Earth and Environmental Science

Chinmay Govind writing equations on a chalkboard.

Students use machine learning to track and protect whale populations

For their Penn Undergraduate Research Mentoring Program project, Chinmay Govind and Nihar Ballamudi leveraged AI to locate and census whales. The study may inform policy measures that help to improve protections for whale populations worldwide.

5 min. read

Artist depiction of exoplanet LHS 3844 b.

Could exoplanets locked in eternal day and endless night support life?

Ever so slightly bigger than Earth, the exoplanet LHS 3844b orbits its parent star, LHS 3884, a red dwarf 48.5 light-years away from our solar system, in such a way that the speed of its axial spin mirrors the speed of its orbit. The result? One side of LHS 3844b is perpetually bathed in scorching sunlight, locked into a never-ending, blistering hot day, while the other is forever shrouded in darkness so cold that particles are incapable of movement, a state known as absolute zero (zero Kelvin).

7 min. read

Strongest nor’easters getting stronger

Research from Professor Michael Mann and Ph.D. students Annabelle Horton and Mackenzie Weaver shows that as the worst of these East Coast winter storms intensify, so does their destructive potential—a facet that current coastal risk assessments often ignore.

2 min. read

Racing to save Stone Harbor’s Scotch Bonnet Island before it’s swallowed by rising seas

Scientists at Penn predict that Scotch Bonnet Island in New Jersey will lose a third of its acreage by 2050.

Satellite image of Hurricane Helene, 2006

Paris Perdikaris led research on lifesaving and more cost-effective weather predictions

Penn professor Paris Perdikaris and collaborators developed Aurora, a machine-learning model that has predictive capabilities for air quality, ocean waves, tropical cyclone tracks, and weather.

5 min. read

Many on the Navajo Nation blindsided by a hydrogen pipeline change

Joe Romm of the School of Arts & Sciences says that blended gas doesn’t make sense, since the chemical nature of hydrogen will tunnel through and destroy materials like normal steel.

What behavioral strategies motivate environmental action?

A collaborative study from researchers affiliated with the Annenberg School for Communication, Annenberg Public Policy Center, and School of Arts & Sciences tested 17 strategies in an “intervention tournament.”

4 min. read

A climate map showing temperatures and contours.

Using climate modeling to guide global economic and political decisions

Irina Marinov, associate professor in Penn’s School of Arts & Sciences’ Department of Earth and Environmental Science, explains how climate modeling works and the information these models provide.

2 min. read

Why we’re ‘perilously close’ to a global warming threshold

Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences says that a critical warming threshold will be passed in little more than a decade if society continues on its current course.

EPA to review landmark 2009 finding that greenhouse gases are a danger to public health

According to Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences, overwhelming scientific evidence indicates that climate change is the greatest threat faced today.

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