climate change

Team iManhole Wins Fall 2023 EGHI/GT Global Health Hackathon

dgivens8 — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 15:23:41 +0000

Team iManhole Wins Fall 2023 EGHI/GT Global Health Hackathon dgivens8 Fri, 03/22/2024 - 11:23

Students tackled climate change in the Fall 2023 Emory Global Health Institute (EGHI) /Georgia Institute of Technology (GT) Global Health Hackathon, Nov. 11, at Tech Square ATL Social. Competing for cash prizes and a spot in GT Startup Launch, first place went to Team iManhole. The team created an integrated system that gathers real-time data from manholes and uses machine learning algorithms to predict flooding to manage traffic and evacuation routes.

“The effects of climate change are felt in every country with the brunt and burden of an unmanaged climate crises threatening to set back global health progress by eroding decades of poverty eradication and health equity efforts worldwide,” said Dr. Rebecca Martin, EGHI director of Emory Global Health Institute. “Students are an important partner in our work as a global community to mitigate the impacts of climate change on health, safety, and security.”

The EGHI/GT Global Health Hackathon is a partner event between EGHI and CREATE-X. It provides multidisciplinary student teams from Emory University and the Georgia Institute of Technology an opportunity to create technology-based product solutions for global health problems. The target for this fall’s event was creating solutions that address urban flooding, urban heat, or global sea level rise in densely populated, low-resource urban settings. Prizes included $4,000 and a golden ticket into CREATE-X Startup Launch for first place winners, $3,000 for second place winners, $2,000 for third place winners, and $500 each for two honorable mention winners.

“This hackathon continues to be a wonderful partnership between our two institutions that gives these talented students the platform and support to put forward solutions to the most pressing issues we face today,” Rahul Saxena, director of CREATE-X, said. “Each hackathon, I’m increasingly impressed with their ingenuity and their dedication to build something of impact.”

Check out the event program on the EGHI website and see photos from the event on the CREATE-X Flickr account. The full list of the winners of this year’s event includes:

1st Place: iManhole

An integrated system that gathers real-time data from manholes and uses machine learning algorithms to predict flooding to manage traffic and evacuation routes

Team Members: Imran Shah, Leonardo Molinari, and Jiaqi Yang

2nd Place: Canopy

A climate-tech software platform for democratizing climate analytics using machine learning for urban development planning.

Team Members: Deesha Panchal, Kruthik Ravikanti, Vaibhav Mishra, Nicholas Swanson, Jennifer Samuel, and Vaishnavi Sanjeev

3rd Place: Floodwise

A package of effective simulations and an informed chatbot that help facilitate wise decisions during floods.

Team Members: Ansh Gupta, Dimi Deju, Mukund Chidambaram, and Sahit Mamidipaka

Honorable Mention

Conquering Heat Islands

Process and hardware that uses excess solar power to mine crypto

Team Members: Rida Akbar, DJ Louis, Edward Zheng, Dmitri Kalinin, and Jade Bondy

Real-Time Computational Modeling of Urban Flooding and Evacuation in Local Atlanta Communities

Integrated system to gather real-time data from manholes and use machine learning algorithms to predict flooding and optimize traffic/evacuation.

Team Members: Imran Shah, Leonardo Molinari, and Jiaqi Yang

Subtitle

Summary sentence

Students tackled climate change in the Fall 2023 Emory Global Health Institute (EGHI) /Georgia Institute of Technology (GT) Global Health Hackathon, Nov. 11, at Tech Square ATL Social.

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Dateline

Thu, 12/07/2023 - 12:00

breanna.durham@gatech.edu

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Breanna Durham

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breanna.durham@gatech.edu

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Source updated

Fri, 03/22/2024 - 11:22

Everlasting African Wildfires Fueled by Aerosol Feedback

admin — Wed, 03 Jan 2024 18:30:47 +0000

Everlasting African Wildfires Fueled by Aerosol Feedback admin Wed, 01/03/2024 - 13:30

Africa is on fire. It has been for thousands of years. The continent contains more than 50% of the total area on Earth that is burning, on average, and there is no sign of it stopping — indeed, the migrating, hemisphere-hopping African wildfire season is steadily increasing.

The fire is essentially feeding itself in a kind of feedback loop as aerosols, induced by the perpetual conflagration, interact with the climate. It’s a process that plays a critical role in the regulation of African ecosystems, reinforcing wildfires and paving the way for elevated fire seasons in subsequent years.

Aerosols are tiny particles that have a large impact on the Earth’s climate. They comprise a wide range of materials. Besides the human-induced air pollution that we can see (that brown smog is the interaction of light with aerosols), there are a lot of natural aerosols: salty sea spray, mineral dust, volcanic ash, and wildfire smoke.

Suspended in the atmosphere, the role of aerosols in our climate is complex. But a new study by Georgia Tech researchers demonstrates the role they play in the African wildfire life cycle. The research, published in the journal iScience, could have significant implications for understanding the impacts of fires and climate change in Africa and other regions of the planet prone to wildfire.

“We used to think that aerosols had a short-term, localized climate impact and can be effectively removed by precipitation within a week. But in this study, we’re showing that isn’t necessarily correct,” said Yuhang Wang, professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and corresponding author of “Positive Feedback to Regional Climate Enhances African Wildfires.”

The Wang lab works at solving mysteries of atmospheric pollution, and the team is onto something with its latest research, revealing new clues in its study of wildfires in Africa, where the unique alternation between dry and wet seasons along the equator extends the lifespan of aerosols.

“Basically, with the combination of wildfires and fire-induced aerosols, the impact of aerosols can be longer term, extending over seasons,” said Wang, whose team invented the tool it needed to complete its investigation.

Building a Better Model

Several years ago, Wang’s lab developed the Region-Specific Ecosystem Feedback Fire (RESFire) Model to augment the existing, publicly accessible Community Earth System Model (CESM). Managed by the National Center for Atmospheric Research, CESM is an open-source global climate model that provides computer simulations of the Earth’s climate system.

RESFire improves CESM’s fire simulation capability, helping researchers develop a better grasp of complex fire-climate-ecosystem interactions, “which are still not very well understood,” said Wang, whose team used its CESM-RESFire model to study aerosol feedback in Africa for the latest research.

“We found that the extension of the aerosols’ lifespan in Africa occurs through a positive feedback mechanism,” said Wang.

Aerosols can essentially give clouds a bad case of constipation, absorbing vapor from the atmosphere and reducing the growth of large cloud droplets, making it difficult for clouds to make large droplets.

“Fire aerosols are transported from burning or dry regions to wet regions,” Wang explained. “That leads to reduced precipitation and drying of fuel loads.”

The Feedback Mechanism

Identifying the fire-aerosol positive feedback mechanism in Africa sheds light on wildfire-related climate feedback globally. Other studies have shown that in some coastal areas, such as the western United States, fire smoke alters local fire weather, resulting in positive feedback. These coastal regions have distinct fire seasons, and the escalation caused by aerosol feedback doesn’t persist into the next fire season.

Africa is different. With its shifting fire regions and prevailing winds, the positive feedback affects the current season and amplifies burning in the subsequent season. And fire weather season has increased by up to 40% in Africa over the past four decades, which means there may be shifts in distribution and variability of burned areas.

“The good news is that this mechanism is self-sustaining. It even has some resilience built in,” Wang said. “The question is what happens in the presence of persistent global climate change. What we know is, the mechanism underlying this natural system of wildfires depends on the current state of the atmosphere.”

The positive feedback mechanism implies that a warmer, drier climate will likely lead to more persistent burning in Africa in the future, the researchers write, concluding, “The systematic fire-climate feedback may also be present in other fire-prone tropical regions and has significant ramifications for understanding the impacts of fires and climate change on humans and plant life.”

Citation: Aoxing Zhang, Yuhang Wang, Yufei, Zou. “Positive feedback to regional climate enhances African wildfires.” iScience.

Funding: This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) (grant 1743401).

Summary sentence

Wildfires in Africa are fueled by a feedback loop mechanism as aerosols interact with the climate

Summary

Wildfires in Africa are fueled by a feedback loop as aerosols, induced by the fire, interact with the climate. It plays a critical role in the regulation of African ecosystems, reinforcing wildfires while also paving the way for elevated fire seasons in subsequent years.

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Wed, 01/03/2024 - 12:00

jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu

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Wed, 01/03/2024 - 13:29

Balancing Act of Hurricane Season Sways With Climate Change

admin — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 15:41:31 +0000

Balancing Act of Hurricane Season Sways With Climate Change admin Thu, 07/06/2023 - 11:41

Hurricane season is underway and runs through Nov. 30. While the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is forecasting a “near-normal” 2023, experts say that climate change paints a more unpredictable picture for the future.

Behind the 2023 projections is a balancing act of rising oceanic temperatures and the onset of the climate phenomenon El Niño, explains Susan Lozier, dean and Betsy Middleton and John Clark Sutherland Chair in the College of Sciences. The waters of the tropical Atlantic Ocean are currently 1 – 3°C above average, which would typically signify the potential for more intense activity, but the wind shear associated with El Niño acts as a deterrent for hurricane formation.

Increasing Intensity

But what could happen when the shield of El Niño isn't present to counteract the rising temperatures in the tropical Atlantic?

"Climate change is leading to warmer surface temperatures. We know that will lead to more intense hurricanes, but we don't know if it will necessarily lead to more hurricanes. As climate change progresses, we are interested in understanding how weather patterns will be disrupted, including those related to hurricane formation and pathways," said Lozier, who recently served as president of the American Geophysical Union.

She further explained that the increased intensity is a result of the warm waters releasing additional energy into the storm as it forms. This consequence of climate change could present problems for the Tech campus and the city of Atlanta due to the risk of torrential rainfall. According to the National Weather Service, flooding has proven to be the deadliest hazard associated with hurricanes over the past decade.

"When people think about hurricanes, they generally think about damaging winds. Winds are damaging, but increasingly, the most damaging part of a hurricane is the immense amount of moisture they carry," Lozier said, reflecting on the 2017 landfall of Hurricane Harvey. "An area like Atlanta could be affected by heavy rainfall associated with the path of a hurricane. The winds will have mostly died down by the time a storm reaches Atlanta, but as the climate warms, warmer air holds more moisture, and because of that, the expectation is that there will be more rainfall associated with hurricanes and tropical storms.”

Beyond Reducing Carbon Emissions

Fueling the rising temperatures in the world's oceans is an increase in carbon emissions, and simply curtailing them may not be a solution.

"The private and public sectors are increasingly looking at actively removing carbon from the atmosphere because we are unlikely to limit global warming simply by curtailing emissions. Active carbon drawdown from the atmosphere and the ocean are active areas of research right now,” Lozier said.

Tech researchers are at the forefront of this effort, highlighted by a partnership between the Institute, the Georgia Aquarium, and Ocean Visions — the Center for Ocean-Climate Solutions. Lozier represents the Institute as a partnership lead at the center, where the primary focus is the design and delivery of scalable and equitable ocean-based solutions to reduce the effects of climate change and build climate-resilient marine ecosystems and coastal communities.

Associate Professor Chris Reinhard is exploring how coastal ecosystem restoration can permanently capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as it becomes buried in sediments on the seafloor. The overall process of removing carbon from the air can be costly. To combat that, a team of researchers in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering is developing a traditional direct air capture system that is cheaper to operate and more efficient. Helping to craft policy and research climate solutions, Marilyn Brown, Regents’ Professor and the Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems in the School of Public Policy, serves on the leadership council of Drawdown Georgia.

A certain level of unpredictability will always exist when dealing with natural disasters, but understanding humans’ role in controlling climate change could be a key factor in our ability to accurately assess the threat of developing storms.

Subtitle

Forecasts call for a near-normal hurricane season, but climate change could make future seasons more unpredictable than ever before.

Summary sentence

Forecasts call for a near-normal hurricane season, but climate change could make future seasons more unpredictable than ever before.

Summary

Forecasts call for a near-normal hurricane season, but climate change could make future seasons more unpredictable than ever before.

Dateline

Thu, 07/06/2023 - 12:00

Steven.gagliano@gatech.edu

Contact

Steven Gagliano - Communications Officer

Institute Communications

Sidebar

So far, no named storms have formed in the early going of the 2023 hurricane season. However, don’t wait for a storm’s arrival to start preparing. Here are tips from the National Weather Service on how to get ready for a hurricane:

Pack a basic disaster supplies kit. Check emergency equipment such as flashlights, generators, and storm shutters regularly.
Write or review your family emergency plan. Before an emergency happens, sit down with your family or close friends and decide how you will get in contact with each other, where you will go, and what you will do in an emergency. Keep a copy of this plan in your emergency kit or another safe place where you can access it in the event of a disaster. Start at the Ready.Gov emergency plan webpage.
Review your insurance policies to ensure that you have adequate coverage for your home and personal property.
Understand NWS forecast products, especially the meaning of NWS watches and warnings.

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Thu, 07/06/2023 - 11:32

Research Study Finds Unexpected Interactions in Formation of Secondary Organic Aerosol in Atmosphere

admin — Tue, 31 Jan 2023 16:49:23 +0000

Research Study Finds Unexpected Interactions in Formation of Secondary Organic Aerosol in Atmosphere admin Tue, 01/31/2023 - 11:49

Secondary organic aerosol (SOA) consists of extremely small particles generated in the atmosphere from natural and human-made emissions. It is a major constituent of PM2.5 (particulate matter with a diameter smaller than 2.5 micrometers) worldwide that is known to affect climate and human health.

Nga Lee “Sally” Ng, Love Family Professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, and School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, led a study to investigate the formation and properties of SOA from the nitrate radical oxidation of two common monoterpenes, compounds found in many plants. Monoterpenes represent an important class of biogenic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and their oxidation by nitrate radicals is a substantial source of SOA globally. Specifically, her research team examined the monoterpenes α-pinene and limonene, which are both emitted in large quantities from trees.

In findings published in the journal Nature Communications in the paper, “Non-linear effects of secondary organic aerosol formation and properties in multi-precursor systems,” Ng’s team found that oxidizing mixtures of monoterpenes simultaneously produced different results than observed through oxidizing them separately in laboratory chamber experiments. Given the chemical complexity of VOC reactions and SOA formation, previous experiments have mostly only studied one VOC compound at a time. In this study, Ng’s team used advanced mass spectrometry techniques to probe chemistry of multi-VOC reactions from the bulk to molecular level.

“Our results highlight that unlike what is currently assumed in atmospheric models, the interaction of products formed from individual VOCs should be accounted for accurately to describe SOA formation and its climate and health impacts," Ng said.

Ng explained that one might have expected α-pinene and limonene to have the same potential to form SOA when they are oxidized as mixtures simultaneously compared to when they are oxidized separately. But what the researchers found was approximately a 50% percent enhancement in the formation of SOA from α-pinene and about a 20% reduction in limonene SOA formation.

“In this case, one plus one does not equal two,” Ng said. “We do not get a linear reaction in the simultaneous oxidation experiment like we do in the sequential experiment. New products are being made by the interaction of the two monoterpenes.”

Ng’s study examined α-pinene and limonene in a nighttime setting when nitrate radical chemistry prominently happens. Nitrate radicals are produced by traffic emissions and ozone.

“Aerosol chemistry does not stop at night,” Ng said. After sunset, the nitrogen oxide compounds and ozone can react with the emissions from trees to produce organic aerosols. “At night, oxidation still takes place, but nighttime interactions have not been well studied.”

Ng said she hopes this research will lead to further studies to examine VOCs in the atmosphere and how they interact together. “Studying the interaction of two VOCs is really just the beginning,” Ng said. “It’s a big step froward, but there’s still a long way to go to understand the complexity of the atmosphere, where hundreds of VOCs are emitted and reacting at the same time.”

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER AGS-1555034 (N.L.N), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) NA18OAR4310112 (N.L.N), and the Eckert Postdoctoral Fellowship from the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology (T.B.). The FIGAERO-HR-ToF- CIMS has been purchased through the NSF Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Grant 1428738 (N.L.N).

CITATION: Masayuki Takeuchi, Thomas Berkemeier, Gamze Eris, Nga Lee Ng, "Non-linear effects of secondary organic aerosol formation and properties in multi-precursor systems," Nature Communications, December 2022. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35546-1

Summary sentence

Nga Lee “Sally” Ng leads a new study investigating the formation and properties of secondary organic aerosol from the nitrate radical oxidation of two common monoterpenes, compounds found in many plants.

Summary

Dateline

Mon, 01/30/2023 - 12:00

braddixon@gatech.edu

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Brad Dixon, braddixon@gatech.edu

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Atlanta, GA

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Tue, 01/31/2023 - 09:12

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Team iManhole Wins Fall 2023 EGHI/GT Global Health Hackathon

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Everlasting African Wildfires Fueled by Aerosol Feedback

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Balancing Act of Hurricane Season Sways With Climate Change

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Research Study Finds Unexpected Interactions in Formation of Secondary Organic Aerosol in Atmosphere

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