Title and abstract will be posted here when available. For more info or Zoom password contact erl-info@mit.edu
Observing evolving ice sheet condition using multi-temporal radar sounding
The ice sheets covering Greenland and the Antarctic are the largest contributors and uncertainty in projecting future sea level rise. A big challenge in predicting Greenland and Antarctica’s mass losses is the limited understanding of the critical processes that determine the ice sheet’s sensitivity to external forcing. My research focuses on ice sheet subsurface processes and understanding how these englacial and subglacial mechanisms influence ice sheet behaviors. To study this largely inaccessible subsurface environment, my lab develops and applying geophysical techniques, focusing on radar sounding methods, remote sensing, and integrating data with numerical models. In this talk, I will give a few examples of our research efforts on the Greenland Ice Sheet, and the importance of glacial hydrology in understanding ice sheet dynamic processes.
About this series: The PAOC Colloquium is a weekly interdisciplinary seminar series that brings together the whole PAOC community. Seminar topics include all research concerning the physics, chemistry, and biology of the atmospheres, oceans and climate, but also talks about e.g. societal impacts of climatic processes. The seminars take place on Monday from 12-1pm. Contact paoc-colloquium-comm@mit.edu for more information and Zoom password.
About this Series: The Department Lecture Series at EAPS at MIT is a series of weekly talks given by leading thinkers in the areas of geology, geophysics, geobiology, geochemistry, atmospheric science, oceanography, climatology, and planetary science. For more information and Zoom password please contact Madelyn Musick: mmusick@mit.edu
“Impacts of Aerosol-Radiation Interactions on Mesoscale Processes”
Aerosol particles, such as dust, smoke and sulfates, interact with shortwave and longwave radiation. Such interactions produce warming or cooling within the atmospheric column and at the surface depending on whether the aerosol particles predominantly absorb or scatter radiation. These aerosol-induced thermodynamic responses on the mesoscale frequently drive dynamic circulations on the same spatial and temporal scales. This seminar will emphasize the role of aerosol-radiation interactions in driving a number of mesoscale circulations including the propagation speed and intensity of haboobs (sandstorms), land-sea breezes, and a newly identified circulation referred to as an aerosol breeze. The role of aerosol-radiation interactions in establishing atmospheric stable layers in association with cloud detrainment will also be examined, as will aerosol modulation of deforestation effects on low-level convergence and cloud formation.
About this series: Supported through the Houghton Fund, Houghton Lecturers are distinguished visitors from outside MIT invited to spend a period of time, ranging from a week to several months, as scientists-in-residence within the EAPS Program on Atmospheres, Oceans and Climate (PAOC). During their stay it is customary for each lecturer to offer a short-course or a series of lectures on some topic of wide interest. For more information and Zoom password please contact Kayla Bauer (kbauer@mit.edu),
Title: Experimental and numerical study of the pressure surge effect and magma chamber resonance
Abstract: In this talk, I will introduce two works I did during my Ph.D. study. The first work is on laboratory verification of the pressure amplification effect that occurred in a fluid-filled fracture. With my collaborator, I designed and built a low-frequency underwater system to study the pressure variation in a fluid-filled fracture. We found that the fluid pressure in the fracture can be amplified dynamically up to 25.2 times larger. The second work is on the half-space boundary element modeling of the magma chamber resonance. We found that the free surface’s presence can enhance the resonance energy of the magma chamber and generate the long period, long duration signal more efficiently.Bio: Dr. Jin is a postdoctoral associate under the supervision of Dr. Aimé Fournier and Dr. Laurent Demanet in ERL. Before joining MIT, he finished his Ph.D. in geophysics at the University of Houston. During his Ph.D. study, he did a laboratory experiment to study the pressure amplification effect in the fluid-filled fracture and developed a half-space boundary element method to study the magma chamber resonance. His current research focuses on permeability estimation in the borehole.
Aboout the series: The MIT Earth Resources Laboratory’s Friday Informal Seminar Series (FISH) features talks by our lab members as well as special guests from academia and the energy industry on our areas of interest including geothermal energy, carbon sequestration, machine learning for geophysics, multiphase flow, subsurface imaging, and uncertainty quantification. Titles and abstracts will be posted here when available. For more info or Zoom password please contact erl-info@mit.edu.
About this Series: The MIT Planetary Lunch Seminar [PLS] is a weekly seminar series organized within the EAPS department. Colloquia topics span the range of research interests of the department’s planetary sciences research program. The seminars take place on Tuesdays from 12:15–1:30 pm, unless otherwise noted (term-time only). Speakers include members of the MIT community and visitors. Talks are intended to appeal to graduate students, postdocs, research scientists, and faculty with a background in planetary science. For more information and Zoom password contact: planetary-org@mit.edu.
“Chasing Tropical Convective Storms with the NASA INCUS Mission”
The transport of air and water within convective storms in the tropics provides fresh water, influences extreme weather, shapes cloud radiative forcing, and helps to drive the large-scale circulation. This transport of air and water – referred to as the convective mass flux (CMF) – is the focus of the NASA Investigation of Convective Updrafts (INCUS) mission, to be launched in 2026. INCUS is a train of 3 Smallsats, each carrying a Ka-band cloud radar. A passive microwave radiometer will also be housed on the middle platform. The 3 observatories will be separated in time by 30, 90 and 120 seconds, thus facilitating the rapid, systematic, and repeated sampling of the same storm system. Much research has been undertaken in preparation for the INCUS mission including generating an extensive database of high-resolution model simulations in regions throughout the tropics; analyzing these simulations to uncover key relationships about CMF and its variability; tracking observed and simulated storms throughout their lifetimes using a cloud object tracking tool; analyzing ground-based radar observations of storms obtained through rapid adaptive scanning techniques; and evaluating convective morphologies and environments using GPM observations and reanalysis datasets. After introducing the INCUS mission, this seminar will highlight a number of key results arising from this research.
About this series: The PAOC Colloquium is a weekly interdisciplinary seminar series that brings together the whole PAOC community. Seminar topics include all research concerning the physics, chemistry, and biology of the atmospheres, oceans and climate, but also talks about e.g. societal impacts of climatic processes. The seminars take place on Monday from 12-1pm. Contact paoc-colloquium-comm@mit.edu for more information and Zoom password.
“Dynamic and Microphysical Processes of Tropical Convection”
Trade wind cumulus, congestus and deep convection comprise the trimodal distribution of tropical convection. The dynamical processes driving these modes of convection are integrally linked to the microphysical processes of such systems, as well as the environments supporting these clouds. In this seminar, the relative importance of those processes driving convective updrafts within congestus and deep convection will first be discussed by analyzing the terms of the vertical momentum equation, and how these terms vary as a function of environmental characteristics, including aerosol loading. Those processes important to determining transient versus terminal congestus development above the 0ºC stable layer will also be identified. This will be followed by an assessment of the spatial scales comprising a storm’s environment, and the role played by the initial environmental characteristics in determining storm morphology, organization and longevity.
About this series: Supported through the Houghton Fund, Houghton Lecturers are distinguished visitors from outside MIT invited to spend a period of time, ranging from a week to several months, as scientists-in-residence within the EAPS Program on Atmospheres, Oceans and Climate (PAOC). During their stay it is customary for each lecturer to offer a short-course or a series of lectures on some topic of wide interest. For more information and Zoom password please contact Kayla Bauer (kbauer@mit.edu)
About this series: The PAOC Colloquium is a weekly interdisciplinary seminar series that brings together the whole PAOC community. Seminar topics include all research concerning the physics, chemistry, and biology of the atmospheres, oceans and climate, but also talks about e.g. societal impacts of climatic processes. The seminars take place on Monday from 12-1pm. Contact paoc-colloquium-comm@mit.edu for more information and Zoom password.
“Diving into Cold Pools”
Convective cold pools are formed by the evaporation of precipitation below the cloud base of convective storms. This evaporatively-cooled, dense air subsequently sinks to the surface where it spreads out laterally in the form of a density current. Cold pools play a critical role in the initiation of new convective storms, determining convective organization and longevity, transporting atmospheric aerosols, and modulating surface fluxes. In spite of their importance in storm and aerosol processes, their spatial and temporal scales make them challenging to observe from ground- and space-based platforms, and difficult to accurately represent in coarser scale models. This seminar will focus on various cold pool processes observed within three recent field campaigns and high-resolution model simulations including the role of cold pool collisions in convective initiation, the spatial and temporal scales of cold pool variability, and the redistribution of aerosols by cold pool trains. The implications for the representation of such processes in forecasting through global climate models will also be considered.
About this series: Supported through the Houghton Fund, Houghton Lecturers are distinguished visitors from outside MIT invited to spend a period of time, ranging from a week to several months, as scientists-in-residence within the EAPS Program on Atmospheres, Oceans and Climate (PAOC). During their stay it is customary for each lecturer to offer a short-course or a series of lectures on some topic of wide interest. For more information and Zoom password please contact Kayla Bauer (kbauer@mit.edu)
