EAPS Scope

NEWSLETTER OF THE DEPARTMENT OF EARTH, ATMOSPHERIC AND PLANETARY SCIENCES | 2019-2020

FEATURED THIS ISSUE Climate News PAGE 7 Friends PAGE 24 From studying tiny Antarctic microbes Emanuel elected to the American Montrym Fund offers students climate to designing tiny weather satellites; Philosophical Society • Royden research mini-grants • Introducing from mining massive datasets collected awarded Bucher Medal • Zuber receives Artemis: MIT’s newest exoplanet from the ocean and atmosphere to Kuiper Prize • Introducing two new hunting telescope is inaugurated in building massive global models, this faculty for 2020 • Ferrari named Tenerife • A milestone celebration for issue is packed with stories of novel an Ally of Nature by the School of Nafi Toksöz • Charney Library holds its research and collaborations from the Science • Fournier, O’Gorman, Perron, grand reopening • Student research EAPS scientists and students working Cahoy, and McGee earn promotions • highlights and 2019 degrees awarded • hard to hack the climate conundrum. Remembering Sam Bowring Travel the world with EAPS faculty EDITORIAL TEAM Angela Ellis Jennifer Fentress LETTER FROM THE Lauren Hinkel HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT CONTENTS

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Jennifer Chu Mark Dwortzan Dear Alumni and Friends, 4 FEATURE STORY — Angela Ellis Jennifer Fentress Welcome to your 2019-20 EAPS Scope! In the race to understand the Earth’s changing climate and the implications for Lauren Hinkel This climate-themed edition is timely, humanity, EAPS researchers are harnessing data in novel ways, helping to push Fatima Husain coming at the end of a year with headlines page 12 a paradigm shift in the geosciences, Kate S. Petersen crowded with climate news ranging from Ralph Ranalli record heat in the Arctic Circle, to raging Deepa Rao wildfires across Australia, California, and 7 EAPS FACULTY NEWS Kelsey Tsipsis the Amazon, to deadly hurricanes in the Caribbean, Texas, and Japan. Highlights of the awards, honors, and promotions our faculty received in 2018-2019.

DESIGN & LAYOUT At a recent MIT climate science symposium Jennifer Fentress (the first in a series of six events), Susan Solomon’s keynote speech included sober 12 ANTARCTIC MARINE MICROBES NEED THEIR VITAMINS forecasts for rising temperatures and sea Graduate student Deepa Rao studies how the complex cycling of micronutrients in levels even if global carbon emissions were Antarctic microbial communities impacts global ecosystems, and ultimately climate. to cease abruptly. So, there is a growing imperative for MIT to bring its scientific and technical resources to bear to better understand our climate system and help communities around the world face the climate crisis head-on. 14 TIMING THE SPEED OF LIFE Our work to understand Earth’s complex and intertwined processes makes EAPS uniquely page 14 qualified to help fill that pressing need, whether by sharing scientific data with leaders in Over two billion years ago, Earth experienced a monumental atmospheric shift, setting government and industry, or by collaborating with peers to explore policy and technical the stage for complex life to emerge. EAPS researchers are looking for markers in the rock record providing clues as to how and why—and exactly when. solutions. I am greatly buoyed by the latest climate science emerging from EAPS, and by the rising generation of young EAPS scientists who are driven to not only study the intricacies of the global system, but to also use their knowledge for societal benefit—and, for many, to take a stand in calling for urgent action before it is too late to make a difference. (Indeed, 16 FORTY YEARS OF ATMOSPHERIC SLEUTHING I was glad to see so many faces from EAPS on the plaza at Boston’s Government Center EAPS Scope is published annually by the MIT participating in the September global climate strike.) page 16 page 18 The Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment celebrates its 40th anniversary, Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary solves a CFC mystery, and fills an atmospheric data gap in equatorial Africa. Sciences. We welcome your news and comments. Here, I am proud to share some of the department’s latest climate research, and to report that Please send correspondence to: our faculty and students are thriving, thanks in part to the support of alumni and friends like you. [email protected] 18 EYES ON THE STORM Given the urgency to seek solutions to climate and other environmental challenges, our emerging partnership with the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative (ESI) could not be To help communities plan for the storms to come in a changing climate, EAPS scientists For up-to-the-minute EAPS news, please visit more timely. I am delighted to report that we have passed the halfway mark in our $30M use novel methods to examine hurricane behavior — from deep time to the present. our website: eapsweb.mit.edu/news fundraising campaign to create a stunning new portal to the Green Building, thanks to the page 22 generous support of members of the EAPS Visiting Committee and other donors. The Earth Follow us on social media: and Environment Pavilion will provide a shared home for EAPS, ESI, and the MIT-WHOI 20 facebook.com/EAPS.MIT Joint Program in Oceanography, as well as create a place to share our research and inspire A TROPICAL TRIGGER FOR ICE? twitter.com/eapsMIT collaboration among students and faculty from across the entire MIT community. Recent work from the Jagoutz group shows major tectonic collisions near the equator instagram.com/mit_eaps have been the likely culprit in Earth’s three most recent major ice ages. With gratitude and best wishes for the coming year. To receive the monthly e-newsletter EAPSpeaks, please e-mail: [email protected] 24 STUDENTS AND SCIENCE, PAST AND PRESENT Register for a permanent @alum.mit.edu e-mail Highlights from the many celebrations in 2019 of EAPS research and academic alias on the MIT Alumni Association website: program milestones, and a glimpse of what our students are investigating now. alum.mit.edu/benefits/AlumniBenefits Rob van der Hilst page 29

2 EAPS SCOPE | 2019-2020 EARTH, ATMOSPHERIC AND PLANETARY SCIENCES | MIT SCHOOL OF SCIENCE 3 A WIRED FUTURE FOR CLIMATE SCIENCE for intelligent systems research...Overcoming current 100 kilometer scale grid to just one In a paper written for the Institute of Electri- these challenges requires breakthroughs that kilometer square. But even then, the mountain cal and Electronics Engineers, EAPS Principal would significantly transform intelligent systems, of computing power it would take to resolve NAVIGATING NEW Research Scientist Sai Ravela and co-authors while greatly benefitting the geosciences in turn.” every cell on the globe at this fine resolution, describe how in recent history the geoscience over projections of decades, would be imprac- sector has undergone a paradigm shift in research TAKING IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL tical, if not impossible. That’s where machine FRONTIERS IN methodology as it transitioned from, “a data-poor A new consortium of researchers from Caltech, learning comes in. field to a data-rich field,”—a transition owing in MIT, the Naval Postgraduate School and the Jet part to the explosion of innovation in remote Propulsion Laboratory are taking on the inter- The team will develop fine-resolution simula- sensing tools such as GPS, topographic and disciplinary challenges for data and geoscience tions for small-scale phenomena in selected GEOSCIENCE bathymetric LIDAR, drone technologies, deep sea in a big way. Their goal: to build a new breed of regions of the globe and then nest these drilling vessels, and nano satellites. climate model, leveraging data assimilation and simulations in the larger model—informing the In the race to understand the Earth’s changing climate and the implications for machine learning to provide more precise and modeling of small-scale processes everywhere humanity, EAPS researchers are harnessing data in novel ways, In addition, most geoscience datasets are actionable predictions. else. From there, they’ll assimilate datasets publicly available, making the application of data from real-world observations—like readings BY LAUREN HINKEL | EAPS NEWS science methodologies an easier proposition. And they’re starting from scratch. from a fleet of thousands of autonomous floats—into the synthetic data and “teach” the “The growing availability of big geoscience data With support from Schmidt Futures, EAPS Cecil model to improve itself in real time. The result, offers immense potential for machine learning... and Ida Green Professors of Oceanography Ferrari says, should enable a leap in accuracy, to significantly contribute to geoscience problems Raffaele Ferrari and John Marshall are leading reducing uncertainty in climate projections by of great societal relevance,” the authors note. MIT’s contribution to the project. The Climate at least half.

DRILLING INTO THE DATA Unlike datasets from other fields, geoscience observations are governed by physical laws, “The pace of geoscience investigations today can hardly keep up providing the foundation of physics-based models which generate large volumes of simulation data with the urgency presented by societal needs to manage natural for researchers to probe for connections. resources, respond to geohazards, and understand the long-term effects of human activities on the planet....recent unprecedented But when it comes to observation collection, cli- mate science data inherently varies in quality and increases in data availability together with a stronger emphasis quantity, creating both challenges and opportu- on societal drivers emphasize the need for research that crosses nities for computation. For example, datasets may ¹ include both direct measurements—like ocean over traditional knowledge boundaries.” surface temperatures—and proxies, which indicate conditions that cannot be measured directly. They can also be highly dimensional, as phenomena can extend over large areas and through several Modeling Alliance (CLiMA) will combine Earth “Anything to reduce that margin [of uncertainty] layers of the oceans, earth, and atmosphere. observations and high-resolution simulations in can provide a societal benefit estimated in tril- a model that represents important small-scale lions of dollars,” says Ferrari. “If one knows better When studying a subject as physically large and features—like cloud patterns, ocean eddies, and the likelihood of changes in rainfall patterns, EVERY TIME MERCURY CREEPS UP in the further revolutionized by advances in instru- threatens to upend it: climate change from complex as the Earth, there will also be areas shifting sea ice—more reliably than existing models. for example, then everyone from civil engineers thermometer, the rain gauge stays dry longer, or mentation and computation. Beyond tempera- anthropogenic carbon emissions. Global change of poor or missing data—there sometimes exist to farmers can decide what infrastructure and a wave encounters an instrument buoy, scientists ture and precipitation, wind speeds brings with it the potential for cataclysmic effects amorphous boundaries in time and space when Small uncertainties can have outsized effects practices they may need to plan for.” gain a data point. The Earth system has been and sea levels, scientists now are able to on humanity—flooding of coasts where roughly observing things like eddies and cyclones; infre- when it comes to modeling a system as complex providing volumes of this information on the measure, and model, much more complex and 40% of the global population lives, drought and quent events, by their very nature, may generate as Earth’s climate. “The ocean soaks up much of MAKING OUR BEST SHOT climate and environment for over 4 billion years. nuanced Earth systems—from the mechanisms food shortages, stronger and more frequent datasets which are sparse. the heat and carbon accumulating in the climate At MIT Commencement 2019, former New York Centuries ago, curious individuals began tapping of glacier behavior to the biogeochemical storms, risks to infrastructure, and implications system. However, just how much it takes up mayor Michael Bloomberg charged the MIT into this data, carefully recording observations cycles which control ocean productivity, to the for human health, to name a few. Risk and impact And, of course, as the availability of better data depends on turbulent eddies in the upper ocean, community: “The challenge that lies before you— into notebooks. Through their nascent record- dynamics of the carbon cycle, and heat trans- analyses estimate that climate change could cost is skewed toward the present day, the difficulties which are too small to be resolved in climate stopping climate change—is unlike any other keeping, early scientists began to make critical port around the globe. the U.S. alone billions of dollars per year, with the for analysis and modeling are compounded. models,” says Ferrari. ever faced by humankind...The stakes could not inferences about how our planet works. But this global figure far exceeding that. be higher.” stream of information was just a trickle. It wasn’t Together, the collective body of work from con- These challenges are where the most exciting Next-generation graphics processing units until the inception of the modern instrumental temporary researchers paints a fuller picture of To understand the capacities and limitations of opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration (GPUs) and coding in Julia (the MIT-developed An undertaking of this magnitude echoes that observation record—covering around the last how our Earth functions, its resiliency, and also our global system, and to support research- between the geo- and data sciences live. Writing programming language developed for paral- of the Apollo moon landing roughly 50 years 100 years or so—that data started flooding in, of climate extremes past and present. backed policies and action on how to tackle for Communications of the ACM, Ravela and col- lel and distributed computing), will allow the ago, which required a culture shift, an “all hands and bigger trends and connections emerged. climate change, researchers like those in MIT’s leagues made the compelling argument: “Many team to turbocharge their calculations. The on deck” approach, with intense computational But this same expanding body of work shows Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary aspects of the geosciences pose novel problems new model will be able to “zoom in” from the efforts and engagement of keen minds. And MIT But systematizing how data are documented is that Earth’s current climate resides in a delicate Sciences (EAPS) interrogate enormous datasets— only a fraction of the story. Geoscience has been equilibrium, and points to a growing issue that unfathomable to scientists from centuries ago. continued »»

¹ Intelligent Systems for Geosciences: An Essential Research Agenda; Y. Gil, S. A. Pierce, H. Babaie, A. Banerjee, K. Borne, G. Bust, M. Cheatham, I. Ebert-phoff­ , C. Gomes, M. Hill, J. Horel, L. Hsu, J. Kinter, C. Knoblock, D. Krum, V. Kumar, P. Lermusiaux, 4 EAPS SCOPE | 2019-2020 Y. Liu, C. North, V. Pankratius, S. Peters, B. Plale, A. Pope, S. Ravela, J. Restrepo, A. Ridley, H. Samet, S. Shekhar; Communications of the ACM, January 2019; Vol. 62 No. 1 FACULTY NEWS

scientists and graduates delivered. The Apollo variations—leaving no doubt of the credibility effort established a baseline for future challeng- of the science and the risks posed by climate es to humanity—the proverbial moonshot. change. And as we look forward, climate findings will be a key factor to help society develop To confront the challenge of our time, MIT again policy and use capital wisely—investing in is stepping up with its “Plan for Action on Climate infrastructure changes and better urban planning, Change”, launched in 2015. Here, EAPS plays a key as well as developing mitigation strategies and role—bringing fundamental science to bear on our even reversal technologies. understanding of the global system. Not only are EAPS researchers investigating crucial phenomena “All of you are part of an amazing institution that like cloud formation, ocean currents, erosion has proven...human knowledge and achievement patterns, and storm behavior, but they are also are limitless,” Bloomberg said. “In fact, this is the

weighing-in on the plausibility of geoengineering place that proved moonshots are worth taking.” Kerry Emanuel Leigh Royden Maria Zuber applications and advancements like carbon sequestration and geothermal energy sources. Story photos courtesy EAPS Assistant Professor Brent Computational advancements have catalyzed Minchew: On on Langjökull Ice Cap, Central Iceland, EAPS these efforts, and MIT’s latest investment in alumnus Mark Simons PhD ’95, the John W. and Herberta M. Miles Professor of Geophysics at Caltech and Chief IN THE SPOTLIGHT the new Schwarzman College of Computing will help to further expand data science and Scientist of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, installs a suite of instruments to measure meteorological conditions Seminal work by EAPS faculty members recognized by the American Philosophical Society, American Geophysical Union, machine learning techniques in the geosciences. and glacier flow, complementing interferometric synthetic and the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Sciences. Investments in research and collaborations like aperture radar data collected from NASA’s Uninhabited these are closing the knowledge gap on how Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) the Earth system functions and refining what instrument. From the UAVSAR control station, researchers KERRY EMANUEL, the Cecil and Ida Green of crust and lithosphere.” Royden works in the emeriti Samuel Bowring in 2016 and William F. are already good projections of future climate monitor the flight path of the aircraft over Iceland. Professor of Atmospheric Science and co-director area of regional geology and geophysics, and the Brace ’46, ’49, PhD ’53 in 1987. of the Lorenz Center, was elected to the American mechanics of large-scale continental deformation Philosophical Society (APS). As the oldest learned contributing to the study of geologic processes MARIA ZUBER, the E.A. Griswold Professor of society in the United States, the APS was founded through quantitative geophysical modeling. She Geophysics and Vice President for Research at in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin for the purpose is well known for studies in thermal evolution MIT, was awarded the 2019 Gerard P. Kuiper of “promoting useful knowledge”, and honors and geodynamics, like flow in the lower crust Prize for outstanding contributions to the field of extraordinary accomplishments in all fields. and its relevance to the growth and structure of planetary science by the American Astronomical EAPS ADDS A NEW COMPUTATIONAL PHD Membership is comprised of top scholars from a mountain ranges and high plateaus. Society’s Division for Planetary Sciences. The wide variety of disciplines, having included John award recognizes her advancements in geophys- EAPS new role as a host-department in the Computational Science and Engineering program marries data and Earth sciences. Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John James Audubon, Royden made significant strides in the devel- ics, planetary gravity mapping, and laser altimetry. Charles Darwin, Thomas Edison, Louis Pasteur, opment of integrated basin analysis techniques Albert Einstein, and Robert Frost. In all, more than and developed the initial methodology for The Gerard P. Kuiper Prize honors scientists The Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS) “Computation is playing an ever-growing role in addressing earth science 260 members have been Nobel laureates. reconstructing time-temperature histories of whose lifetime achievements have most ad- at MIT has expanded its academic program to include a new doctoral questions, like those central to the study of climate and earthquakes. sedimentary rocks and predictions for hydro- vanced society’s understanding of the planetary field: Computational Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. EAPS is Adding the PhD track will ensure that the department remains an A prominent meteorologist and climate scientist, carbon maturity. Her research has contributed system. Zuber’s numerous accomplishments the latest department to participate in the Computational Science and educational leader, fostering the next generation of earth researchers,” Emanuel specializes in tropical meteorology and critical understanding on thermal subsidence at include her seminal 2000 paper in the journal Engineering (CSE) PhD program, which has been offering PhD degrees says Raffaele Ferrari, Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Oceanography and climate, with a specialty in hurricane physics. His the northeastern continental margin of North Science combining Mars Global Surveyor laser in computation since 2013. This move resonates with the Institute’s Chair of the EAPS Program in Atmospheres, Oceans and Climate (PAOC), interests also include cumulus convection, the America and on retreating subduction bound- altimetry data and gravity data to determine building awareness of the advantages provided by education based in who helped to shepherd the creation of the new degree. role of clouds, water vapor, upper-ocean mixing aries formed during the collision of continental the crustal and upper mantle structure of Mars. computation, which recently culminated with the creation of the MIT in regulation of climate, and advanced methods tectonic plates. More recently, Royden’s research Zuber became the first woman to lead a NASA Schwarzman College of Computing. MIT has progressively invested in computation’s use around the Institute of sampling the atmosphere in aid of numerical has focused on subducting slab dynamics and spacecraft mission as principal investigator of and in the classroom, with several initiatives and the formation of the weather prediction. He is the author or co-author continental mechanics, pulling together her the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory While enrolled in the CSE program, students are able to specialize College of Computing. The new Computational Earth, Atmospheric and of over 200 peer-reviewed scientific papers, and work on extensional basins above subduction (GRAIL) mission. GRAIL constructed a model at the doctoral level in a computation-related field of their choice Planetary Sciences degree offers several advantages for the department three books, including Divine Wind: The History zones to fundamental concepts of continental of the moon’s gravitational field to spherical through focused coursework and a doctoral thesis through a number of and its students. EAPS members are already performing state-of-the-art and Science of Hurricanes, published by Oxford deformation. She has consequently concentrat- harmonic degree 1800, which exceeded the participating host departments, including Aeronautics and Astronautics, computational research, and earth science disciplines are increasingly University Press, and What We Know about Cli- ed on the geometry, kinematics and dynamics baseline requirement of the mission by an order Chemical Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Mechanical incorporating elements of artificial intelligence and machine learning. By mate Change, published by the MIT Press. of subducted slabs and the variations of the of magnitude. Zuber has turned her attention to Engineering, Mathematics, and Nuclear Science and Engineering, and integrating modern computational techniques and machine intelligence subduction process depending upon whether many different solid bodies in the solar system, now EAPS. into the curriculum, the department will improve the visibility of its research, LEIGH (WIKI) ROYDEN, professor of geology oceanic, continental or intermediate-type litho- focusing on structure and tectonics, including enhance its ability to attract and produce top talent in computational and geophysics, was awarded the 2019 Walter H. sphere is subducting. Mercury, Venus, Eros, Vesta, and Ceres. Since EAPS-affiliated CSE graduate students will be able to analyze complex science, as well as remain at the forefront of geoscience study and education. Bucher Medal at the American Geophysical Union 1990, she has held leadership roles associated Earth and planetary systems, and mysteries of the natural world, And, having received specific credit for their work, EAPS graduates of the Fall Meeting Honors Ceremony. The medal is for Previous MIT recipients of the AGU Walter H. with scientific experiments or instrumentation leveraging cutting-edge computing and data science. program will come away with enhanced opportunities for future careers. “original contributions to the basic knowledge Bucher Medal include the late EAPS professors on nine NASA missions.

6 EAPS SCOPE | 2019-2020 EARTH, ATMOSPHERIC AND PLANETARY SCIENCES | MIT SCHOOL OF SCIENCE 7 FACULTY NEWS FACULTY NEWS MEET OUR NEWEST FACULTY AWARDS AND HONORS EAPS is pleased to announce Camilla Cattania and William Frank will join the department as Assistant Professors in July 2020 CAMILLA CATTANIA is a seismologist with University and GFZ German Research Center for experience in numerical modeling, earthquake Geosciences/University of Potsdam. Cattania is physics, and statistical seismology. She now a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University. Department of Earth, EAPS scientists and MIT alumni contributed to the American Meteorological Society’s has developed new models of aftershock monograph “A Century of Progress in Atmospheric and Related Sciences: Celebrating the Atmospheric and Planetary triggering based on static stress changes WILLIAM FRANK specializes in geophysics. American Meteorological Society Centennial.” Professor Emeritus of Physical Oceanography and studied swarms driven by magmatic His research examines physical mechanisms Sciences faculty continue to earn CARL WUNSCH and Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Oceanography RAFFAELE FERRARI intrusions and dynamic triggering. A separate that control deformation within the Earth’s crust. numerous awards and invited wrote the chapter “100 Years of Ocean General Circulation” and Cecil and Ida Green Professor but complementary aspect of her research Understanding the continuum of rupture modes of Atmospheric Science authored “100 Years of Progress in Tropical honors in recognition of their KERRY EMANUEL consists of analytical and numerical modeling and fault instability within the Earth—from Cyclone Research.” of slip on a single fault. Cattania has applied shallow stick-slip earthquakes to deep slow innovation and leadership in ideas from fracture mechanics to investigate transients, to still deeper steady creep—is key their respective fields. Assistant Professor JULIEN DE WIT joined a delegation from Belgium on a recent State Visit the interaction between seismic and aseismic to improving estimates of earthquake hazard to Luxembourg. De Wit was invited to give an address on the future of space exploration to slip on isolated asperities, a topic she is now and our comprehension of the destructive the King and Queen of Belgium, the Grand-Duc and Grande-Duchesse of Luxembourg, and exploring in a wider range of tectonic settings earthquake cycle. His multidisciplinary approach their respective political and industrial entourages. and including additional physical processes. combines seismological techniques with Her research concerns tectonic earthquakes but geodetic observations to yield knowledge about At TEDx Boca Raton, Associate Professor KERRI CAHOY spoke about her work with CubeSats, is also pertinent to so-called micro-seismicity the evolution of faulting processes in time and “How Tiny Satellites Can Help Us Weather Through Hurricanes”. The event’s theme, “Rethinking Camilla Cattania induced by human action, such as hydrocarbon space and how the solid Earth responds to Relationships,” was selected to examine how paradigm shifts in behavior, technology and global extraction, waste water injection, sub- tectonic, volcanic, and anthropogenic forcings. influences impact our significance as individuals and as connected beings. surface geological carbon sequestration, and Frank’s observational work on earthquakes geothermal energy production. and crustal deformation complements current NASA awarded a Silver Achievement Medal to the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite research within the department on seismology, (TESS) team. It is given by NASA center directors in recognition of government and non- Cattania’s theoretical and computational studies geodesy, geomechanics, and rock physics, and government individuals or teams for “a stellar achievement that supports one or more of of earthquakes complement current research will pair with the more theoretical and numerical NASA’s core values, when it is deemed to be extraordinarily important and appropriate to in seismology, geomechanics, and rock physics approach of incoming Assistant Professor Camilla recognize such achievement in a timely and personalized manner.” Class of 1941 Professor at EAPS and MIT’s Civil and Environmental Cattania. SARA SEAGER is the deputy science director of TESS. Engineering, via the Earth Resources Laboratory. Frank received his bachelor’s degree in Earth Associate Professor NOELLE SELIN contributed to the Global Mercury Assessment 2018 Cattania received her bachelor’s and master’s Systems Science from the University of Michigan. undertaken by the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment). The document degrees in experimental and theoretical physics He earned his master’s and doctoral degrees describes mercury emission estimates by sector and country, as well as its fate, levels, from the University of Cambridge. She earned in Geophysics from the Institut de Physique du and transport in the environment and organisms. She was also co-author on two papers a PhD in geophysics from the GFZ German Globe de Paris, and stayed on as a postdoc after selected for the editors’ choice list Best Papers from 2018 in the Environmental Science Research Center for Geosciences/University of obtaining his PhD. After this, Frank joined MIT as Family of Journals from the Royal Society of Chemistry: “Understanding factors influencing Potsdam, where she was a guest scientist. She an NSF postdoctoral fellow in the research group the detection of mercury policies in modelled Laurentian Great Lakes wet deposition” and later joined the Woods Hole Oceanographic of German Prieto, followed by his current position “Responses of deposition and bioaccumulation in the Great Lakes region to policy and other Institution as a guest investigator, before as an assistant professor of Earth sciences at the William Frank large-scale drivers of mercury emissions”. becoming a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University of Southern California.

The American Meteorological Society, which is celebrating its centennial conference in Boston, is holding the SUSAN SOLOMON Symposium in January 2020. Solomon, the Lee and Geraldine Martin Professor of Environmental Studies, has been a leader on the scientific frontier of the world’s most important environmental challenges and instrumental in the advancement of atmospheric chemistry, climate, and environmental policy. The symposium SUPPORT will honor Solomon’s past achievements and ongoing contributions to atmospheric science. Sessions will highlight the history and future of environmental policy and assessments, FOR EARLY breakthroughs in middle atmospheric and ozone science, and provide perspectives on our changing climate—one of the greatest challenges of our time. Each of these three topics will CAREERS be communicated through invited talks and solicited posters. The School of Science recently announced that 14 faculty members have been appointed to named professorships—including three from EAPS. The faculty selected for these positions Julien de Wit Brent Minchew Matěj Peč receive additional support to pursue their Class of 1954 Career Cecil and Ida Green Career Victor P. Starr Career Development Professor Development Professor research and develop their careers. Development Professor

8 EAPS SCOPE | 2019-2020 EARTH, ATMOSPHERIC AND PLANETARY SCIENCES | MIT SCHOOL OF SCIENCE 9 FACULTY NEWS FACULTY NEWS A STEWARD FOR OCEAN IN MEMORIAM AND CLIMATE HEALTH SAMUEL BOWRING | 1953-2019 Ferrari receives Ally of Nature Fund Award from the School of Science. Robert R. Schrock Emeritus Professor of Geology Samuel A. Bowring died on July 17 at age 65. Known for his exceptional skill The world is continually changing and evolving— machine learning and data assimilation but avid hikers Audrey Buyrn ’58, SM ’63, PhD ’66 techniques to better represent these important, as a field geologist and innovations in uranium-lead isotopic geochronology, Bowring worked to achieve unprecedented analytical and her late husband Alan Phillips ’57, PhD ’61 small-scale turbulent motions to increase Audrey Buyrn ’58, SM ’63, PhD ’66 and Raffaele Ferrari precision and accuracy in calibrating the geologic record and reconstructing the co-evolution of life and the solid Earth. felt humanity was asking too much from our plan- certainty in climate predictions—leading to et—that anthropogenic activity was pushing the better-informed decisions by communities and over and over again from every part of the world.” One of Bowring’s earliest contributions which Bowring’s interest in the applications of tracer world toward extremes, imperiling the beautiful policymakers to ensure sustainability for the transformed what we thought we knew about isotopes to examine Earth systems also ex- landscapes and biodiversity they had come to love Earth and environment. Through their fund, Buyrn and Phillips have sup- the early evolution of the Earth was his work on tended to their utility in tracking environmental and appreciate on their treks. ported the research of other EAPS professors— the Acasta gneiss complex, pushing back the date contaminants. His lab has developed methods for For this work, the School of Science selected Andrew Babbin, Kristin Bergmann, Tim Cronin, of the oldest-known rocks to 4.03 billion years. not only tracing naturally-occurring sources and Raffaele Ferrari, Cecil and Ida Green Professor Ferrari for the 2019 Ally of Nature Fund Award, John Marshall, David McGee, and Ron Prinn—on These granitic samples he collected from an establishing natural regional baselines, but also of Oceanography, investigates anthropogenic bestowed annually to support exploratory projects topics ranging from reconstructing past climates outcrop on an island in the remote Acasta River for documenting variations which correlate with influence on climate, focusing on the role ocean aimed to prevent, reduce, and repair the impacts and the evolution of early life on Earth to the basin in northwestern Canada turned out to be anthropogenic inputs associated with urbaniza- circulation plays in setting the rate at which of humanity on the natural environment. physics of our oceans and atmosphere and their rare remnants of the Earth’s earliest crust. tion and industrialization. the ocean takes up heat and carbon from the effects on climate. atmosphere, demonstrating through theory and “When Alan and I established the Ally of Nature Beyond the processes which shape the litho- Bowring joined the faculty of EAPS at MIT in 1991 observation that small-scale turbulent motions Fund in 2007, it was still possible to be an intelli- “Although it is a cliché to say ‘more research is sphere, Bowring also sought to understand those where, in addition to fostering the careers of over play a crucial part in shaping this uptake. gent skeptic of climate change and to think that needed’, more research is needed,” says Buyrn, shaping the biosphere. His work on sedimentary two dozen graduate students and postdoctoral catastrophic environmental degradation was far in order to understand Earth’s intricacies and layers of the Precambrian/Cambrian boundary associates, he demonstrated a career-long com- The Ferrari group is contributing to the creation off in space and time. This is no longer possible,” the value of what could be lost to anthropogenic age determined the timing and rate of the pivotal mitment to advancing undergraduate education. of a next generation climate model leveraging said Buyrn. “The evidence is in front of our eyes, environmental degradation and climate change. biological event known as the Cambrian Explo- For more than twenty years, Bowring served as sion, beginning nearly 540 million years ago. He a first-year and undergraduate advisor, eventu- was able to establish that the Early Cambrian ally being named a Margaret MacVicar Faculty period, which saw the most dramatic burst of Fellow in 2006 by the Institute program which evolutionary activity ever known, spanned not 10 recognizes faculty for “exemplary and sustained to 50 million years as was previously-believed, contributions to the teaching and education of but instead lasted a mere five to six million years. undergraduates at MIT,” and later earning the MIT Everett Moore Baker Memorial Award for Bowring also established the timing and duration Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 2007. of what has come to be known as “The Great He also served as chair of the EAPS Program in

Greg Fournier Paul O’Gorman Taylor Perron Kerri Cahoy David McGee Dying”: the largest of Earth’s five major mass Geology and Geochemistry from 1999 until 2002, extinctions which marked the end of the Permian at which time he became chair of the EAPS Un- period. Rocks collected by Bowring and collab- dergraduate Committee, serving until 2015. And, orators from sites across China revealed that as a field geologist, he took his keen interest in RECENT FACULTY PROMOTIONS the ecological collapse happened at breakneck engaging students to off-campus venues, leading speed—occurring in less than 30,000 years and annual trips into the field which were fixtures The Executive Committee of the Corporation has approved the promotion of TAYLOR PERRON, faculty member since 2009 and current EAPS associate with little-to-no warning in geological terms. in the department’s calendar. Bowring was also five EAPS faculty: Greg Fournier to associate professor, Paul O’Gorman and department head, studies how landscapes form and evolve, both on instrumental in guiding Terrascope, a first-year Taylor Perron to full professor, and tenure for Kerry Cahoy and David McGee. Earth and on other planets. His approach combines theory and numerical A world-expert in uranium-lead isotopic dating, learning community created jointly by EAPS and modeling, field and remote sensing observations, analysis of data from by 2002 Bowring began to see what he later the Department of Civil and Environmental En- planetary missions, and laboratory experiments. termed “the double-edged sword of high-precision gineering. Bowring became associate director of GREG FOURNIER joined the faculty at MIT in 2014 and is an expert in geochronology”. As the field experienced rapid the program in 2006, going on to serve as director molecular phylogenetics, inferring the evolutionary histories of genes KERRI CAHOY, holding a joint appointment in MIT’s AeroAstro since 2011, advancements in precision, resolution, and quan- from 2008 to 2015. and genomes within microbial lineages across geological timescales— leads the Space Telecommunications, Astronomy, and Radiation (STAR) Lab. titative stratigraphic analysis, many techniques specifically, by examining the complexities of the horizontal gene She develops nanosatellite laser communication systems and weather were developing in parallel. He saw that without In addition to being named a member of the transfer mechanism. sensors, such as the Microsized Microwave Atmospheric Satellite (MicroMAS) calibration and intercalibration, their accuracy and National Academy of Sciences and the American and the Microwave Radiometer Technology Acceleration (MiRaTA) mission. capacity as tools for understanding deep time were Academy for the Advancement of Science, Bow- PAUL O’GORMAN’S research interests are in the large-scale­ dynamics diminished. In response, he and colleague Doug ring was a fellow of the AGU and was recognized of the atmosphere, the hydrological cycle, moist convection, and climate DAVID MCGEE joined EAPS faculty in 2012 and investigates the Erwin conceived the EARTHTIME Initiative, a com- by the organization with both the Norman L. change. Recent work has focused on the response of precipitation atmosphere’s response to past climate changes, documenting munity-based effort to foster collaboration across Bowen Award and Walter H. Bucher Medal. He was extremes to climate change, the intensity of extra-tropical storm tracks, historical precipitation and winds using geochemical measurements the disciplines and eliminate inter-laboratory and also a fellow of both the Geochemical Society and Read the full tribute to Bowring and his career: and the difference in warming between tropical oceans and land areas. of stalagmites, lake deposits, and marine sediments to understand the inter-technique biases, which continues today. the Geological Society of America. www.bit.ly/memoriam-bowring O’Gorman joined the MIT faculty in 2008. patterns, pace, and magnitude of past hydroclimate changes.

10 EAPS SCOPE | 2019-2020 EARTH, ATMOSPHERIC AND PLANETARY SCIENCES | MIT SCHOOL OF SCIENCE 11 BY DEEPA RAO | EAPS GRADUATE STUDENT, MIT-WHOI JOINT PROGRAM ANTARCTIC MARINE MICROBES NEED THEIR VITAMINS, TOO

Understanding the complex cycling of micronutrients in Antarctic microbial communities poses big implications for global ecosystems—and ultimately climate.

AFTER WEEKS OF BREAKING THROUGH amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide through Nearly a decade ago, scientists discovered that thick sea ice to arrive at our sample station, photosynthesis, biosynthesis, and export of both iron and vitamin B12 could limit the highly all of us exhaled a sigh of relief, only to inhale particulate carbon (in cells) to ocean depths. In productive phytoplankton communities of the frigid Antarctic air saturated with what some Antarctic seas, phytoplankton communities are the Ross Sea. This was the first oceanic region have called, “the typically dominated by one of two microalgal shown to be limited by a vitamin—indeed by scent of the sea”: groups: diatoms or the colonial P. antarctica. any organic resource. It is expected that B12 the pungent smell Recent observations in Terra Nova Bay show a can not only limit overall productivity here, of dimethyl sulphide, shift in the phytoplankton community from dia- but that vitamin availability can modulate the a climate-active toms to P. antarctica. However, what combination community composition. Like us, most eukaryotic gas produced of environmental factors determine community phytoplankton require vitamin B12 for protein ecosystem models. As a microbial oceanogra- cobalt and B12 uptake rates, with hundreds study complex ecosystems from multiple spatial, by microscopic composition is not fully understood. and DNA synthesis. Vitamin B12 contains the pher, I focus on these relationships—such as the of samples that allow us to distinguish how temporal, and biological scales. marine plants. trace metal cobalt, which is found in vanishingly exchange and cycling of organic resources like fractions within the natural seawater microbial We were in the The mission of our scientific research cruise low concentrations (picomolar), and can only B12—that are the “invisible threads” binding community (e.g., larger phytoplankton versus My experience researching polar microbial midst of a flourish- called CICLOPS (Cobalamin And Iron Co- be synthesized by certain bacteria and archaea. microbial communities together. bacteria) drive the ecological cycling of these oceanography in the field, lab, and in models has ing phytoplankton Limitation Of Phytoplankton Species) was to Ultimately, phytoplankton depend on these essential micronutrients. further motivated my interest in understanding bloom so large it examine how cobalamin (vitamin B12) and microbes for their vitamin supply. It is likely that During our two-month cruise, we transited nearly Antarctica’s role in a changing global climate. could be seen from iron co-limit phytoplankton species and to in exchange for B12, bacteria benefit from an a third of the way around Antarctica, hugging My research has me traveling between the field, Increased glacial melt and decreased sea ice space and smelled from miles away. I was in investigate if these micronutrients control increased supply of their food source: organic the continental shelves and chasing blooms in lab, and office from Woods Hole to Cambridge, is altering the supply and availability of trace awe because until that moment, I had only stud- phytoplankton community composition in carbon produced by the growing phytoplankton. the polynyas (seasonal seas that form due to MA. While at Woods Hole Oceanographic Insti- metals like iron and cobalt to Antarctic marine ied and grown the phytoplankton responsible Antarctic seas. I was there to examine the melting sea ice), from a P. antarctica bloom in the tution (WHOI), I work with the Saito Lab to study microbial communities. I believe that by shining for this bloom, Phaeocystis antarctica, under con- curious case of vitamin B12 cycling, an example The ocean microbiome has many such beneficial Amundsen Sea to a diatom-dominated commu- the response of P. antarctica single cells and a spotlight on the climate change impacts to trolled lab conditions in a small flask. Thanks to of a non-consumptive interaction between interactions that are complex and important nity in the Ross Sea. The science team used trace colonies to B12 and iron limitation by analyzing Antarctica’s sensitive microbial ecology, we the efforts of 50 crew members and scientists phytoplankton and bacteria but challenging to study, and metal clean techniques to collect seawater and their growth and metabolic response through can highlight the immediate consequences of deployed aboard an NSF icebreaker, the R/V that has ecosystem- thus have not been filter large volumes, which we studied looking measuring their cellular metals and proteins climate change on the base of polar ecosystems. Nathaniel B. Palmer, I was able to scale impacts. integrated into for information on phytoplankton community under different conditions. While at MIT, I work Such a fundamental change to the base of witness firsthand the subject of my research: most global DNA, RNA, and proteins, as well as nutrient with the Follows lab and MIT Darwin Project to Antarctic food web has ramifications for ocean how microbes and their interactions—both marine concentrations. We also incubated some samples develop models of P. antarctica life cycle stages life from krill to whales, global fishers, ecosys- invisible to the naked eye—collectively impact onboard, in which we tested whether the local to improve their representation in global marine tem stability, and Earth’s climate. The changes an entire ecosystem. community was limited by iron, B12, or a set of ecosystem models. Between both locations, I occurring in the Antarctic region affect us all, other potentially limiting nutrients. analyze the field data to understand how the despite how remote the frozen continent and For nearly 80 days at sea, we transited along physical environment and local marine microbial ocean may seem. Antarctic continental shelves from the Onboard, for my own incubation experiments, community drive the patterns of cobalt and B12 Amundsen Sea to Terra Nova Bay in the I used radio-labeled cobalt chloride (CoCl2) uptake we observed while at sea. In my research, Read more about the research: Ross Sea. These marginal seas are the most and vitamin B12 to track the cycling of these I strive to have a multi-scale approach to study www.bit.ly/antarctic-microbes-vitamins productive areas of the Southern Ocean, where micronutrients within the natural seawater how microbial processes and interactions can phytoplankton are fueled by continuous sun- microbial community. While cobalt is part of impact ecosystem structure and dynamics, with Vessel transect plot (left) depicting the 80-day research light during summer in the Antarctic circle and vitamin B12, it has other biological functions feedbacks on the environment and ultimately area of the icebreaker R/V Nathaniel B. Palmer as it essential metals from glacial and sea ice melt. and thus the two cycles are related but distinct. climate. Oceanography is an inherently inter- transited almost a third of the waters along the Antarctic These blooms ultimately sequester significant To date, we collected the largest set of concurrent disciplinary science, a necessary approach to continental shelf for the NSF-funded CICLOPS cruise.

12 EAPS SCOPE | 2019-2020 Original illustrations by the author, Deepa Rao EARTH, ATMOSPHERIC AND PLANETARY SCIENCES | MIT SCHOOL OF SCIENCE 13 BY FATIMA HUSAIN | SUMMONS LAB FOR EAPS NEWS

the GOE spurred irrevers- a completely independent working the molecular clock model,” says Bosak. ible changes in Earth’s record of the deep history of biosphere. “Precluding planet Earth, and comparing But cyanobacteria and their fossils comprise TIMING THE time travel, I see two them to geochemical and only a portion of Bosak’s research into the GOE. broad work-packages fossil records preserved “One of our major areas of interest are geochem- necessary to further within the rocks,” Fournier ical and mineral proxies used to infer oxygen our understanding of says. “If we combine these, before the Great Oxidation Event,” Bosak says. planetary oxygenation: we can come up with a much She and her colleagues recently determined that SPEED OF data and experiments,” better picture of how life and manganese oxides, minerals previously thought Izon says. Earth have coevolved over to form in the presence of molecular oxygen, can their entire history.” form in anaerobic environments. “This challenges “Today, the problem lies a lot of inferences of molecular oxygen before LIFE in the rocks we seek to In his research, Fournier the Great Oxidation Event—the so-called whiffs read. On a tectonically applies molecular clocks— of O₂,” says Bosak. active planet, rocks and models that time out different evolutionary their chemical records are constantly being events, such as the ability to split water molecules In addition, Bosak and her collaborators were able destroyed or overprinted,” Izon says. “Conse- and produce oxygen, within microbes. These to describe the formation of dolomite—a mineral quently, the availability of pristine geochemical evolutionary events are fueled by mutations— very common in microbialites before the estab- records diminishes with age. If the devil is in the changes in the specific genes of organisms. lishment of oxygen—in photosynthetic commu- detail, you want to know.” Thus, the availability nities before the GOE. “This work gives us a much of records has taken Ono, Izon, and Summons “So as these mutations occur along a branch better picture of what the world before the Great around the globe—in particular to Australia and in the history of the group of living things, they Oxidation Event would have been like,” Bosak says. southern Africa. accumulate,” Fournier says. “The more time that’s passed, the more changes that are expected to “The vast majority of organisms that may have Once cyanobacteria evolved the ability to happen.” To map these mutations in time, Fournier very important implications for the history of conduct oxygenic photosynthesis, which splits a looks at the genomes of cyanobacteria alive today. our planet are not only extinct, but may have water molecule and creates O₂ as a byproduct, left no direct record of their ever existing. And Somewhere between 2.3 and 2.5 billion years ago, the Earth experienced a monumental tiny whiffs of oxygen were produced—but were Associate Professor Tanja Bosak also studies so while we have a huge amount of informa- atmospheric shift, setting the stage for complex life to emerge. EAPS researchers are looking quickly “breathed” by bacteria or reacted with extant cyanobacteria, as well as their ancient tion—and we’re very fortunate that the planet minerals and, so, could not accumulate. counterparts. By identify- has preserved as much as for markers in the rock record providing clues as to how and why—and exactly when. ing modern analogs of cy- it has—so much is forever “A molecule of oxygen is like a snowball in hell,” anobacterial fossils, along lost to us that there are THE ACCUMULATION OF OXYGEN in the Earth’s reinforce cellular membranes in organisms, and chemical signatures recorded in rocks that were Izon says with a laugh. The GOE signals that with their mechanisms of inherent limits to what we atmosphere marks the one of the most dramatic are critical within the physiology of Eukarya. deposited during a critical period between 2.3 enough oxygen was produced to quench and preservation, Bosak helps can understand.” Fournier transformations the planet has ever experienced. and 2.5 billion years ago.” overcome those fast-acting reactions so that ox- Fournier constrain the says. “But I hope that The change, which resulted in a shift from a reduc- “It began when we thought we had identified ygen levels could finally rise perceptibly within timing of events in cyano- combining the genome ing atmosphere devoid of oxygen to an oxidizing sterols in rocks that predated the Great Oxida- In the rocks, Ono and his colleagues focus on two the atmosphere. bacterial evolution. and geological record will one, fundamentally reorganized the planet’s tion Event—and that can only happen if oxygen specific processes that separate (fractionate) the help transcend some of biogeochemical cycles, setting the stage for the is available in the environment because it takes isotopes. In the absence of oxygen, sulfur isotopes “If we know when oxygen first accumulated in the “Cyanobacteria have those limitations.” development of complex life. But what caused the 11 moles of oxygen to make one mole of choles- fractionate through photochemical processes in- atmosphere, how does that relate to when oxy- evolved over billions of Great Oxidation Event (GOE), and when it precise- terol,” Summons says. “We thought that steroids dependent of their masses. The quantum chemical genic photosynthesis first evolved, and how does years, and their genomes Summons says the col- ly happened, remains one of the most interesting were an organic tracer for the availability of ox- and physical mechanisms behind this are not yet that relate to the evolution of the existing groups encode the record of that laboration between the mysteries in the history of life on Earth. ygen. Turns out we were wrong—we were fooled understood. Once oxygen is established as a per- of microbes that produce oxygen?” asks Gregory evolution,” Bosak says. “We EAPS researchers provides by contamination—so we turned to other tools to manent gas in the atmosphere, the sulfur isotopes Fournier, associate professor of geobiology. can extract that informa- many avenues for synergy “Why are we here?” asks Roger Summons, study oxygen in the ancient atmosphere.” fractionate in ways that are mass-dependent. But tion from the genome, and cross-checking; “I the Schlumberger Professor of Geobiology. pinpointing when the shift in the type of fraction- Fournier studies molecular phylogenetics to sequence the genomes, compare them, and then think it’s quite striking that a single Earth scienc- “We wouldn’t be here without oxygen. The whole Those tools—sulfur isotopes, which have varying ation occurs is difficult due to complexities in the discern how different abilities within microbes really start to understand how different processes es department has five people working on what evolution of complex life was made possible by numbers of neutrons per sulfur atom—are a geologic record, including missing slices of time. evolved over time. “We only have two records evolved in these organisms, and then hopefully I think is one of the most captivating questions the advent of oxygenic photosynthesis.” In his prime focus of Associate Professor Shuhei Ono, of deep time on the planet and the changes time that information if we have some cyanobac- that you can raise in geobiology.” research, Summons searches for biomarkers— who studies how the sulfur biogeochemical cycle “Oxygen might appear multiple times— it could that the Earth has seen, and one of them is the terial fossils, and pin them down in time.” subtle chemical signatures written into the has changed over time. come and go and come again,” Ono says. Currently, geological record. The other one is the record Read more about the research: geologic record by living organisms—that track Ono, Summons and their colleagues are working preserved within genes and genomes. And not To do this, Bosak and her lab examine modern www.bit.ly/goe-life the evolution and radiation of microbial life. “By showing what caused the Great Oxidation to confirm recent findings that the GOE occurred only are these the only two records we have, but organisms and fossils under the microscope. they’re almost certainly the only two records we “We choose the ones that really look most like Event—biology or geology—then we can answer about 2.33 billion years ago. The red banded iron formations of Western Australia’s In his earlier work at MIT, Summons focused on the question of how biology changes will ever have,” Fournier says. some of the oldest fossils, we grind them up, Dales Gorge show the chemical transitions associated sterols, a group of lipids that naturally occur in the evolution of climate at a planetary scale,” Gareth Izon, a postdoctoral researcher who works we extract their genomes, sequence and analyze with the Great Oxidation Event, reflecting when the Earth’s plants, animals, fungi, and some bacteria. Sterols Ono says. “We study this by looking at the with both Summons and Ono, investigates how “What I’m interested in doing is using genomes as them, and then work with Greg Fournier, who is atmosphere transitioned from anoxic to oxic over time.

14 EAPS SCOPE | 2019-2020 Photo credits: Roger Summons EARTH, ATMOSPHERIC AND PLANETARY SCIENCES | MIT SCHOOL OF SCIENCE 15 BY KATE S. PETERSEN | EAPS NEWS

and an atmospheric chemist who established the network’s first Southern Hemisphere mea- surements of CFCs in the late-1970s. “It allows us to say, yes, we have emissions problems, and this is where they’re coming from. And that en- ables us to then specifically identify industries that might be involved and to help them in their efforts to reduce these emissions.”

That capability can be critical to ensure compliance with international environmental agreements such as the Montreal Protocol, said Ray Weiss, AGAGE experimental leader and a professor at the Scripps Institution of Ocean- ography in La Jolla, CA. “The only way to make FORTY YEARS OF sure [environmental policies] are working is to quantify what’s actually going into the atmo- sphere, whether it’s gases that affect climate or the ozone layer,” Weiss said. “The important ATMOSPHERIC SLEUTHING thing is to keep doing it. It’s not exciting, but it has to be done independently.”

The Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment celebrates a milestone anniversary, His point was well-illustrated when AGAGE scientists discovered the precise source of mys- solves a chlorofluorocarbon mystery, and fills an atmospheric data gap in equatorial Africa. terious new emissions beginning around 2012 of CFC-11, one of the worst ozone-depleting substances banned by the Montreal Protocol. According to Prinn, two AGAGE stations in “You have literally changed the world,” said AGAGE amid growing concerns about the South Korea and Japan, together with high-lev- The network’s latest addition came in early Gasore returned to Rwanda as Chief Scientist Susan Solomon, Lee and Geraldine Martin Pro- effects of industrial chemical emissions on the el modeling, were the keys to this discovery. 2019 thanks to collaboration between EAPS of the new observatory in 2018. fessor of Environmental Studies in MIT’s EAPS, atmosphere, and has led the network from its scientists and the Rwandan government. Dis- addressing attendees of the Advanced Global 1978 inception. The project, which began as To identify the exact source, AGAGE scientists, cussions of the Rwanda Climate Observatory But AGAGE’s planned expansion will not end Atmospheric Gases Experiment (AGAGE) 40th the Atmospheric Lifetime Experiment (ALE) and including Prinn group researchers, created began in 2008 when Rwanda’s then-president, with Rwanda noted Prinn, as increased moni- anniversary conference held at MIT in 2018. Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment (GAGE), computer simulations that could back-track Paul Kagame, visited MIT. Prinn notes that toring of climate-changing and ozone-deplet- merged theory with experimental research, and the emissions’ trajectory based on known Kagame hoped to create world-class scientific ing gases becomes more crucial with climate AGAGE, an international network of scientists, now boasts 13 primary stations with sophis- global atmospheric circulation patterns. They infrastructure in Rwanda to provide domestic change. Additional measurements are needed to research institutions, and advanced instrumen- ticated instruments measuring over 50 gases, were able to pinpoint the new emissions to a opportunities for talented and accomplished improve understanding of global and regional tation has been providing continuous global 20-40 times per day, with sources and sinks handful of industrial areas in eastern China. young Rwandan scientists, who would often trends in greenhouse gas emissions, and to help greenhouse and ozone-depleting gas detection inferred using high-resolution 3-D models and The discovery, published in Nature earlier this otherwise leave the country for prestigious verify national and regional compliance to the via an expanding infrastructure of state-of-the- supercomputers. Today, AGAGE data is often year, represented “an important and particularly jobs elsewhere. It seemed to Prinn like a per- Montreal Protocol and climate action pledges art monitoring stations since 1978. combined with NOAA surface data, and NASA policy-relevant milestone in atmospheric fect location for a new AGAGE station, the first made in the Paris Agreement. Future sites of and NOAA aircraft and satellite data, yielding scientists’ ability to tell which regions on the African continent. interest include Brazil, India, and Germany. As the conference’s keynote speaker, Solomon a more comprehensive picture of atmospheric are emitting ozone-depleting substances, recounted how AGAGE data on the long atmo- gases, and has allowed for major advance- greenhouse gases, or other chemicals, and in While scouting for a location for the new Read more about the research: spheric lifetimes of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) ments in atmospheric science and global what quantities,” commented Weiss. station, Prinn’s then graduate student, Kath- www.bit.ly/agage-cfc informed her research—most notably, her emissions policy. erine Potter PhD ’11, met Jimmy Gasore from discovery identifying the chemical mechanism While the international collaborators confirmed the National University of Rwanda, who soon Left: Derek Cunnold, Hillel Magid (local Barbados Station behind the formation of the Antarctic ozone Acknowledging AGAGE’s international position the source of a substantial fraction of the newly joined Prinn’s group to build the new Rwandan technician), Ronald Prinn, and Fred Alyea during a site hole. This research led to the global ban of with access to new data, conference attendees detected CFC-11 emissions, they couldn’t ac- observatory and obtain his PhD in 2017. For his visit to the early Ragged Point, Barbados station. Part of CFCs through the Montreal Protocol and subse- discussed the network’s evolution, impacts, and count for all of them. This means that there are thesis, Gasore collected data from the fledg- the original GAGE project, the observatory has been in quent healing of the ozone hole—a posterchild bright future. likely other industrial sites in violation of the ling station, and through computer analysis, operation since July 1978. of climate success. Montreal Protocol either in other parts of east estimated carbon dioxide and methane sources “Our network is unique in that it provides Asia or elsewhere. “The AGAGE network does not and sinks in Africa, a part of the world severely Right: Chief Scientist Jimmy Gasore PhD ’17 gives a tour of the Rwanda Climate Observatory to scientists from East Ronald Prinn, director of MIT’s Center for estimates of global, national and city emissions yet have the geographical distribution required lacking in greenhouse gas observations. This Africa and the European Union. This newest AGAGE site Global Change Science and TEPCO Professor of greenhouse and ozone depleting gases,” said to monitor emissions from all industrialized provided a novel baseline for global scientists on Mt. Mugogo is a collaboration between the government of Atmospheric Science in EAPS, co-founded Paul Fraser, AGAGE Cape Grim station scientist areas,” said Prinn. and regional policy makers. With his MIT PhD, of Rwanda and MIT, staffed by Rwandan researchers.

16 EAPS SCOPE | 2019-2020 Photos courtesy: AGAGE Archive (left); Jimmy Gasore (right) EARTH, ATMOSPHERIC AND PLANETARY SCIENCES | MIT SCHOOL OF SCIENCE 17 EYES ON THE STORM

VIDEOS BEGIN TO APPEAR online, one after tists are working on novel research that will allow and transmit information about the temperature inland areas from hurricane damage, and modern One option she has evaluated, called “nourishing”, another. Cellphone footage shot by people inside us in the future to more effectively predict the profile of the entire water column. storms can deposit additional sediment, making adds sand at intervals meant to keep pace with To help communities plan their homes, of flood water and waves crashing behavior of hurricanes and help affected commu- them even more resilient. However, as Castagno shoreline erosion. While this is a money- and for weathering storms to against the windows, of bent trees, pelted with nities build more resilient coastal infrastructure. Recent MIT-WHOI Joint Program graduate Katie explains, “there may be a suite of conditions resource-intensive strategy, Palermo’s model come in a changing climate, uprooted street signs and mailboxes. The pho- Castagno PhD ’19 is also a hurricane hunter, but [such as] one huge storm [or] several storms … shows that certain beach nourishment regimes tographers pace while their homes fill with water, “[Our] primary goal is to better understand the the storms she pursues ended hundreds, maybe that could cause this destruction, particularly as pay for themselves over time. “Our influence on EAPS scientists use novel narrating as all the things that seemed unyield- processes that dictate how the ocean and the even thousands of years ago. While not apparent, today’s marshes are often increasingly degraded.” the stability of barrier islands is dramatic, both methods to examine the ing and permanent give way. atmosphere interact within hurricanes, and evidence of these ancient storms can be found at through development on the coast and the hopefully be able to use that understanding to the bottoms of coastal marshes and ponds. Evaluating and mitigating this type of erosion lies modifications we make through beach manage- behavior and impacts of On September 1, Hurricane Dorian struck the improve hurricane intensity forecasts,” explains at the heart of Rose Palermo’s research. Clicking ment projects,” comments Palermo. hurricanes — from deep Bahamas as the most powerful storm to make Casey Densmore, a master’s student in the MIT- Her strange vessel glides across the surface of a through a few decades’ worth of satellite images time to the present. landfall there in recorded history, joining the ranks WHOI Joint Program. According to Densmore, shallow coastal pond. Like some sort of technol- reveals that Barnegat Bay Peninsula, Long Beach In records tracked since 1971, each year on average of three other Atlantic hurricanes to have made warm ocean waters intensify hurricanes, powered ogy from the movie Waterworld, it consists of ca- Island, and Scituate, barrier islands located along tropical cyclones wreak $700 billion in damage landfall at full, devastating Category 5 strength by the extra heat. However, escalating storm noes lashed to plywood. On top, a tripod supports the northeastern coast of the United States, are worldwide, and have overall claimed almost half BY KATE S. PETERSEN | EAPS NEWS in just the last two years, at a combined cost of winds on the ocean’s surface can cause large a vertical, aluminum tube attached to a repur- slowly washing away. “Barrier island erosion is a a million lives. And while these storms have all over $200 billion in damage and thousands of scale water mixing, which cools the surface water posed cement mixer engine. After finding the problem because there are communities that de- passed, researchers like Emanuel, Castagno, lives. Unfortunately for those living on coasts and causes the storm to weaken. right spot, Castagno initializes the engine, and pend on them for their housing and livelihood … Densmore, and Palermo know another deadly and islands, storms of this magnitude—once a the tube works its way down into the sediment. They also protect the mainland coast from waves storm is not far off. With rising atmospheric and more rare occurrence—are likely to become more If forecasters had a better understanding of this and storms, and losing that barrier would put the ocean temperatures predicted to make future tem- frequent. As a leading authority on the physics of feedback loop, they could use ocean temperature The sediment core she extracts contains a secret mainland at higher risk of erosion and flooding,” pests more frequent and intense, rising sea levels tropical cyclones, Cecil and Ida Green Professor of data in the path of a hurricane to more effectively history: a 2,000-year timeline of heterogenous explains Palermo. Sea level rise driven by global will only compound the danger with potential for Atmospheric Science and co-director of MIT’s Lo- predict storm intensity over time, especially as it layers of deposition. Some represent organic climate change accelerates erosion, as do certain unprecedented storm surge and coastal flooding. renz Center Kerry Emanuel puts it plainly: “Climate makes landfall. But to build more accurate predic- detritus from the pond; others signify major coastline development practices—something To mitigate the hazards these storms present, the change, if unimpeded, will greatly increase the tive models, researchers need to first observe large storm events, times when blowing wind and local residents can more easily control. scientists’ work to understand the processes that probability of extreme events.” scale changes in ocean temperatures in real time. water transported sand from nearby beaches. drive hurricane behavior is vital to informed deci- Palermo, who is also a graduate student in the sionmaking for communities and policymakers— And yet, in the face of this threat, coastal commu- Densmore and his research team are helping to fill While dating each layer of sediment, Castagno’s MIT-WHOI Joint Program, works with a multidisci- on everything from emergency preparedness and nities continue to grow. In talks, Emanuel points this data gap, having flown several missions into research team discovered something odd: layers, plinary team of economists, statisticians, oceanog- evacuation plans to sustainable engineering and to the fact that the global population exposed to Hurricane Dorian aboard airplanes operated by the representing hundreds of years, were missing raphers, and sediment transport experts to model urban development—pursuing the ultimate goal to hurricanes has tripled since 1970. More informa- US Air Force 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squad- from some of the cores. She suspects that these outcomes of different shoreline interventions. protect economies, ecosystems, and human life. tion about impending storms and the damage they ron (better known as the Hurricane Hunters) and missing layers represent times that the marsh Their model balances intervention costs against are likely to inflict could greatly improve outcomes deploying airborne expendable bathythermograph or pond was damaged by erosion, which is the property and economic damage that would be Read more about the research: for residents living in these areas, and EAPS scien- (AXBT) buoys, which sink when they hit the ocean problematic. Coastal ponds and marshes protect incurred by unmediated waves and storm surge. www.bit.ly/eyes-storm

18 EAPS SCOPE | 2019-2020 Image credits: Naval Research Lab EARTH, ATMOSPHERIC AND PLANETARY SCIENCES | MIT SCHOOL OF SCIENCE 19 “We showed that this process can start and end “We found that every time there was a peak in human timescales,” Jagoutz says. “The Earth does glaciation,” Jagoutz says. “Then we wondered, how the suture zone in the tropics, there was a glaci- this in a slow, geological process that has nothing often does that work? If our hypothesis is correct, ation event,” Jagoutz says. “So every time you get, to do with what we do to the Earth today. And it we should find that for every time there’s a cool- say, 10,000 kilometers of sutures in the tropics, will neither harm us, nor save us.” ing event, there are a lot of sutures in the tropics.” you get an ice age.” However, Lee Kump, dean of the College of Earth EXPOSING EARTH’S SUTURES He notes that a major suture zone, spanning and Mineral Sciences at Penn State University, The researchers looked to see whether ice about 10,000 kilometers, is still active today in sees at least one silver lining for this slow, nat- ages even further back in Earth’s history were Indonesia, and is possibly responsible for the ural sequestration process in the Earth’s future: associated with similar arc-continent collisions Earth’s current glacial period and the appearance “Emissions of carbon dioxide from human activity in the tropics. They performed an extensive of extensive ice sheets at the poles. today rival the most massive volcanic episodes A TROPICAL literature search to compile the locations of all in Earth history, far exceeding the capacity the major suture zones on Earth today, and then This tropical zone includes some of the largest of rock weathering feedbacks to counter the used a computer simulation of plate tectonics ophiolite bodies in the world and is currently buildup,” says Kump, who was not involved in to reconstruct the movement of these suture one of the most efficient regions on Earth for the research. “However, as anthropogenic carbon zones, back through time. In this way, they were absorbing and sequestering carbon dioxide. As emissions wane, natural restoration processes TRIGGER FOR ICE? able to pinpoint approximately where and when global temperatures are climbing as a result of like these will begin the multimillennial repair each suture originally formed, and how long each human-derived carbon dioxide, some scientists job of restoring atmospheric carbon dioxide to suture stretched. have proposed grinding up vast quantities of pre-Anthropocene levels.” OVER THE LAST 540 MILLION YEARS, A TRIGGER IN THE TROPICS Major tectonic collisions near the Earth has weathered three major ice ages— When an oceanic plate pushes up against a conti- periods during which global temperatures plum- nental plate, the collision typically creates a moun- the equator have been the meted, producing extensive ice sheets and glaciers tain range of newly exposed rock. The fault zone likely culprit in Earth’s three that have stretched beyond the polar caps. along which the oceanic and continental plates collide is called a “suture.” Today, certain mountain most recent major ice ages. Now scientists at MIT, the University of California ranges such as the Himalayas contain sutures that at Santa Barbara, and the University of California have migrated from their original collision points, at Berkeley have identified the likely trigger as continents have shifted over millennia. for these ice ages. In a study published in BY JENNIFER CHU | MIT NEWS Science, the team reports that each of the last In 2016, Jagoutz and his colleagues retraced the three major ice ages were preceded by tropical movements of two sutures that today make up “arc-continent collisions”—tectonic pileups that the Himalayas. They found that both sutures occurred near the equator, in which oceanic stemmed from the same tectonic migration. Eighty plates rode up over continental plates, exposing million years ago, as the supercontinent known tens of thousands of kilometers of oceanic rock as Gondwana moved north, part of the landmass to a tropical environment. was crushed against Eurasia, exposing a long line of oceanic rock and creating the first suture; 50 The scientists say that the heat and humidity of million years ago, another collision between the the tropics likely triggered a chemical reaction be- supercontinents created a second suture. tween the rocks and the atmosphere. Specifically, the rocks’ calcium and magnesium reacted with The team found that both collisions occurred in atmospheric carbon dioxide, pulling the gas out of tropical zones near the equator, and both preced- the atmosphere and permanently sequestering it ed global atmospheric cooling events by several in the form of carbonates such as limestone. Over million years—which is nearly instantaneous on time, the researchers say, this weathering process, a geologic timescale. After looking into the rates occurring over millions of square kilometers, at which exposed oceanic rock, also known as could pull enough carbon dioxide out of the ophiolites, could react with carbon dioxide in atmosphere to cool temperatures globally and the tropics, the researchers concluded that, given They identified three periods over the last 540 ophiolites and spreading the minerals through- Read more about the research: ultimately set off an ice age. their location and magnitude, both sutures could million years in which major sutures, of about out the equatorial belt, in an effort to speed up www.bit.ly/tropical-trigger have indeed sequestered enough carbon dioxide 10,000 kilometers in length, were formed in the this natural cooling process. “We think that arc-continent collisions at low to cool the atmosphere and trigger both ice ages. tropics. Each of these periods coincided with each of three major, well-known ice ages, in the Late But Jagoutz says the act of grinding up and latitudes are the trigger for global cooling,” says Over the last 540 million years, as the Earth’s tectonic Oliver Jagoutz, an associate professor in MIT’s Interestingly, they found that this process was Ordovician (455 to 440 million years ago), the Per- transporting these materials could produce plates have shifted, MIT researchers have found that Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary likely responsible for ending both ice ages as mo-Carboniferous (335 to 280 million years ago), additional, unintended carbon emissions. And it’s periods of major tectonic activity (orange lines) in the Sciences. “This could occur over 1-5 million square well. Over millions of years, the oceanic rock and the Cenozoic (35 million years ago to present unclear whether such measures could make any tropics (green belt) were likely triggers for the ice ages kilometers, which sounds like a lot. But in reality, that was available to react with the atmosphere day). Importantly, they found there were no ice significant impact within our lifetimes. coinciding with those same periods. it’s a very thin strip of Earth, sitting in the right eventually eroded away, replaced with new rock ages or glaciation events during periods when location, that can change the global climate.” that took up far less carbon dioxide. major suture zones formed outside of the tropics. “It’s a challenge to make this process work on Figures courtesy the researchers

20 EAPS SCOPE | 2019-2020 EARTH, ATMOSPHERIC AND PLANETARY SCIENCES | MIT SCHOOL OF SCIENCE 21 BY RALPH RANALLI | MIT AEROASTRO HEALTH EFFECTS it was operational in space, whereas CubeSats can be built and deployed in just a year or two. OF CHINA’S “You can build them faster, which means you can put new technology on quicker instead of CLIMATE POLICY waiting 10 years for new technology infusion on a government program,” Cahoy says. EXTEND ACROSS Yet the most important thing isn’t necessarily what CubeSats can do alone, it’s what multiple CubeSats THE PACIFIC can accomplish in concert. Oxygen and water vapor naturally emit signals in the microwave portion of the electromagnetic spectrum; when those sig- nals are measured at different heights by multiple Improved air quality could prevent nearly 2,000 satellites in a low-earth orbit constellation, they premature deaths in the United States. have the combined power of the instruments on a larger satellite, and can be fed into weather models for enhanced modeling and forecasting of hurricanes, tropical storms, and thun- A NEW VIEW derstorms, including 3-D reconstruction. “A constellation of CubeSats lets you get data over the same spot multiple times on the same day, which is not possible with the standard government weather satellites right now, which maybe ON WEATHER give you data over the same spot once a week,” Cahoy says. “If BY MARK DWORTZAN | MIT JOINT PROGRAM ON you’re tracking a tropical storm or a hurricane and you want to THE SCIENCE AND POLICY OF GLOBAL CHANGE use data to update your forecasting models, that’s not as good as For collecting weather data, these tiny satellites you would like it.” measure up to their billion-dollar cousins. CubeSats do have some drawbacks when compared with their IMPROVED AIR QUALITY can be a major well-rounded picture of air quality and can be The study breaks new ground in showing that larger kin, such as a shorter lifespan and the fact that they carry bonus of climate mitigation policies aimed at transported over long distances, accounting co-benefits of climate policy from reducing BIG STORMS ARE GETTING BIGGER. But now, some a more limited array of instruments. Another advantage bigger reducing greenhouse gas emissions. By cutting for both pollutants enables a more accurate ozone-related premature deaths in China are researchers from MIT are saying that the best way to study and satellites have over CubeSats is that they are easier to calibrate. air pollution levels in the country where emis- projection of associated health co-benefits in comparable to those from PM2.5, and that understand these monster storms may just be to make the But the MIT team found a novel way to improve calibration in the sions are produced, such policies can avoid the country of origin and those downwind. co-benefits from reduced ozone and PM2.5 lev- satellites that track them...smaller. MicroMAS-2A. Because the MicroMAS-2A’s radiometer is spinning significant numbers of premature deaths. But els are not insignificant beyond China’s borders. 30 times a minute, they found it was experiencing solar and lunar other nations downwind from the host country Using a modeling framework that couples an Kerri Cahoy, associate professor in MIT’s departments of intrusions (times when the sun or the moon entered the scanning may also benefit. energy-economic model with an atmospher- “The results show that climate policy in China Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro) and Earth, Atmospheric field and affected measurements) at a much higher rate—where ic chemistry model, and assuming a climate can influence air quality even as far away as and Planetary Sciences (EAPS), recently worked on a study with the NOAA-20 experiences perhaps 44 intrusions over the course A new study co-led by Noelle Eckley Selin, policy consistent with China’s pledge to peak the U.S.,” says Selin. “This shows that policy ac- AeroAstro PhD candidate Angela Crews and researchers from of a year, MicroMAS-2A experiences ~5,700. Instead of discarding associate professor in MIT’s Institute for Data, CO₂ emissions in 2030, the researchers found tion on climate is indeed in everyone’s interest, MIT Lincoln Laboratory comparing weather data collected by a the data or correcting for it, they plan to use the intrusions as a Systems, and Society and the Department of that atmospheric ozone concentrations in Chi- in the near term as well as in the longer term.” low-cost satellite about the size of a shoebox with data from a calibration source due to their frequency. Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences na would fall by 1.6 parts per billion in 2030 traditional weather satellite. (EAPS), shows that if the world’s top emitter of compared to a no-policy scenario, and thus The other co-leader of the study is Valerie The researchers say they are just scratching the surface of what greenhouse gas emissions, China, fulfills its cli- avoid 54,300 premature deaths—nearly 60% Karplus, the Assistant Professor of Global Eco- “The bottom line is that this tiny satellite collected data that is CubeSats can do, and that in the coming years they could have mate pledge to peak carbon dioxide emissions of those resulting from PM2.5. Total avoided nomics and Management in MIT’s Sloan School as good as the data from a billion-dollar government satellite,” groundbreaking advancements in commerce, shipping, and in 2030, the positive effects would extend all premature deaths in South Korea and Japan of Management. Both co-leaders are faculty af- says Crews, the study’s lead author. military applications. the way to the United States, where improved are 1,200 and 3,500, respectively, primarily due filiates of the MIT Joint Program on the Science air quality would result in nearly 2,000 fewer to PM2.5; for the U.S. total, 1,900, ozone is the and Policy of Global Change. Their co-authors The diminutive CubeSats, as they are known, have a number of “CubeSats will continue to let us test new and better premature deaths. main contributor due to its longer lifetime in include former EAPS graduate student and lead advantages over larger cousins like the NOAA-20 satellite, starting technologies—new chips, new electronics, new sensors—faster the atmosphere. author Mingwei Li PhD ’19, former Joint Pro- with weight: MicroMAS-2A weighs-in at less than 4 kilograms because we can get on orbit more quickly to see how they The study estimates China’s climate policy, air gram research scientist Da Zhang and former vs. the NOAA-20’s much beefier 2,300 kg. Big satellites also need work, and do a better job of designing these instruments, cost quality, and health co-benefits resulting from Total avoided deaths in these countries amount MIT postdoc Chiao-Ting Li. their own dedicated launch vehicle, while CubeSats can stow away everyone less money and get us more data,” says Cahoy. reduced atmospheric concentrations of ozone, to about four percent of those in China. The as secondary payloads. They have a speed advantage, too. NOAA-20 as well as co-benefits from reduced ozone and researchers also found that a more stringent Read more about the research: took eight years from the time the contract was awarded to when Abridged and adapted from the original: www.bit.ly/weather-view particulate air pollution (PM2.5) in three down- climate policy would lead to even more avoid- www.bit.ly/policy-across-pacific wind and populous countries: South Korea, ed premature deaths in the three downwind Artist’s rendering of the TROPICS mission: a formation of six CubeSats flying in three low-Earth orbital planes to study cyclones; expected deployment 2020. Japan and the U.S. As ozone and PM2.5 give a countries as well as in China.

22 EAPS SCOPE | 2019-2020 Image credit: MIT Lincoln Labs Photo credit: John Koetsier / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 EARTH, ATMOSPHERIC AND PLANETARY SCIENCES | MIT SCHOOL OF SCIENCE 23 BY KATE S. PETERSEN | EAPS NEWS FROM GPU INNOVATION TO CLIMATE ADVANCES

HACKING The John and Maryann Montrym Fund expands the range of research opportunities available to EAPS students via climate research mini-grants.

THE CLIMATE WHEN JOHN MONTRYM ’83 and his wife Maryann established the John and Maryann Montrym Fund in 2016, they wanted to help EAPS CONUNDRUM students go the extra mile with their climate research. With an interest in environmental issues, and as Chief Architect at NVIDIA— the company EAPS scientists engage in out-of-the-box thinking to tackle some of the most which invented graphics processing units pressing questions surrounding global change and long-term sustainability. (GPUs)—Montrym found a place that matched his interests: EAPS, where computation, theory, and laboratory investigation come together to answer CLIMATE CHANGE IS NO ORDINARY PROBLEM. From the same hackathon, the proposal “One marsh intended to replace the original natural Propulsion Laboratory, is revolutionizing the fundamental climate questions. About a dozen As global temperatures soar, harm to societies Small Step” by EAPS students Deepa Rao and ecosystems that were destroyed by infill years development of climate projections for greater mini-grants later, the Montryms’ generosity has and natural systems increases with the potential Craig McLean with others, took bronze. They ago. The proposed structure is series of floating precision and accuracy. Current models aren’t helped expand the resources and opportunities for irreversible damage, so addressing it will developed a survey to help make individuals saucers tethered together and attached to the flexible enough to incorporate dramatically available to EAPS climate science students, require multi-pronged approaches, anchored aware of their carbon footprint, contextualize bottom of the bay. Native marsh grasses grow new information. Some are limited to a thereby enriching their work. Photo courtesy John and Maryann Montrym by the work of climate and geoscience experts. their lifestyle choices to available options, and on top, while long native seaweeds trail below. relatively coarse resolution, calculating MIT Vice President for Research and E. A. provide actionable information to encourage Pedestrian walkways over the water through Earth’s vast and dynamic climate system on A new NVIDIA GPU-based computer has helped Sam Levang PhD ’19, formerly with the Griswold Professor of Geophysics Maria Zuber, more sustainable living. By synthesizing the new “marsh” would supplement the city’s a 100-square-kilometer grid, which leaves MIT-WHOI Joint Program, track particles in numerical ocean models. This tool helped who helped to launch MIT’s Climate Action available data on state-level economic sectors recreational options. Like natural systems, it a lot of room for uncertainty—which is why him examine how ocean salinity and circulation patterns will respond to a changing Plan, realizes the need for an aggressive but with the corresponding carbon footprint, would buffer the shoreline from wave action the researchers are starting from scratch. climate, the global water cycle, and rain patterns. “It is a complicated problem, because pragmatic transition to a zero-carbon society people could calculate their footprint and see and storm surge—growing threats to Boston Leveraging machine learning, new software salinity also drives large-scale overturning circulations through its effect on density,” with input from an engaged cohort of industry, other locally available, lower carbon options. with rising sea levels—and filter bay water. The tools like the MIT-developed Julia language, says Levang. “This has important implications for climate by affecting heat and carbon government, academia, foundations, philan- The goal was to make data more personally team’s plan also won the American Society of and next-generation graphics processing units storage in the ocean.” thropists, and the public. meaningful and bring awareness of state and Civil Engineers Innovation contest in sustain- (GPUs) with cloud-computing networks, CliMA national policies impacting choices. able engineering. scientists will be able to better account for Another GPU workstation helped EAPS graduate student Ziwei Li try a data-driven “Climate change represents a global problem, small-scale environmental features like cloud approach to improve convective parameterization schemes in large-scale global and the only way that we can really address Last year, MIT also hosted Climate Changed, an Higher Grounds proposed a less resource-in- cover, rainfall, sea ice, and ocean turbulence atmospheric circulation models. “Uncertainties in climate change predictions lie largely it is to partner with as many organizations event co-sponsored by the MIT Environmental tensive solution to mitigate projected effects down to one-kilometer-square detail. Combined in the representation of clouds in global climate models,” says Li. “Innovative and and people as we can,” said Zuber at MIT’s Solutions Initiative (ESI) and the MIT of coastal storm surge and sea level rise. EAPS with real-world measurements, these higher- contemporary machine learning methods can help us tackle this important problem, and inaugural Climate Night event in April. School of Architecture and Planning—with students Tom Beucler PhD ’18, Jonathan Lin, resolution simulations can help resolve the the powerful GPU has enabled me to implement algorithms such as neural networks.” award funding from the Leonardo DiCaprio and Syndey Sroka linked the economics of pro- small-scale physics not captured by current HACKATHONS: INCUBATORS OF IDEAS Foundation—which explored the agency of tection with predicted flooding risks. WAVE of models, reducing uncertainties in long-range Other students enriched their field research. Graduate student Tyler Tamasi of the One way to help break researchers out of silos models in the future for the built environment. Change, with Gualtiero Spiro Jaeger PhD ’19 of predictions by half. “BabLab” was able to join an expedition to Cuba’s Gardens of the Queen, a pristine and provide novel solutions to problems is The symposium and exhibition included the EAPS, focused on making visible the intangible coral reef ecosystem off the southern coast where the biogeochemistry can be used as through ad hoc interdisciplinary collaborations Ideas competition, challenging participants effects of global climate change on local urban “Anything to reduce that margin [of uncertain- a baseline for understanding the ocean processes in less pristine areas of the globe. and competitions. MIT’s EarthHack 2019 is just to consider how environmental models could environments to engage citizens in climate ty] can provide a societal benefit estimated in Partnering with the Monterey Bay Aquarium, graduate student Mara Freilich sequenced one example, where roughly 30 innovators from be translated into climate-responsive design change planning, using an interactive, commu- trillions of dollars,” said Raffaele Ferrari, EAPS the phytoplankton populations she collected in the Mediterranean, where different multiple academic institutions grouped into interventions at the urban scale. nity-centered, mobile application. Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Oceanogra- water masses collide, to understand their role in carbon export and the physics of the impromptu teams and spent a 12-hour period phy and co-investigator on the project. “If one subduction process. brainstorming global climate change solutions— Several interdisciplinary teams vied for first NECESSITY: THE SOUL OF INVENTION knows better the likelihood of changes in rain- with EAPS and other MIT students taking top place; many included EAPS members. In the Beyond hackathons and blue sky ideas, when fall patterns, for example, then everyone from “It has been gratifying to hear from students about how the Montrym Fund has places. The idea that snatched gold, which came end, the “Emerald Tutu” design team, with EAPS it comes to generating climate models that civil engineers to farmers can decide what helped them advance their research. The diversity of their climate research has been from EAPS’ Joleen Heiderich, Julie Jakobski, Sam postdoc Nick Lutsko, won—with two other EAPS will influence action, EAPS researchers are infrastructure and practices they may need to fascinating—from the highly computational to more hands-on research. I’m looking Levang, Sebastian Essink, and others, was an app project teams “Higher Grounds” and “WAVE of also teaming up with academic and industry plan for.” forward to continuing my investment in EAPS climate research to help nurture young that would use machine learning to generate Change” as finalists. partners to build new tools from the ground up. climate scientists, and to advance understanding of the scientific underpinnings of the climate change-related mortality risk-assess- Read more about the research: climate and ocean system, to better inform future policy and action on climate change.” ments for different areas of the world and at The Emerald Tutu (named for the frilly, floating The Climate Modeling Alliance (CliMA), a www.bit.ly/hacking-climate different times, based on available climate data. green border it would create around East collaboration between the Caltech, MIT, the Read more about the research: Boston), would be a constructed saltwater Naval Postgraduate School, and NASA’s Jet www.bit.ly/montrym-climate

24 EAPS SCOPE | 2019-2020 Image credit: CLiMA/Tapio Schneider/Kyle Pressel/Momme Hell/Caltech EARTH, ATMOSPHERIC AND PLANETARY SCIENCES | MIT SCHOOL OF SCIENCE 25 STUDENT RESEARCH PROFILES JAMES HALL When most people think of fossils, they imagine the lithified CAUE BORLINA bones of an ancient organism in a museum display. How- ever, the fossils that I study from around Death Valley are drastically different; they are casts and molds of soft-bodied During my PhD research in the Weiss Paleomagnetism Lab, organisms, with no modern analog, which existed near the I have been working to understand what magnetism can tell end of the Precambrian Era, about 542 million years ago. us about the evolution of stars, formation and evolution of Soft-bodied preservation is rare within the fossil record, but planets, and conditions for the emergence of life. I focus on is prevalent in this time period globally. the magnetism recorded in micrometer-sized rock inclusions.

My work in taphonomy, the study of fossilization, is centered Magnets are everywhere. Our very own Earth is a massive around understanding the biogeochemical processes one that produces a large-scale magnetic field detectable controlling the preservation of these soft-bodied organisms. at the surface of our planet; its time origin, however, is Specifically, I am interested in the interactions between unknown. Magnetic fields produced by planets can help microbes—which can act to both decay the organism and shield their atmosphere from solar winds and radiation. This produce minerals which help preserve it—and clay minerals, has immediate consequences for habitability conditions which can shield soft tissue from microbial decay. What relevant, for example, for the early Earth. Understanding makes these fossils especially interesting is how well the the timing of Earth’s magnetic field can help constrain the structure of the organism is retained, even with a low abun- conditions during which life emerged. Because very little dance of replacive minerals produced by microbial process- MARGARET DUFFY of the rock record from the first billion years of the Earth es. Scientists have proposed many hypotheses, such as the is available, we have to use what we can—in this case, presence of microbial mats, to explain how this fossiliza- State-of-the-art global climate models (GCMs) disagree micrometer-sized minerals four billion years old—known tion process occurs; however, experiments using soft-bodied on how tropical rainfall will change with climate change, to be the only survivors of these early years. The magnetic MARJORIE CANTINE marine organisms to elucidate the processes are lacking. especially the pattern of changes. Consequently, we fields from these minerals can only be measured with a few look to simpler models as tools for understanding the magnetometers, like the one in our lab. What was the Earth like during the evolution of the first animals? My research in the Bergmann Lab to answer My research with Tanja Bosak is filling this gap by conduct- underlying mechanisms. ing informed taphonomy experiments analyzing the decay Another of my projects examines how our solar system this question helps us understand how and why animals of scallops’ flesh in the presence or absence of clay miner- Studying with Paul O’Gorman, my dissertation is focused formed, through the lens of magnetic fields; magnetic fields evolved on Earth. It may also help elucidate what als, which we see within the fossils, and cyanobacteria (the on the dynamics of precipitation in the tropics. As the are thought to be the key for the formation of planetary conditions could lead to the emergence of complex life microbes that predominated at the end of the Precambrian). addition of greenhouse gases warms the atmosphere, systems. Measuring ancient magnetic fields that were elsewhere in the universe. These experiments help to tease apart the roles that the the amount of water vapor (specific humidity) in the air recorded in very small inclusions located in some meteorites microbes and minerals play in the biogeochemical pro- increases. What effect does this additional water vapor is helping us to understand this relationship. I focus on Earth’s surface environments about 550 million years ago. At this time, early animals lived in cesses that occur during the initial decay of the organism, have on rainfall over tropical oceans? Does rainfall and help us to understand which conditions are conducive over tropical oceans go up at the same rate as water I plan on pursuing this line of research further as a career, the oceans. The sedimentary rocks deposited in these to preservation. By understanding these processes, we can vapor? Previous authors used simple models to learn studying the connection between planetary formation, ancient seas—like limestone, sandstones, and shales— better interpret the features within the fossils. This will al- that, on average, tropical rainfall does not increase as habitability, and magnetism. record both physical and chemical information about the environments in which they formed. The global carbon low for us to know more about these organisms which lived much as water vapor because the large-scale circulation cycle, erosion and weathering, and climate all had a role right before the Cambrian explosion. of the atmosphere changes, too. The combined effects to play in shaping early animal habitats—and the rocks of changes in water vapor and the changes in the I study record evidence of these forces. I use field and circulation contribute to complicated changes in rainfall laboratory techniques to test hypotheses about their role which are very hard for state-of-the-art climate models in shaping animal habitats. I also use radioactive isotopes (GCMs) to simulate. within my samples to date events in the rock record. These dates are useful for understanding the relationship Through the use of simple models, we are learning that between animal evolution and other key changes in the circulation changes are important for the pattern erosion and perturbations in the carbon cycle. of rainfall changes over tropical oceans, but a source of disagreement in GCMs. Further, we are learning that My efforts to understand the world of early animals has these circulation changes are largely tied to horizontal taken me to five continents, eight countries, the Arctic gradients in temperature at lower levels of the tropical Circle, and many collaborators’ labs. Unraveling this atmosphere. This work is very exciting because it exciting story has required aerial drones and state-of- contributes to understanding the complicated and the-art mass spectrometers, as well as hiking boots and nuanced ways that the climate responds to greenhouse battered field notebooks, and I’m looking forward to where gases, and why climate models sometimes disagree on the adventure takes me next. aspects of these responses.

26 EAPS SCOPE | 2019-2020 EARTH, ATMOSPHERIC AND PLANETARY SCIENCES | MIT SCHOOL OF SCIENCE 27 BUILDING THE BEST

“We are delighted to have supported the new RECORD OF Artemis telescope. It was very exciting to see it in action in Tenerife and to meet the international SPECULOOS team,” said Colin Masson after the THE OCEAN inauguration, “We are looking forward to hearing about their future discoveries!” Carl Wunsch continues to expand his foundational framework The researchers hope to continue to build out for understanding the behavior of the entire ocean. HUNTING RED WORLDS the SPECULOOS Northern Observatory. Currently, there is an additional platform ready to host a BY KELSEY TSIPSIS | EAPS NEWS twin telescope to Artemis, and the project has IN NORTHERN SKIES reserved space to accommodate a total of four Introducing Artemis: MIT’s newest exoplanet-hunting telescope telescopes at Teide. A fully-operational SNO will allow them to complete the Northern Hemi- in the SPECULOOS network at Mount Teide in the Canary Islands. BEFORE THE ADVENT of modern techniques, circulation to date: a 20-year average of ocean ies have involved more immediate applications, sphere survey on schedule to take advantage of understanding how the ocean behaved required climate and circulation, called a climatology, that like predicting physical flow and mixing fields the more powerful JWST and ELT, which can offer piecing together disparate data, often separated obeys the laws of fluids and includes all of the which influence the ecosystems of lobsters and more detailed reviews of the planetary targets by decades in time, from a handful of sources data collected on the world’s oceans since 1992. cod. Others offer better resolution into big-pic- WITH A NEW TELESCOPE situated high on a Northern Hemisphere to find more planets that discovered by the project. around the world. In the 1980s, that started to ture issues, like ocean carbon absorption, sea plateau in Tenerife, Spain, MIT planetary scientists may have a temperate climate and be suitable change when technological advancements, such In the article, “A Dynamically Consistent, Multi- level rise, climate forecasting, and paleoclimate. now have an additional way to search for Earth- for in-depth characterization of their atmospheres “With SPECULOOS,” de Wit says, “we are giving as satellites, floats, drifters, and chemical tracers, variable Ocean Climatology,” the authors outline sized exoplanets. Artemis, the first telescope of and molecular composition with the next it our best shot at enabling the identification of made continuous, mass measurements possible. recent updates to ECCO and explain the deep ECCO’s example is proof that model-data combi- the SPECULOOS Northern Observatory (SNO) generation of observatories, like NASA’s James habitats beyond Earth within the next decade.” Still, the resulting new datasets often existed trove of information that makes it possible, nations looking at decadal and longer time scales was completed at the Mount Teide Observatory, Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the European independently of each other, obscuring the including observations from altimetric satellites; are possible, says Wunsch. But the consortium’s operated by the Insituto de Astrofisica de Canarias Space Agency’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT). Read more about the research: bigger picture. temperature and salinity data from depth sensors, goals don’t end there. “We want this climatology (IAC) in June 2019. It joins a network of one meter The researchers hope to identify about 15 temperate www.bit.ly/artemis-inauguration expendable bathythermographs, and Argo profiles; to be used for a greater variety of purposes, and robotic telescopes as part of the SPECULOOS planets with the SPECULOOS network in time for Nearly 20 years ago, Carl Wunsch, professor and–perhaps most fascinating–data collected via we invite the use and critique of the result by the project (Search for habitable Planets EClipsing their atmospheres to be studied with the JWST, emeritus of physical oceanography in MIT’s sensors on deep-diving elephant seals. wider community,” says Wunsch. All of the data and ULtra-cOOl Stars), which looks for terrestrial which is expected to launch in 2021. Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary the model are publicly available, and all someone planets orbiting very faint, ultra-cool dwarf stars. Sciences (EAPS), spearheaded an endeavor to With an immense volume of data, Wunsch and who is interested has to do is ask for help. The other four network telescopes that make up Artemis’ unveiling was attended by scientists and reveal that bigger picture with ECCO (Estimat- his collaborators wrote that the problem soon the SPECULOOS Southern Observatory (SSO) are dignitaries from MIT, the University of Liège, and ing the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean): a became how to combine the massive datasets Wunsch is retired but still has an office at MIT, already scanning the Southern Hemisphere skies the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, as well as consortium that sought to combine global ocean and “fit” them to a model that would represent a although he gladly points to his former students at the Paranal Observatory in Chile. donors who supported the project. The telescope datasets with state-of-the-art ocean circulation three-dimensional, time-evolving ocean over de- and group members who have taken on ECCO. In was funded by MIT donors Peter A. Gilman, the models. Only with this combination of observa- cades. Fortuitously, during ECCO’s early stages, a fact, the article co-authors were all once Wunsch’s SPECULOOS is led by Michael Gillon at the Uni- Heising-Simons Foundation, and Colin and tion and theory could scientists fully understand parallel effort at MIT was underway, led by EAPS advisees: Associate Professor Patrick Heimbach versity of Liège in Belgium in partnership with Leslie Masson, with additional support from the the physical and dynamical state of the ocean, Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Oceanography of UT Austin, Principal Scientist Ichiro Fukumori MIT and several other institutions and financial Ministry of Higher Education of the Federation and thus its role in climate, Wunsch wrote for John Marshall, to develop a new oceanographic of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Rui supporters. Julien de Wit, assistant professor in Wallonie-Bruxelles, and the Balzan Foundation. Oceanography in 2009. It was a massive under- model, called the MIT General Circulation Model M. Ponte of Atmospheric and Environmental MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and taking, including an international network of re- (MITgcm), which Wunsch adapted to become the Research (AER), Inc. Planetary Sciences (EAPS) and a SPECULOOS searchers and governmental bodies to exchange dynamical engine of ECCO. Detailed understand- collaborator, spearheaded the project’s expansion and analyze billions of ocean observations taken ing of the accuracies and precisions of this meth- Wunsch hopes that ECCO’s spread to the next with Artemis. He assumes the role of Artemis from all corners of the globe. odology, including at least some approximation generation of researchers will make it more principal investigator and SNO co-principal of an error estimate on all scales, is “an unglam- resistant to fickle political and economic investigator with Gillon. “It was like building a large telescope,” Wunsch orous but essential activity,” says Wunsch. trends—because understanding how the ocean is says. “That’s what ECCO has been.” behaving under a changing climate, and how it is Picking up near-infrared wavelengths, Artemis Unglamorous as the work may be, the results likely to change in the future, requires uninter- will gather pictures of a section of the sky each Today, ECCO stands as the foundational framework are elegant solutions that fit almost all types of rupted observations of the immense complexity night, focused on target stars in order to catch for understanding the behavior of the entire ocean ocean observations and that are, simultaneously, of ocean circulation. the drop in brightness characteristic of a planetary for decades to come. Recently, Wunsch and his col- consistent with the model. These solutions are transit. The researchers will examine the roughly laborators published a progress report of sorts on now being used to inform a wide range of re- Read more about the research: 800 nearest ultra-cool dwarf stars visible in the ECCO in The Bulletin of the American Meteorological search, ranging from ocean variability, biological www.bit.ly/ecco-record Society, where they detail the best record of ocean cycles, coastal physics, and geodesy. Some stud- Image credits: D. Padrón (top); University of Liège (right)

28 EAPS SCOPE | 2019-2020 Photo credit: Helen Hill EARTH, ATMOSPHERIC AND PLANETARY SCIENCES | MIT SCHOOL OF SCIENCE 29 BY KELSEY TSIPSIS | EAPS NEWS CHARNEY LIBRARY RE-OPENS ITS DOORS

The renovated library, named for late Professor Jule Charney, offers a welcoming interdepartmental gathering space.

LATE MIT PROFESSOR JULE CHARNEY the making. A wall was knocked down to increase Woods Hole and Cambridge. This effort took is remembered as a man who brought people square footage and add much-needed light. the expertise of MIT librarian Christine Sherratt, together through a combination of wisdom, Flexible furniture configurations were also added who also helped sort old books—many of which optimism, and charm. Now, the building where to help foster community interactions. belonged to Charney himself. his groundbreaking work on modern dynamical meteorology took place has a dedicated space “The purpose of this place is for everyone to feel The space was originally dedicated as a depart- Charlotte Johnson, Dan Burns PhD ’87, Nafi Toksöz Jie Zhang PhD ’97, Nafi Toksöz, Ken Tubman PhD ’84, Chengbin Peng PhD ’94 worthy of such a reputation. like they have a place to interact with colleagues, ment library in 1983 in honor of Charney. During meet with speakers, host community events, or the rededication, Carl Wunsch, EAPS professor Recently, MIT Department of Earth, Atmospheric have small group meetings,” said EAPS Associate emeritus of physical oceanography, described and Planetary Sciences (EAPS) faculty and students Professor Paul O’Gorman, who led the library how previously Charney had used the area as his HONORING THE LEGACY unveiled a renovated Charney Library on the 14th project committee. “The door is always open.” personal library during his tenure from 1956 until OF A GEOPHYSICS GIANT

EAPS and MIT celebrate the birthday of M. Nafi Toksöz, whose work in seismology and imaging launched the influential Earth Resources Laboratory and inspired a new generation of scientists.

THIS PAST MAY, geophysics alumni Dan Burns ’77, Delaine Thompson Reiter PhD ’93, and PhD ’87, Chuck Peng PhD ’94, Ken Tubman PhD Sean Solomon PhD ’71 helped paint a picture ’84, Mark Willis PhD ’83, and Jie Zhang PhD ’97 of Toksöz’s priceless mentorship. Stories about joined forces to help reunite over 60 alumni, Toksöz’s penchant for fast cars and pipe-smok- current and emeritus faculty, and friends to ing (as a way of delaying delivery of painful celebrate the 85th birthday of beloved Emeritus truths about research plans) elicited much Professor Nafi Toksöz. In their former college laughter. Yvonne Tsai ’78 spoke on behalf of the town, guests reconnected, sharing heartfelt many Baker House students who had benefited and funny stories about their advisor and his from having Toksöz and his late wife Helena unfailing support and generosity. Many alumni as their caring housemasters from 1969-1980. floor of the Green Building, right across the hall At the event, O’Gorman thanked members of his death in 1981, pointing out, “...it’s very useful credited their career successes to their years in EAPS Department Head Rob van der Hilst spoke from the famed professor’s former office. the Charney Library Project committee who for people for people to know that this really MIT’s Earth Resources Laboratory (ERL), which warmly about ERL and the invaluable advice contributed to the efforts, including Assistant was the scientific home for the Atmospheric and Toksöz founded in 1982 and led until 1998. and wisdom Toksöz, who has mentored over 100 Aimé Fournier, Yvonne Tsai ’78, Sedef Kuleli,Sadi Kuleli The student-initiated project, made possible by Professor Andrew Babbin, Darius Collazo, Angela Ocean Dynamics Project.” Toksöz’s achievements in ERL include seismic graduate students and postdocs and served on generous alumni donations, transformed the Ellis, Michael Richard, Scott Wade, and graduate exploration for hydrocarbons, full-wave sonic numerous elite committees, shared with him library from a dark, cramped space into a bright, students Rohini Shivamoggi and Rose Palermo. Read more about the legacy of Jule Charney’s logging, rock physics, vertical seismic profiles, over the years. multi-purpose common space where members of contributions to science and MIT: seismological applications for the Apollo EAPS can interact both socially and academically. Shivamoggi spearheaded the renovation project www.bit.ly/charney-library-renewal program, electroseismic/seismoelectric, and As the evening concluded, Tubman thanked all after hearing feedback about the lack of meeting earthquake seismology. for coming and encouraged his peers to show “When this project was first proposed...it aligned spaces for students at the 2017 EAPS Program in their appreciation for Toksöz by making a gift to beautifully with some of the things that I person- Atmospheres, Oceans and Climate (PAOC) retreat. Special thanks to the following alumni for their kind “ERL was like a big family with Nafi at the head”, the M. Nafi Toksöz Fellowship Fund. “Let’s double ally really want for the department, which is to Shortly after, she wrote a proposal for funding support, with special gratitude to Dr. J. Shukla said Burns who acted as MC, inviting attend- the Toksöz Fund so that it will support a gradu- create more space—higher quality space—for stu- and recruited Palermo to help design a space and Dr. Rick Babcock for their matching donations: ees to recount their favorite memories of their ate student for a full academic year!” dents,” said Robert van der Hilst, EAPS Department best suited to the community’s needs. Richard R. Babcock, Jr. PhD ’78 (XIX), John R. Bates beloved supervisor and colleague. Head and Schlumberger Professor of Earth and If you’d like to help, please consider making a gift PhD ’69 (XIX), Mark A. Cane PhD ’76 (XIX), Richard C. Planetary Sciences. The renovations went beyond cosmetic upgrades Deininger ’83 (XIX), Michael R. Hall ’03, Gerald Herman Together, event co-organizers along with Neil by visiting www.bit.ly/eaps-giving — or contact to include a new selection of contemporary SCD ’75 (XIX), L. Scott Ritterbush ’89 (XII), SM ’92 (III), Goins PhD ’78, Xiaojun Huang PhD ’03, Dave Angela Ellis at [email protected]. There is also a new From securing funding to completion of con- textbooks—particularly important for MIT-WHOI Richard D. Rosen ’69 (XVIII) PhD ’74 (XIX), Jagadish Johnston ’73, PhD ’79, Don Paul ’67, SM’69, PhD Nafi and Helena Toksöz Fund for Baker House. Mark Willis PhD ’83, Sean Solomon PhD ’71, Pam Solomon struction, the renovation was nearly a year in Joint Program students who commute between Shukla ’76 (XIX)

30 EAPS SCOPE | 2019-2020 Photo credits: Vicki McKenna Photo credits: Kelsey Tsipsis EARTH, ATMOSPHERIC AND PLANETARY SCIENCES | MIT SCHOOL OF SCIENCE 31

DOCTORAL DEGREES AWARDED [2019] DOCTORAL DEGREES AWARDED [2019] NAME PROGRAM ADVISOR THESIS TITLE NAME PROGRAM ADVISOR THESIS TITLE

Brendan Barry* Physical Michael J. Follows Distributional Models of Ocean Carbon Export Diamilet Perez-Betancourt Atmospheric Science Kerry Emanuel Formation and Maintenance of Tropical Cyclone Spiral Bands in Idealized Oceanography Numerical Simulations

Tom G. Beucler Atmospheric Science Kerry Emanuel and Interaction between Water Vapor, Radiation and Convection in the Tropics Tyler W. Rohr* Chemical Scott Doney and Computational Analysis of the Biophysical Controls on Southern Ocean Timothy Cronin Oceanography David Nicholson Phytoplankton Ecosystem Dynamics

Camrin D. Braun* Biological Simon Thorrold Movements and Oceanographic Associations of Large Pelagic Fishes Cristina Schultz* Chemical Scott C. Doney and A Modeling Study of the Marine Biogeochemistry, Plankton Dynamics, and Oceanography in the North Atlantic Ocean Oceanography Weifeng Zhang Carbon Cycle on the Continental Shelf off the West Antarctic Peninsula

Stephanie M. Brown Geology, Geochemistry Timothy Grove Quantifying melting and chemical differentiation processes on Earth Gualtiero Spiro Jaeger* Physical Amala Mahadevan Stratified and Stirred: Monsoon Freshwater in the Bay of Bengal and Geobiology and the Moon Oceanography

Chawalit Charoenpong* Chemical Scott D. Wankel The Production and Fate of Nitrogen Species in Deep-sea Hydrothermal Oceanography Environments

Gregory T. Ely Geophysics Alison Malcolm Applications of a Fast Helmholtz Solver in Exploration Seismology

Sebastian Essink* Physical Amala Mahadevan Lagrangian Dispersion and Deformation in Submesoscale Flows Oceanography MASTER’S DEGREES AWARDED [2019] NAME PROGRAM ADVISOR THESIS TITLE Gabriela A. Farfan* Chemical Colleen M. Hansel The Mineralogy and Chemistry of Modern Shallow-Water and Oceanography Deep-Sea Corals Emilie E. Bowman Geology, Geochemistry Oliver Jagoutz North-South Variations in Structure, Topography, and Melting Regime and Geobiology along the Ultra-Slow Spreading Red Sea Ridge Brian M. Green Climate Physics and John Marshall Coupling of the Intertropical Convergence Zone and the Hadley Cells Chemistry to the Ocean's Circulation Laura E. Fleming* Physical Young-Oh Kwon The Influence of Heat Transport on Arctic Amplification Oceanography Danielle S. Gruen* Chemical Gregory Fournier Biogeochemical and Phylogenetic Signals of Proterozoic and Phanerozic Oceanography Microbial Metabolisms Brindha Kanniah Geophysics Brent Minchew Deep Learning to Characterize Ice Stream Flow

Lauren E. Kipp* Chemical Matthew Charette Radium Isotopes as Tracers of Boundary Inputs of Nutrients and Trace Oceanography Elements to the Coastal and Open Ocean

Benjamin Klein Geology, Geochemistry Oliver Jagoutz Processes and Rates of Arc Crust Growth and Differentiation in the and Geobiology Southern Sierra Nevada Crustal Section

Paul E. Lerner* Chemical Olivier Marchal and Scavenging and Transport of Thorium Radioisotopes in the North Oceanography Phoebe Lam Atlantic Ocean

Samuel J. Levang* Physical Ray Schmitt The Response of Ocean Salinity Patterns to Climate Change: Implications BACHELOR’S DEGREES AWARDED [2019] Oceanography for Circulation NAME PROGRAM ADVISOR THESIS TITLE

Mingwei Li Atmospheric Science Noelle Selin Impacts of Emission Policies in China on Air Pollution and Human Health Haley A. Bates-Tarasewicz EAPS - Course XII Ben Weiss Examining the Evidence for Chthonian Planets: Superdense Exposed Exoplanet Cores

Erik Anders Lindgren Climate Physics and R. Alan Plumb Influence of Eddy-Eddy Interactions and Tropical Wind Variability on Jordan T. Benjamin EAPS - Course XII Susan Solomon Analyzing Recent Latitudinal and Seasonal Changes in Simulated Chemistry Sudden Stratospheric Warming Formation Atmospheric Temperatures from a Global Chemistry-Climate Model

Emily D. Matys Geology, Geochemistry Roger Summons Environmental Controls on the Distribution of Bacterial Membrane Lipids Apisada Chulakadabba EAPS - Course XII Dara Entekhabi Water and Carbon Flux Responses to Soil Moisture Pulses in the Western and Geobiology United States

Michael J. McClellan Atmospheric Science Ronald Prinn Estimating Regional Nitrous Oxide Emissions Using Isotopic Ratio Megan Goodell EAPS - Course XII Dan Cziczo Field Measurements of Deposition Mode Ice Nucleating Particles at Observations and a Bayesian Inverse Framework Puy de Dôme

Saied Mighani Geophysics Brian Evans Some Rock Mechanics Problems with Application for Hydraulic Fracturing Emma G. Rutkowski EAPS - Course XII Noelle Selin Coastal Urban Mercury Cycling and Emissions in Boston, Massachusetts

Warittha Panasawatwong Atmospheric Science Chien Wang Evaluating the Trend and Impact Factors of Southeast Asian Monsoon

* Jointly awarded through the MIT-WHOI Joint Program

32 EAPS SCOPE | 2017-2018 EARTH, ATMOSPHERIC AND PLANETARY SCIENCES | MIT SCHOOL OF SCIENCE 33 THE 2019-2020 EAPS GRADUATE FELLOWS SUPPORT THE DEPARTMENT Noah Anderson Donald Martocello Jeemin Rhim J.H. and E.V. Wade Fellow Callahan-Dee Fellow Callahan-Dee Fellow Geology, Geochemistry, and Geobiology Chemical Oceanography Geobiology Earth. Planets. Climate. Life. Advisor: Kristin Bergmann Advisor: Andrew Babbin Advisor: Shuhei Ono

Lesly Franco Joanna Millstein Cassandra Seltzer The Department of Earth, Atmospheric and The important discoveries made by our faculty Norman C. Rasmussen Fellow M. Nafi Toksöz Fellow Patrick M. Hurley Fellow Planetary Sciences (EAPS) is MIT’s hub for inter- and students provide vital data to guide pol- Atmospheric Science Glaciology Geophysics disciplinary research into the inaccessible depths icy-makers and our partners in academia and Advisor: Daniel Cziczo Advisor: Brent Minchew Advisor: Matěj Peč of Earth, distant planets, and asteroids, turbulent industry toward a more sustainable future for oceans and atmospheres, and the origins of life. our planet. Lyssa (Elisabeth) Freese Angel Mojarro Emilie Skoog Norman C. Rasmussen Fellow Grayce B. Kerr Fellow Warren Klein Fellow We are training tomorrow’s scientific leaders. Gifts from alumni and friends power EAPS ed- Atmospheric Science Geology, Geochemistry, and Geobiology Geology, Geochemistry, and Geobiology Our fundamental research seeks to understand ucation and research. Our faculty and students Advisor: Noelle Selin Advisors: Roger Summons & Maria Zuber Advisor: Tanja Bosak all aspects of the natural world, leading us to a need your support to fuel their pioneering better understanding of today’s unprecedented work. With federal funding for research under Alexandra Elizabeth Jones Prajwal Niranha Catherine Wilka global challenges—like climate change, pollu- increasing threat, your annual support is essen- John H. Carlson Fellow Grayce B. Kerr Fellow, James Elliot Fellow Norman C. Rasmussen Fellow tion of our air and waters, escalating risks from tial to ensure that EAPS can continue to be an Biological Oceanography Planetary Science Climate Physics and Chemistry hurricanes, earthquakes, landslides, rising seas, intellectual leader, and to attract and support Advisor: Mick Follows Advisor: Julien de Wit Advisor: Susan Solomon and threatened natural resources. world-class students and faculty.

Brindha Kanniah Meghana Ranganathan Theodore R. Madden (1949) Fellow Sven Treitel [1953] Fellow Giving Opportunities Geophysics Climate Science Advisor: Brent Minchew Advisor: Brent Minchew Every single gift has an impact upon the • M. Nafi Toksöz Fellowship Fund (3311750) — strength of our department. Please consider supports graduate students in geophysics an annual gift to EAPS, or a major gift, or a gift through your estate plan. Become a member • Theodore Richard Madden ’49 Fellowship of the EAPS Patrons Circle by making a gift or Fund (3305800) — supports graduate students SEE THE WORLD WITH EAPS FACULTY! pledge of $87,000 or more either to name a in geology and geophysics graduate fellowship for an academic year or to add to an existing endowed fellowship fund. • Sven Treitel ’53 Graduate Student Support Or endow your own named fellowship with Fund (3312160) — supports graduate students a gift of $1M to help support one graduate in geophysics and other disciplines Journey to Antarctica: Family Odyssey student per year in perpetuity. Or make your The White Continent in Greece gift to any EAPS fund: December 7-20 2019 June 26-July 5 2020

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Looking south from Langjökull Ice Cap, Central Iceland. This image was captured by Cecil Visit us on the web: and Ida Green Career Development Professor Brent Minchew during fieldwork deploying GPS stations to record fluctuations in ice flow velocity caused by seasonal melt of the glacier’s surface. http://eapsweb.mit.edu Minchew and his current group of geophysicists, glaciologists, mechanicians, and geodesists seek to understand how glaciers evolve in response to climatic changes and how they, in turn, impact landform evolution and the global carbon cycle. Using interferometric synthetic aperture radar data and optical imagery, Minchew and his team innovate techniques and software to measure and create detailed maps of ice flow and mechanics, and develop dynamical models. Follow us: facebook.com/EAPS.MIT twitter.com/eapsMIT instagram.com/mit_eaps