Urbanization in the Anthropocene: What's Ahead for Energy, Climate, and Food Security?

Rapid urbanization, population growth and increasing per capita consumption is putting immense pressure on our planet's biological capacity in specific ways and influencing Earth's biogeochemical and climate systems in ways we don't fully understand.  As our economies, actions, and understanding become global in scale we inevitably wonder if the Earth can keep up. With all the different appraisals of humankind's future ranging so widely from planetary overshoot in ecological footprint assessments to socio-ecological collapse predicted by the Club of Rome models, how do we sort through it all to get a more useful, scientifically robust, and balanced appraisal of what the future will bring? In his talk, Marc Imhoff, will introduce new approaches for addressing these issues using satellite data and new Integrated Modeling Approaches that couple socio-economics, climate and energy. These new tools are opening the way for more balanced, useful, and potentially optimistic appraisals of our future by enabling us to use our best technologies and skill sets to identify pathways for moving forward in the face of change.  

 
Marc Imhoff, Deputy Director, Joint Global Change Research Institute, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory/University of Maryland.

Satellite Observations - the Touchstone of Atmospheric Modeling

Anne Douglass (Code 614, Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics Laboratory) gave a Maniac Talk on March 27^th titled “Satellite Observations - the Touchstone of Atmospheric Modeling”:  “I came to GSFC (Atmospheric chemistry and dynamics branch) in 1981 following a lengthy graduate school career that featured two universities, experimental work, development of a primitive atmospheric model and a growing family.  The maze I call my scientific career is filled with unexpected twists and turns and even a few blind alleys, but most of the time satellite measurements of ozone and other trace gases have been my touchstone (metaphor - means of establishing the relative merits of a concept).  This talk will feature examples that show how modeling grounded by observations continues to advance.”

Also, GESTAR congratulates Anne Douglass as the recipient of the 2013 William Nordberg Memorial Award for Earth Science, GSFC's highest award in the area of Earth science. This prize is in recognition of Anne's many years of leadership of satellite missions studying atmospheric composition, and her pioneering work in using measurements to test models.

 

Falling Snow Detective

NASA climate scientist Dr. Gail Skofronick Jackson presented a Maniac Talk entitled "Falling Snow Detective." Gail talked about her experiences growing up with hurricanes in Florida and how that shaped her excitement in the science of detecting falling snow from space. Using paper snowflakes and audience help, she explained why snow is important on Earth and why scientists love and hate snow.

Piers Sellers

“When I was a kid, I watched the space race unfold. It was the most exciting thing I could imagine and NASA looked to me to be like the top of a holy mountain. After a lifetime of exploring different parts of that mountain, I still feel the same way.  It doesn't get better than this.“

Video will not be posted.

**Note there was no December 2012 Maniac Lecture**

Angel Hair, Ice Cream Castles, Dripping Faucets & Euler Fractals

Dr. Robert Cahalan presented a Maniac Talk on October 24, 2012 at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Dr. Robert Cahalan gave an interesting and stimulating talk entitled ‘Angel Hair, Ice Cream Castles, Dripping Faucets & Euler Fractals’. He combined anecdotes from his life and career with insights into the world around us from symmetry, fractals, and chaotic systems. This began with a look at the mathematics of rotations, topology, and prime numbers, with demonstrations including a hexaflexagon.

The mathematics then became a background for Bob’s experiences growing up in the middle part of the previous century, including being forced to do arithmetic by nuns at Catholic school as punishment for bad behavior, and through his career as a scientist, moving from the world of particle physics (heavily entwined with symmetry) through to the work on radiation and climate he is known for here at GSFC. We learned about the common themes which have underlined many aspects of this work. The talk renewed our sense of wonder and amazement at the beautiful complexity of nature and mathematics. -- summary by Andrew Sayer

Advancing the Forecast Enterprise

Dr. Louis W. Uccellini presented a Maniac Talk on September 12, 2012 at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Abstract:Over the past 20 years, the entire weather enterprise has made revolutionary advances in the prediction of weather.  Remarkably, even greater progress has been made in the prediction of extreme weather events out to 7 days in advance (in some cases).  In this presentation, Dr. Louis W. Uccellini, Director of the National Weather Service’s National Centers for Environmental Prediction, will review the advancements that have been made in the prediction of extreme events.  He will then trace the revolutionary transformation of forecasting from a subjective “art” in the 1940’s to the applied physical science that it is today.  Today’s forecast process is based on 1) an integrated global observing system, 2) numerical weather prediction models and 3) the world’s fastest computers.  He will also describe how climate, weather and water predictions arebeing linked to decision makers, including the emergency management and water resource communities.  The linkage of these developments to an improved “Research to Operations” (R2O) transition process will be highlighted in this presentation including some recent developments in accelerating the use of satellite data in advanced numerical models involving the Goddard Space Flight Center.  The talk will conclude with a discussion of what is (and is not) working as this larger climate, weather, and water enterprise is attempting to improve the R2O process and accelerating the transition of research, observations and technology advancements into operations.

From Math to Civil Rights to Sea Ice to Geoengineering to an Attempt at a Balanced Perspective on Climate Change

Dr. Claire Parkinson presented a Maniac Talk on August 22, 2012 at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Abstract: In recent years, climate change has become a topic of heated discussion, and sea ice has been one of the components of climate receiving considerable attention. This was not at all the situation in the 1970s, when Claire Parkinson got into sea ice studies. Claire will share some of the sea-ice science she has been involved in at Goddard over the past 34 years, as well as key moments on her route to becoming a NASA scientist and key factors influencing her perspective on climate change and the discussion of climate change. These factors include an early passion for mathematics, a keen interest in the history of science, a career in sea ice studies, and concerns about geoengineering.