Dec 21, 2018

UW glaciologist gets first look at NASA’s new measurements of ice sheet elevation

Since ICESat-2 launched in September, it has already exceeded expectations. It's measuring the height of sea ice to within an inch, which will be used to improve climate modeling and forecasts.

Less than three months into its mission, NASA’s Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2, or ICESat-2, is already exceeding scientists’ expectations. The satellite is measuring the height of sea ice to within an inch, tracing the terrain of previously unmapped Antarctic valleys and measuring other interesting features in our planet’s elevation. Benjamin Smith, a glaciologist with the University of Washington and member of the ICESat-2 science team, shared the first look at the satellite’s performance at the American Geophysical Union’s annual meeting Dec.

EarthLab launches first-ever Innovation Grants

EarthLab at the University of Washington envisions a world where nature and people thrive. To that end, EarthLab has launched an Innovation Grants program to provide funding for projects that are risky, new ideas with a high potential for impact and the ability to motivate change. Through this program, EarthLab hopes to increase capacity across the UW for innovations in the application of transdisciplinary scholarship, deepen engagement with diverse community partners (e.g.,

Getting a handle on the role of parasites in our modern world

Mention the word “parasite”, and Chelsea Wood’s face lights up. She may be one of the few people on Earth who think so fondly of them. But it makes sense — Wood is a marine ecologist and her entire lab focuses on parasites and the role they play in nature. Turns out, it’s an important one — and one that may be changing over time.

Biggest extinction in Earth’s history caused by global warming leaving ocean animals gasping for breath

a spiral-shaped fossil from the Helicoprion, a shark that lived in the Permian.

In some ways, the planet's worst mass extinction — 250 million years ago — may parallel climate change today.

An interview with FieldNotes

Undergraduate students dedicate incredible time and effort each year to complete a capstone or other required research project, but the results are rarely published in a scientific journal. In spring 2018, four students from the College of the Environment set out to give the authors of this overlooked body of work a creative platform in which to share their work. The first issue of FieldNotes featured research on diverse topics, including the relationship between beaver dams and salmon migration, the impacts of ocean acidification on Puget Sound oysters and UW Environment’s efforts to promote STEM-based initiatives in underrepresented communities.

Read the Q&A »