Earth System Science
Jun 13, 2020
Climate scientist Zack Labe came to UCI in 2015, and when he got to Orange County, where the sun never seems to set, he didn’t know there would be so much ice in his future. Labe, who graduated this quarter with a Ph.D. from the Department of Earth System Science, came to UCI from Cornell University with an bachelor’s in atmospheric sciences, and he spent his five years here modeling how ocean sea ice in the Arctic helps create the weather in places like North America, Europe and Asia.
Jun 3, 2020
Irvine, Calif., June 3, 2020 — “We’re all in this together” is a commonly heard phrase during this global pandemic, as much of the world practices social distancing. And now researchers at the University of California, Irvine and other institutions have shown that there is some scientific validity to this assertion.
Jun 1, 2020
Irvine, Calif., June 1, 2020 – The melting of glaciers and ice caps in places as diverse as the Himalayas and Andes mountain ranges, the Svalbard island group and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago has the dual effect of raising global sea levels and depleting freshwater resources that serve millions of people around the world.
May 22, 2020
Ideas can come from everywhere. They can ignite when one imagines, for instance, that there could be a connection between the light that a firefly creates and the cells in our bodies, or that there might be a way to better manage fires in the Amazon rainforest by fingerprinting the different varieties of fire that blaze there. Such ideas led eight of our School’s graduate students this year to win the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Student Research Fellowship — a research fellowship…
May 20, 2020
The international response to the coronavirus pandemic has so far slashed global carbon emissions by more than 8%, according to detailed estimates from a pair of independent research teams. That’s roughly three times the annual emissions of Italy. But energy consumption is already rebounding in China and elsewhere, and the pandemic could register as little more than a blip in the climate system as government-imposed lockdowns come to an end.
May 20, 2020
On April 7, global carbon dioxide emissions plummeted to levels not seen since 2006, according to a study released yesterday that suggests the coronavirus pandemic might have led to the largest reduction in CO2 ever recorded.
May 20, 2020
Scientists who normally study how human activities impact the planet have been given a rare opportunity over the past few months to observe what happens when industry, transportation and other sources of carbon emissions are curtailed.
May 15, 2020
In this conversation, three experts discussed climate change and air quality during COVID-19. Barbara Finlayson-Pitts (Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Co-Director of AirUCI, UCI), Steve…
Apr 30, 2020
Irvine, Calif., April 30, 2020 – University of California, Irvine chemical oceanographer and biogeochemist Ellen Druffel has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, one of the world’s most distinguished scientific organizations.
Apr 22, 2020
Irvine, Calif., April 22, 2020 – On this Earth Day, the United Nations is announcing the start of a new environmental education program for the world’s 1.5 billion youth who are confined to their homes to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and unable to physically attend school.
Apr 22, 2020
Katherine Mackey studies the boundary between the living and the nonliving worlds. She wants to know how those two worlds define one other, as things like aquatic microorganisms can alter the chemistry of the water they live in, and the chemistry of the water can then affect the kinds of organisms able to live there.
Apr 21, 2020
As the pandemic rages, Department of Earth System Science Chair Eric Rignot defines what coronavirus means for climate change and those who study it.