabi (H31G­-1479)
“A data­-driven and physics­-based single­-pass retrieval of active­-passive microwave covariation and vegetation parameters for the SMAP mission”

Erwan Monier (GC31B­-1124)
“Integrated modeling of land­use change: the role of coupling, interactions and feedbacks between the human and Earth systems”

Genevieve Brett (OS31C­-2040)
“Chaotic Advection in the Alboran Sea: Lagrangian Analysis of Transport Processes in and out of the Western Alboran Gyre”

Elizabeth Jane Wallace, Kerry Emanuel (NH31A­-1897)
“Assessing a 1500­-year record of Atlantic hurricane activity from South Andros Island, the Bahamas, using modeled hurricane climatology”

Dara Entekhabi (H31G)
“Science Utilization and Results from the NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Satellite Mission III Posters”

Andrei P Sokolov, Erwan Monier and Xiang Gao (GC31F­-1169)
“Probabilistic Estimates of Climate Impacts of the Paris Agreement”

Dara Entekhabi (H31G­-1473)
“Verification of Regression­-Based Upscaling Technique for Calibration/Validation of Space­-Based Soil Moisture Products with Sparse In­-Situ Data”

Dara Entekhabi (H31G­-1474)
“Global soil moisture dry­-down analysis based on SMAP retrievals
”

Dara Entekhabi (H31G­-1475)
“Analysis Of SMAP Descending And Ascending Scatterometer Observations And Linkage To Possible Vegetation Moisture Refill”

Dara Entekhabi (H31G­-1478)
“High­-Resolution Soil Moisture Retrieval using SMAP­L Band Radiometer and RISAT­C band Radar Data for the Indian Subcontinent”

Haitao Shang and Daniel Rothman (PP31A­-2250)
“The Dynamics of Stepwise Oxygenations and Corresponding Carbon Isotopic Fluctuations”

Dara Entekhabi (H31G­-1484)
“Analysis of active­-passive complementarity and its dependence on vegetation and surface roughness from SMAP observations”

Maike Sonnewald, Carl Wunsch, Patrick Heimbach (OS31B­-2025)
“The Linear Predictability of Sea Level: A Benchmark
”

Dara Entekhabi (H31G­-1485)
“Contributions of Soil Moisture and Vegetation Components to Polarized Emission Based on the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Mission Measurements”

Noelle E Selin (B31J­-02)
“Key atmospheric elements to evaluate a successful Minamata Convention” (Invited)

Noelle E Selin, Mingwei Li (A31J­-02)
“Comparing climate policy co­benefits in the United States and China” (Invited)

Dara Entekhabi (H31I­-03)
“Hotspots of terrestrial biosphere­-atmosphere feedbacks”

Marianna Linz (A32F)
“The Dynamical Processes of Stratosphere­Troposphere Interactions and Their Relationship with Climate II”

Erwan Monier, Andrei P Sokolov (GC32A­-03)
“Modeling global change impacts on Northern Eurasia”

Raymond Alan Plumb (A32F­-05)
“Propagating and Non­-propagating Annular Modes and Principal Oscillation Patterns” (Invited)

Andrei P Sokolov (GC32A­-05)
“Quantifying the role of land­-use and land­-cover changes in Northern Eurasia in global greenhouse gas emissions and biomass supply during the 21st century using an earth system modeling approach”

Corinne Le Quere, Oliver Andrews (U33A­-01)
“Limits of the ocean carbon sink in a decarbonising world” (Invited)

Dara Entekhabi (B33J­-04)
“Assessment of SMAP L2/L3 Soil Moisture Products using In Situ Based Core Validation Sites”

Erik Joseph Lester Larson (GC34B­-08)
“The Earth's Energy Budget Across CMIP5 Model
”


THURSDAY

Colette L Heald (A41N­-01)
“Does desert dust cool or warm the Earth system?” (Invited)

Chien Wang (A41B­-0039)
“Impacts of Different Anthropogenic Aerosol Emission Scenarios on Hydrology in the Mekong Basins and their Effects on Irrigation and Hydropower”

Martin Johann Wolf, Michael Roesch, Daniel J Cziczo (PP41A­-2232)
“A Continuous Flow Diffusion Chamber Study of Sea Salt Particles Acting as Cloud Seeds: Deliquescence, Ice Nucleation and Sublimation”

Timothy Cronin (PP41B­-2249)
“Glacial Inception in Northeast Canada: The Role of Insolation, Meteorology, and Topography”

Charles Garrison Gertler, Erwan Monier, Ronald G Prinn (PP41C­-2260)
“The Role of Arctic Sea Ice in Last Millennium Climate Variability: Model­-Proxy Comparisons Using Ensemble Members and Novel Model Experiments.

Michael J McClellan, Ronald G Prinn (A41J­-06)
“Source­-Specific Nitrous Oxide Emissions in Ireland and UK from New Isotopically Resolved Measurements and Models”

Colette L Heald (GC42C­-07)
“Climate and human intervention effects on future fire activity and consequences for air pollution across the 21st century”

Colette L Heald (A43M­-01)
“A Global Perspective on Reactive Organic Carbon in the Atmosphere” (Invited)

Kerry Emanuel (A43I­-0377)
“Response of the North Pacific Tropical Cyclone Climatology to Global Warming: Application of Dynamical Downscaling to CMIP5 Models”

Kevin Michael Sutherland (B43D­-02)
“Fingerprinting Bacterial and Fungal Manganese Oxidation via Stable Oxygen Isotopes of Manganese Oxides"

Colette L Heald (A43M­-06)
“Wet Deposition Flux of Reactive Organic Carbon
”

Daniel A Rothenberg, Chien Wang (A44E­-03)
“Contributions of Uncertainty in Droplet Nucleation to the Indirect Effect in Global Models”


FRIDAY

Brian Green (A51Q)
“Tropical Circulations and Their Sensitivities to Changes in Climate I
”

Carolin Roesch, Daniel J Cziczo, Michael Roesch (GC51C­-1168)
“The influence of mineral dust particles on the energy output of photovoltaic cells”

Edward A Boyle (OS51C­-2060)
“Dissolved iron in the Kuroshio water of the East China Sea”

Glenn Flierl (OS51A­-2033)
“What makes Stellwagen Bank a whale feeding ground?
”

Roger E Summons (ED51H­-0848)
“Linking Immersive Virtual Field Trips with an Adaptive Learning Platform”

Patrick Heimbach (C51A­-0635)
“Amundsen Sea simulation with optimized ocean, sea ice, and thermodynamic ice shelf model parameters”

Timothy Cronin (A51Q­-04)
“Clouds, Circulation, and Climate Sensitivity in a Radiative­Convective Equilibrium Channel Model”

Chien Wang (A51N­-07)
“Insight into the Global Distribution and Chemical Composition of PM2.5 from the SPARTAN Global Aerosol Network”

Daniel Rothman, Yossi Cohen, and Robert Yi (EP52A­-01)
“Geometry of channel networks incised by subsurface flow” (Invited)

Oliver E Jagoutz (T52A­-03)
“Inferring Crustal Viscosity Structure from Seismic Velocity Data
”

Liyi Xu, C Adam Schlosser (GC53D­-1333)
“Multi­-Land Surface Models Sensitivity Study on Ecosystem Responses to Enhanced and Extended Drought Conditions”

Brian Green and John Marshall (A53F­-0364)
“The Ocean's Role in Damping ITCZ Shifts”

Michael Roesch, Sarvesh Garimella, Carolin Roesch, Maria A Zawadowicz, Daniel J Cziczo (A53D­-0316)
“Separation of ice crystals from interstitial aerosol particles using virtual impaction at the Fifth International Ice Nucleation Workshop FIN­3”

Brian Green (A53F)
“Tropical Circulations and Their Sensitivities to Changes in Climate II Posters”

Sarah B Das, Matthew B Osman (C54A­-02)
“Rise in central west Greenland surface melt unprecedented over the last three centuries” (Invited)