Photo above: Nikita Agrawal presents her 2023 Simons Scholars project in the Wang Center at Stony Brook University
Nikita Agrawal, a high school student from Chicago who was mentored by Dr. Brian Colle in the 2023 Simon’s Summer Research Program, presented her “Using Machine Learning to Improve Tropical Cyclone Forecasts across the Atlantic Basin” research at Regeneron ISEF 2024 in LA on the week of May 12th and won a Fourth Place Grand Award in Earth and Environmental Sciences Category. She also won a Science Communication Special Award from NOAA. Her project used machine learning to improve tropical cyclone track forecasts over the western Atlantic at a few day lead time.
Dr. Mariko Oue and co-PI Dr. Pavlos Kollias have received a new award from NSF (via U. Mich) in the amount $420,228, in support of the project “Collaborative Research: AGS-FIRP Track 3: Snow Sensitivity to Clouds in a Mountain Environment (S2noCliME)“, for the period 5/1/24 – 4/30/27.
Snowfall that is enhanced by rising motion due to mountainous terrain, known as orographic snowfall, is crucial to the high-altitude snowpack that provides water resources and recreational opportunities. The processes that influence the amount of orographic snowfall are complex and there are still gaps in knowledge that impact forecasts of snowfall and projections of snow in future climate states. This award is for a field campaign based in the mountains of Colorado that will use a set of advanced remote sensing and ground-based instruments to collect a comprehensive dataset that can be used to answer key remaining questions. The broader impact on society from the project is largely related to water resources, and the research team plans to share results with water resource managers, agricultural planners, farmers, ranchers, and the local communities.
The Snow Sensitivity to Clouds in a Mountain Environment (S2noCLiME) project will deploy a wide range of instrumentation in the Park Range of Northern Colorado to study cloud and precipitation processes in a mountainous environment. The main observational site will be Mt. Werner, outside of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, which is home to the University of Utah-operated Storm Peak Laboratory. Storm Peak Lab is often in-cloud due to its altitude and location on Mt. Werner, making it an ideal location for studies of aerosol, cloud, and precipitation processes with the cohort of instruments there. The campaign will also include the C-band SEA-POL radar from Colorado State, the Millimeter-wavelength Radar Facility for Cloud and Precipitation Research from Stony Brook University, and a set of other vertically pointing radars, disdrometers, and weather balloon launches. Data will be collected over the entire 2024-2025 winter season. After the campaign, the research team will analyze the data and incorporate numerical modeling to address the two overarching science questions: 1) How do large-scale environmental conditions and water vapor transport mechanisms impact the characteristics of snowfall events in mountainous terrain, and how are local cloud and precipitation processes modified by an orographic barrier? 2) How do the terrain modified cloud-aerosol interactions and cloud microphysical processes, such as the enhancement of supercooled liquid water and riming, impact the snowfall properties near the surface?
Dr. Israel Lopez-Coto, and co-PI Dr. Paul Shepson have received an award from the National Institute of Standards and Technology entitled: Development and Improvement of Inverse Model Components for a Robust GHG Emission Estimation System at Multiple Spatiotemporal Scales. This award will run from 06/01/2024 to 05/31/2026, and is funded for a total of $521,882.
The North-East Corridor testbed project aims to advance measurement science for GHG emissions quantification in the challenging environment of the US North-East where multiple urban areas are clustered together and the confounding presence of upwind sources is common. It is broadly based on collaboration involving many institutions (NIST, Stony Brook University, University of Maryland, Northern Arizona State University, Penn State, Earth Networks and other partners). This proposal will extend and improve the underlying models on which the inverse modeling methodology is reliant and provide software tools to streamline the emissions estimation with different types of observations and at multiple spatiotemporal scales. Specifically, we will improve the meteorological fields used to drive the particle dispersion model, the mixing parametrizations used in the footprints calculation, and the inverse schemes used in the emissions optimization.
Dr. Tara Rider is featured in episode 2 of Pirates: Behind the Legends speaking about Grace O’Malley. The episode is available on NatGeo On Demand.
SBU News Features
- SUNY Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence Honor 27 SBU Faculty and Staff
- Twenty-seven members of Stony Brook University’s faculty and staff, including Nancy Black from SoMAS, have received the 2023-2024 State University of New York (SUNY) Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence.
- Climatic Warming Has Made Toxic Algal Blooms in Lake Erie More Intense
- Climate change is causing a series of maladies by warming land and sea. A study published online by a team of scientists led by Christopher Gobler in Limnology and Oceanography Letters, demonstrates that one consequence of climate change that has already occurred is the spread and intensification of toxic algae blooms in Lake Erie.
- Navigating the Tipping Point: Climate Change and Its Impact on Long Island
- Stony Brook University distinguished professor Christopher Gobler recently spoke about the impact of
- Master’s in Science Communication Program Launches Concentration in Climate Communication
- Students and Alumni Celebrated at Wall of Honor Reception
- Johanna Mitra (EHI, GSS) was added to the SBU External Fellowships and Scholarships Wall of Honor for being named a Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange Alternate and a Fulbright Study-Research Award Alternate
Latest Publications
Strohm, V. R., Ayache, N., Millette, N. C., Menegay, A., Gobler, C. J., Campbell, L., & Smith, J. L. (2024). Role of Turbulence in Dinophysis spp. Growth, Feeding, and Toxin Leakage in Culture. Harmful Algae, 102666.
Li, R., Li, W., Gilbert, C., Zheng, X., & Lindenfeld Sher, L. (2024). Dynamic Fear in Fear Appeals: Applying Fear Appeals to Environmental Communication in China. Journal of Health Communication, 1-9.
Gobler, C. J., Di Cecco, G. J., Doherty, O. M., & Kramer, B. J. (2024). Decadal warming has intensified Microcystis‐dominated cyanobacterial blooms in Lake Erie. Limnology and Oceanography Letters.
Heneghan, J., John, D. C., Bartsch, S. M., Piltch-Loeb, R., Gilbert, C., Kass, D., … & Lee, B. Y. (2024). A Systems Map of the Challenges of Climate Communication. Journal of Health Communication, 1-12.
Shipley, O. N., Newsome, S. D., Long, T. M., Murasko, S., Jones, R., Kircun, J., … & Ceriani, S. A. (2024). Carbon and nitrogen isotopes of lizardfish provide insight into regional patterns of ocean biogeochemistry across the eastern continental United States. Marine Biology, 171(8), 150.
Li, F., Chavas, D. R., Medeiros, B., Reed, K. A., & Rasmussen, K. L. (2024). Upstream surface roughness and terrain are strong drivers of contrast in tornado potential between North and South America. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121(26), e2315425121.
Sherwood, S. C., Hegerl, G., Braconnot, P., Friedlingstein, P., Goelzer, H., Harris, N. R. P., …, Reed, K. A., … & van der Wel, N. P. M. (2024). Uncertain Pathways to a Future Safe Climate. Earth’s Future, 12(6), e2023EF004297.
SoMAS Research Data
- Haverstraw Bay Benthic Mapping Project GIS Data
Robert M. Cerrato School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Stony Brook University
Latest Press Headlines
Futurity: Tiniest Ocean Microplastics May Have Evaded Detection
- “Our results highlight the numerical primacy of small MP particles in seawater, and we found that the most abundant MPs were between 1 and 14 micrometers, 60% were under 5 micrometers, and none were larger than 53 micrometers,” says Luis Medina Faull, a lecturer and IDEA Fellow, sustainable climate justice and solutions, at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) at Stony Brook University. “This size fraction has been totally overlooked in almost all marine MP surveys.”
Deeper Blue: Many Ocean Microplastics Go Undetected
- Research by scientists at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University has shown that many microplastics in the world’s oceans have, in all likelihood, gone undetected.
Newsday: Toxic cyanobacteria found at Wainscott, Stony Brook ponds
- Officials said the blue-green algae was found by Stony Brook University biologists at Wainscott Pond in Wainscott and in Roth Pond in Stony Brook, health officials reported this week.
East Hampton Patch: New Blue-Green Algae Found In Wainscott
- Analysis of surface water samples performed by SUNY Stony Brook has confirmed the presence of new cyanobacteria blooms, more commonly known as blue-green algae, in Wainscott Pond, the Suffolk County Department of Health said.
- Christopher Gobler, a professor in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University, says that the waters of Port Jefferson can naturally respond to such waste contamination. “Port Jefferson gets good flushing through the inlet from the harbor and Long Island Sound,” Gobler said in an interview with Newsday. He said Port Jefferson’s tidal flushing may also help in cleaning out sewage in nearby bodies of water.
Grist: A new satellite could help solve one of our climate’s biggest mysteries: Clouds
- “Clouds are the number one cooling blanket we have on the planet,” said Pavlos Kollias, an atmospheric scientist from Stony Brook University who has been supporting the EarthCARE mission since 2008.
WSHU/NPR: Study links increased vessel traffic to uptick in East Coast whale strandings
- WSHU’s Sabrina Garone spoke with Dr. Lesley Thorne of Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. Thorne led a study that looked into the possible explanations.
Smart Water Magazine: Climate change has made toxic algal blooms in Lake Erie more intense, scientists show
- A team of scientists led by Christopher Gobler, Ph.D., a Professor in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) at Stony Brook University, used high-resolution satellite-based temperature data along with the growth response of the blue-green algae that plagues Lake Erie—Microcystis.
Yahoo/Miami Herald: Climate change can amplify big rainstorms, but true fixes are far off for South Florida
- When academics run major global climate models, they see that effect. For instance, Kevin Reed, the associate provost for climate and sustainability programming at Stony Brook University in New York, looked at the impact of climate change on Hurricane Ian, which hit Southwest Florida in 2022. His paper found that rainfall levels were about 5% to 10% higher, on average, than they would have been in a cooler world. But in the spots that received the most rain, levels were about 18% higher. (Also in Miami Herald, AOL)
Times Beacon Record: SBU’s Lesley Thorne finds vessel strikes and entanglements lead to humpback strandings
- In a recent study published in the journal Conservation Biology, Lesley Thorne, Associate Professor in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University, and David Wiley, Research Coordinator for NOAA’s Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, pointed to vessel strikes as an important driver of the increase in humpback whale strandings.
Newsday: Experts focus on North Shore, South Shore sea level rise at nextLI town hall
- Egeland cued up a short video showing severe erosion on Tobay Beach in Massapequa, and asked Chris Gobler, a professor of marine science at Stony Brook University, about worsening storm damage. “We’ve always had nor’easters,” Gobler said. “What’s changing is climate change.”
The Good Men Project: Tiniest Ocean Microplastics May Have Evaded Detection
- “Our results highlight the numerical primacy of small MP particles in seawater, and we found that the most abundant MPs were between 1 and 14 micrometers, 60% were under 5 micrometers, and none were larger than 53 micrometers,” says Luis Medina Faull, a lecturer and IDEA Fellow, sustainable climate justice and solutions, at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) at Stony Brook University. “This size fraction has been totally overlooked in almost all marine MP surveys.”
LAist: A New Satellite Could Help Solve One Of Our Climate’s Biggest Mysteries: Clouds
- “Clouds are the number one cooling blanket we have on the planet,” said Pavlos Kollias, an atmospheric scientist from Stony Brook University who has been supporting the EarthCARE mission since 2008.
Newsday: Fire Island sewage study addresses nitrogen pollution, recommends solutions
- We’re finding out that a lot of the waste from Fire Island is actually being let back into the Great South Bay and not into the ocean,” he said. “The quicker that we can put parts of this plan into action … I think we’re going to be able to have a lot healthier Great South Bay and may be able to keep beaches open without the number of closures that we’re having on a regular basis.” Chris Gobler, a marine and atmospheric sciences professor at Stony Brook University who has monitored local waterways since 2014, praised the study for “considering lots of different options” to solve the issue.
East Hampton Star: Four Lakes, Ponds Impacted by Toxic Algae Blooms
- Be careful near local lakes and ponds: Stony Brook University researchers have confirmed the presence of cyanobacteria blooms in four more local bodies of water. Contact with the algae, commonly known as blue-green algae, should be avoided.
North Fork Patch: New Blue-Green Algae Found In Locations Across East End
- Analysis of surface water samples performed by SUNY Stony Brook has confirmed the presence of new cyanobacteria blooms, more commonly known as blue-green algae, in Wolf Pit Lake in Mattituck; Long Pond in Sag Harbor; Poxabogue Pond in Sagaponack; Mill Pond in Water Mill and Agawam Lake in Southampton, officials said.
Audacy/1010 WINS: Suffolk officials advise residents to avoid some freshwaters after discovery of harmful blue-green algae blooms
- Surface water samples taken and analyzed by SUNY Stony Brook from some Suffolk County freshwater systems revealed cyanobacteria blooms, or blue-green algae blooms, which can produce harmful toxins, and local officials are advising residents to avoid the affected areas.
Newsday: Blue-green algae found in Wolf Pit Lake, Long Pond, Poxabogue Pond, Mill Pond, Agawam Lake
- Officials said the blue-green algae was found by Stony Brook University biologists in Wolf Pit Lake in Mattituck; Long Pond in Sag Harbor; Poxabogue Pond in Sagaponack; Mill Pond in Water Mill and Agawam Lake in Southampton, according to the Suffolk County Department of Health.
Waste 360: Here’s a Roundup of Ocean Microplastics Research
- A new study out of Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences in New York confirms the presence of the smallest microplastic particles that common tow net surveys have missed. And it also finds much higher quantities of larger pieces than were captured by the nets.
Energy Global: Eversource and Ørsted receive final approval for Sunrise Wind
- As part of Sunrise Wind, Ørsted and Eversource are already making investments in the state’s offshore wind workforce and supply chain, including…Investing $5 million in a research partnership with Stony Brook University.
Times Beacon Record: Using advanced technology, SBU’s Luis Medina Faull finds abundant microplastics in the ocean
- That’s the conclusion of a recent paper published in Marine Pollution Bulletin based on research conducted by Luis Medina Faull, Lecturer and IDEA Fellow, Sustainable Climate Justice and Solutions at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University.
The Cool Down: New study finds tiniest ocean microplastics are evading detection: ‘A vastly understudied area’
- Researchers at Stony Brook University have discovered that the tiniest microplastics, which were once undetectable, are the most abundant pollutants in our seas, according to Futurity. (Also in Yahoo)
USA Today: As climate change makes extremes more extreme, rainfall is no different
- “As has been shown time and time again, event after event, climate change is leading to wetter, more extreme precipitation events,” said Kevin Reed, an associate provost for climate and sustainability programming at Stony Brook University who studies the impact of the warming climate on rainfall.
