Award
2024 AGU Robert E. Horton Medal Awarded to P.C.D. (Chris) Milly
October 8, 2024 – P.C.D. (Chris) Milly, a leading expert in physical hydrology, hydrological modeling, and climate science, has been awarded the 2024 Robert E. Horton Medal by the American Geophysical Union (AGU). Throughout his distinguished career, Dr. Milly led the development of the hydrological component of GFDL’s climate models, significantly advancing the integration of hydrological processes into global climate models. His work has transformed the community’s understanding of global and continental hydrology and their interactions with a changing climate.
Award
Nadir Jeevanjee Honored with the 2025 AMS Henry G. Houghton Award
October 1, 2024 – Congratulations to Nadir Jeevanjee, recipient of the 2025 Henry G. Houghton Award from the American Meteorological Society (AMS). This prestigious award recognizes Dr. Jeevanjee for “providing robust and comprehensive theoretical frameworks to illuminate complex phenomena in climate physics.” A Physical Research Scientist in GFDL’s Atmospheric Physics Division, Dr. Jeevanjee joined GFDL in 2016. Since then he has established his role in physical climatology, known for developing innovative models that enhance our understanding of Earth’s climate system.
Award
Lucas Harris Receives the 2024 AGU Atmospheric Sciences Ascent Award
September 25, 2024 – Lucas Harris, Deputy Division Leader of the Weather and Climate Dynamics Division at GFDL, has been honored with the 2024 American Geophysical Union (AGU) Atmospheric Sciences Ascent Award. This award recognizes his outstanding research and leadership in high-resolution atmospheric model development and its applications for weather and climate predictions. The Ascent Award is presented annually to exceptional mid-career scientists affiliated with AGU’s Atmospheric Sciences section.
Research Highlight
Importance of the Antarctic Slope Current in the Southern Ocean Response to Ice Sheet Melt and Wind Stress Change
September 10, 2024 – Despite being the second-smallest ocean on Earth, the Southern Ocean plays an outsized role in absorbing heat and carbon generated from human activities, accounting for over 40% of the planet’s oceanic carbon uptake and 67%–98% of the global ocean heat uptake. As the climate warms, however, changes to the Southern Ocean’s circulation – caused by stronger, more southerly winds and increased meltwater from the Antarctic ice sheet – could affect its heat and carbon absorption abilities, which in turn would have significant consequences for global temperatures and sea level rise.
Research Highlight
The driving of North American climate extremes by North Pacific stationary-transient wave interference
September 5, 2024 – The occurrence of extreme weather events, such as heatwaves, droughts, and floods, has increased substantially since the pre-industrial period, but this trend has large regional variations. An important driver of the regional climate variability is the zonally asymmetric atmospheric circulation, or stationary waves, forced by the zonal asymmetries in the Earth’s surface such as the land-sea thermal contrast and elevated terrain (e.g., hills and mountains).
Research Highlight
A predicted pause in the rapid warming of the Northwest Atlantic Shelf in the coming decade
September 3, 2024 – The Northwest Atlantic Shelf, from the coasts of North Carolina and Virginia to the Gulf of Maine to Newfoundland, has warmed more rapidly than almost any other part of the ocean in the last two decades. This warming has had severe impacts on marine ecosystems and coastal communities. Understanding the drivers of this warming and predicting whether it will continue is thus important for mitigating or adapting to future impacts.
News
New Study to Help Understanding of the Contribution of Methane as a Greenhouse Gas
August 16, 2024 – A comprehensive understanding of methane’s contribution as a greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, crucial for effective climate mitigation policies, remains elusive due to the overlap of natural (wetlands) and anthropogenic (natural gas, agriculture, sewage, landfills) sources. Larry Horowitz and Vaishali Naik, both Physical Scientists at GFDL, are co-Principal Investigators on a study that was awarded a 3-year grant from NOAA’s Climate Program Office, which will add methane stable isotopologue chemistry to an atmospheric component of a global Earth system model.
Research Highlight
Anthropogenic Effects on Tropical Cyclones near Western Europe
August 13, 2024 – Tropical Cyclones (TC) hitting Western Europe are not as rare as one might think. Approximately 10% of Atlantic TCs have made landfall in Europe in the past four decades, about one European landfall per year. Understanding and projecting TC frequency change is especially challenging in certain coastal regions with lower TC activity yet high exposure, and a relatively short duration of reliable observed records – such as Western Europe.
Research Highlight
Reactive nitrogen partitioning enhances the contribution of Canadian wildfire plumes to US ozone air quality
August 7, 2024 – Large, damaging wildfires are becoming a common occurrence in Canada, the Pacific Northwest, and California. Five of the most destructive wildfire seasons of the last half-century have occurred in the past seven years. These wildfires can cause significant air pollution: burning biomass emits hundreds of reactive gases, including nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, ammonia, and an array of volatile organic compounds.
Research Highlight
Uneven consequences of global climate mitigation pathways on regional water quality in the 21st century
July 30, 2024 – Nitrogen fertilizer usage and cultivation-induced biological nitrogen fixation help feed nearly half the global population. These practices, in addition to fossil fuel burning for energy production, have increased reactive nitrogen losses to the environment, causing a cascade of negative impacts on the ecosystem and human health. Nitrogen emissions to the atmosphere have contributed to acid rain, air pollution, stratospheric ozone depletion, and the radiative forcing underlying climate change.
Research Highlight
Causes and multiyear predictability of the rapid acceleration of U.S. Southeast Sea level rise after 2010
July 10, 2024 – Sea level rise (SLR) is one of the most severe consequences of a warming climate, causing dangerous flooding and threatening lives and infrastructure in low-lying coastal regions. This study investigated the potential physical drivers responsible for the observed acceleration of SLR after 2010 along the U.S. Southeast Coast.