Oak Ridge Today

Thornton named director of ORNL Climate Change Science Institute

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Peter Thornton has been named director of the Climate Change Science Institute at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. (Photo credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL, U.S. Department of Energy)

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory appointed Peter Thornton as director of its Climate Change Science Institute, or CCSI, effective November 1.

“CCSI was launched at ORNL in 2009, bringing together the lab’s multidisciplinary expertise and big science capabilities to predict the future of the planet’s climate and to evaluate potential mitigation solutions at the intersection of climate, clean energy, national security, and environmental justice,” a press release said. “ORNL’s modeling work informs solutions to meet the nation’s climate goals of a 40% reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and net-zero GHG emissions by 2050.”

“I am very pleased that Peter will help develop and guide new local, regional, and national activities within CCSI,” said Stan Wullschleger, associate laboratory director for Biological and Environmental Systems Science. “Peter’s extensive expertise will ensure that our Earth system models provide the best projections of our changing planet and potential resilience strategies for our citizens, industry and society.”

[Read more…]

ORNL scientist to describe current understanding of climate change

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Peter Thornton

Peter Thornton

Peter Thornton, deputy director of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Climate Change Science Institute and group leader for the Terrestrial Systems Modeling Group in ORNL’s Environmental Sciences Division, will describe the current best understanding of climate change on Thursday, February 22 at 7 p.m., a press release said. The public is invited to attend this free program.

Thornton’s presentation will describe evidence regarding historical and modern climate changes, and projections of future climate based on Earth system models, the press release said. His current research involves the development, evaluation, and application of Earth system models for future climate change prediction. His areas of expertise include the interaction of water, energy, carbon, and nutrients within land ecosystems, the interactions of vegetation communities with the atmosphere, and weather observations over land, the release said. (See a brief ORNL summary here.)

The presentation, co-sponsored by Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning, Climate Coalition Lobby-Knoxville, and the Citizens Climate Coalition at Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church, will be in the Social Room at the Oak Ridge Civic Center.

ORNL’s Salil Mahajan: Gaining perspective on climate variability with high-resolution modeling

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Computational climate scientist Salil Mahajan simulates the complex and chaotic aspects of climate at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. (Photo by ORNL/U.S. Department of Energy)

Computational climate scientist Salil Mahajan simulates the complex and chaotic aspects of climate at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. (Photo by ORNL/U.S. Department of Energy)

 

By Ashley C. Huff, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Simulating the global climate in high resolution at multiple scales will help answer questions about future global and regional climates. However, as performance expectations increase for Earth system models, so do computing challenges.

Salil Mahajan, a computational climate scientist in the Computational Earth Sciences group at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is tackling some of these challenges in high-performance computing for climate science.

Climate is a chaotic system. It includes complex interactions between the atmosphere, oceans, sea ice, and land.

“As we include more dynamic, coupled interactions among these spheres and incorporate more biological, chemical, and physical processes in our models, the computations become more complicated,” Mahajan said. “We have to take a step-by-step approach to understand cause and effect and ensure that our simulations are accurately representing our observational measurements.”

Model validation and verification are now the bread and butter of his daily routine. But Mahajan’s affinity for atmospheric science and computing architectures developed along a circuitous route.

From architecture to atmosphere [Read more…]

Climate scientist, evangelical Christian to give talk in Oak Ridge on Tuesday, May 16

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Katharine Hayhoe (Photo credit: Mark Umstot Photography)

Katharine Hayhoe (Photo credit: Mark Umstot Photography)

 

Katharine Hayhoe, a nationally-recognized climate scientist and evangelical Christian, will give a talk in Oak Ridge on Tuesday, May 16, a press release said.

The free talk is hosted by the League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge and the Climate Change Science Institute at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Seats are limited.

Hayhoe’s presentation is titled “Climate for Change.” It’s scheduled from 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, May 16, at the Pollard Technology Conference Center at 210 Badger Avenue in Oak Ridge.

Hayhoe is both a distinguished climate scientist and an evangelical Christian, the press release said. An atmospheric scientist, her research focuses on developing and applying high-resolution climate projections to understand what climate change means for society.

Hayhoe has been named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people and one of Foreign Policy’s 100 leading global thinkers, and she was recently named one of Fortune’s world’s greatest leaders, the press release said. She is a professor in the Department of Political Science and Director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University. [Read more…]

Climate study finds human ‘fingerprint’ in Northern Hemisphere greening

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North Hemisphere Greening

Earth system models simulate Northern Hemisphere greening. The figure shows the spatial distribution of leaf area index trends (m2/m2/30yr) in the growing season (April–October) during the period of 1982–2011 in the mean of satellite observations (top), Earth system model (ESM) simulations with natural forcings alone (lower left), and ESM simulations with combined anthropogenic and natural forcings (lower right). (Image by ORNL)

 

A multinational team led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory Climate Change Science Institute has found the first positive correlation between human activity and enhanced vegetation growth.

The research team, led by Jiafu Mao of the Ecosystem Simulation Science group in the Environmental Sciences Division, used new environmental data and strict statistical methods to discover a significant human-vegetation interaction in the northern extratropical latitudes, the section of the planet spanning 30 to 75 degrees north, roughly between the Tropic of Cancer and the North Frigid Zone above the Arctic Circle.

“This is the first clear evidence of a discernible human fingerprint on physiological vegetation changes at the continental scale,” Mao said. [Read more…]

Lunch today: ORNL Climate Change Science Institute, impact of climate on society

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Melissa-Allen

Melissa R. Allen, post-doctoral research associate, Computational Science and Engineering Division at ORNL (Submitted photo)

Joseph Kennedy and Melissa Allen of Oak Ridge National Laboratory will discus the lab’s Climate Change Science Institute and the impact of climate on society during a lunchtime meeting today (Tuesday, February 16).

Kennedy and Allen will be the guest speakers at the Lunch with the League. Kennedy is a postdoctoral research associate and computational glaciologist at the Institute. Allen is a post-doctoral research associate in the Computational Science and Engineering Division. 

Presented by the League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge, the program will be held at 11:45 a.m. Tuesday in  the Social Hall of the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church, located at 809 Oak Ridge Turnpike. The public is invited, and no reservations are necessary. Lunches are provided on a first-come basis for $8 or you may bring your own. Coffee and tea are provided.

Also at the meeting, there will be a formal announcement and details of an ORNL CCSI and a League partnership on climate change issues, a press release said. League member Chris Iversen, who leads the climate change action group for the LWVOR, has been working extensively with ORNL to develop this partnership. ORNL is already working with the city of Knoxville on similar partnership. [Read more…]

DOE event marks beginning of landmark ecosystem experiment

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Carbon Dioxide Test Chambers

By controlling the temperature and the amount of carbon dioxide in the test chambers, scientists hope to learn how microbial communities, moss populations, various higher plant types, and some insect groups respond. (Photo by ORNL)

 

GRAND RAPIDS, Minn.—Scientists are getting a glimpse of the future with a U.S. Department of Energy large-scale experiment designed to answer questions about how carbon-rich peatlands will respond to projected warming of the climate and increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide.

SPRUCE, which stands for Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Climatic and Environmental Change, was launched Wednesday, August 26, at the experiment site about 25 miles north of Grand Rapids. Among those attending the ceremony were Gary Geernaert and Daniel Stover of DOE’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research; Thomas Schmidt, assistant director for research, U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service Northern Research Station; and Martin Keller, associate laboratory director of Energy and Environmental Sciences at DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.

The site consists of about seven acres of raised bog in the peatlands of the Chippewa National Forest. The natural spruce bog in northern Minnesota contains more than 10,000 years of carbon accumulated from peatlands and answers to questions related to the predicted warming of ecosystems. [Read more…]

ORNL climate researcher to receive award from Geophysical Union

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Ben Preston

Ben Preston

Climate researcher Benjamin Preston of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been named to receive the American Geophysical Union’s 2015 Charles S. Falkenberg Award.

The Falkenberg Award is presented once a year “in recognition of an early- to middle-career scientist who has contributed to the quality of life, economic opportunities, and stewardship of the planet through the use of Earth science information and to the public awareness of the importance of understanding our planet,” a press release said.

Preston is a senior research scientist in ORNL’s Environmental Sciences Division and deputy director of the Climate Change Science Institute, where he conducts research on the societal impacts of climate change and the role of adaptation in reducing climate risk. [Read more…]

Hardin Valley Academy’s Feldman receives 2015 UT-Battelle Scholarship

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UT-Battelle Scholarship 2015

ORNL Director Thom Mason, left, congratulates UT-Battelle scholarship recipient Samuel Feldman. (Photo: Jason Richards)

 

By Chris Samoray

High school senior Samuel Feldman of Hardin Valley Academy in Knoxville has earned the 2015 UT-Battelle Scholarship to attend the University of Tennessee.

The scholarship, given to a graduating senior planning to study a science field at UT, is renewable for four years and is worth a total of $20,000. The scholarship is awarded annually to a student who has a parent who works at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Samuel’s parents are Matthew and Laura Feldman of Knoxville. His father, Matthew, works in ORNL’s Reactor and Nuclear Systems Division. Sam’s grandparents are Mary and Jim Luttrell of Oak Ridge and Nancy and the late Melvin Feldman, who retired from ORNL, also of Oak Ridge. [Read more…]

ORNL Climate Change Science Institute rep to discuss science, policy on Tuesday

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Benjamin L. Preston

Benjamin L. Preston

The deputy director of the Climate Change Science Institute at Oak Ridge National Laboratory will discuss climate change science and policy during a Tuesday lunch lecture. The meeting is open to the public.

Ben Preston is deputy director of ORNL’s Climate Change Science Institute. His talk is titled “The State of Climate Change Science and Policy: Local to Global.”

The Friends of ORNL meeting starts with socializing and coffee at 11 a.m., lunch begins at 11:30 a.m., and the lecture starts at noon. A question-and-answer session is scheduled at 12:45 p.m., and the meeting adjourns at 1 p.m. A catered lunch by the Soup Kitchen will be available for $8. [Read more…]

ORNL researchers Buchanan, Liang, Mayes named AAAS fellows

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ORNL AAAS Fellows 2014

New fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science from Oak Ridge National Laboratory are, from left, Michelle Buchanan, Liyuan Liang, and Melanie Mayes. (Photo courtesy ORNL)

 

Three staff members at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have been named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for scientific contributions that range from administrative leadership to discoveries in the environmental sciences.

Michelle Buchanan, Liyuan Liang, and Melanie Mayes and are among those to receive this year’s recognition to AAAS members by their peers. AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society and elects fellows based on their distinguished contributions to the advancement of science or its applications, a press release said.

Buchanan is ORNL’s associate laboratory director for physical sciences, where she guides the Chemical Sciences, Materials Science, and Technology and Physics divisions, as well as the Center for Nanophase Materials Science.

She was elected “for exceptional technical leadership and service in the chemical and physical sciences, and for contributions to setting the nation’s research priorities.” [Read more…]

Former Council member Smith running for City Council

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Ellen Smith

Ellen Smith

Ellen Smith, who served on Oak Ridge City Council from 2007 to 2012, has announced that she is a candidate for City Council in the November 4 election.

Smith is a 33-year resident of Oak Ridge who describes herself as “an Oak Ridger by choice.” As newcomers to East Tennessee in 1981, she and her husband Rich Norby looked around the area and then chose to buy in Oak Ridge and make this city their home, a press release said.

Both have made their careers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where Ellen is a research staff scientist in the Environmental Sciences Division and Rich is a corporate fellow in the Environmental Sciences Division and Climate Change Science Institute. Their adult son Karl was born here and attended school at Linden Elementary School, Robertsville Middle School, and Oak Ridge High School.

Smith said she decided to run for City Council this year after many citizens from diverse sectors of the city urged her to do so, the press release said. People tell her they value her knowledge of Oak Ridge, its history, and city government; her thoughtful analysis of issues and proposed solutions; and her responsiveness to citizens who contacted her with concerns, the release said. Smith said she is committed to working for the community and all of its citizens. [Read more…]