News Archive - Environment

First Results from NASA’s ICESat-2 Mission Map 16 Years of Melting Ice Sheets

In a new study published in the journal Science on April 30, scientists found that net loss of ice from Antarctica, along with Greenland’s shrinking ice sheet, has been responsible for 14 millimeters (0.55 inches) of sea-level rise to the global ocean since 2003.

SDSC Mourns the Loss of Ann Redelfs

Ann Redelfs, who joined the San Diego Supercomputer Center at UC San Diego in 1995 as the Center’s director of external relations before returning to Cornell University in 2001, passed away on April 18 in Duluth, MN, due to complications from a blood clotting disorder.

New Study Looks at How the “Blob” Came Back

Weakened wind patterns likely spurred the wave of extreme ocean heat that swept the North Pacific Ocean last summer, according to new research led by researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder and Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.

UC San Diego Researchers Optimize Microbiome Tool for Computer GPUs

UC San Diego researchers have ported the popular UniFrac microbiome tool to graphic processing units (GPUs) to increase the acceleration and accuracy of scientific discovery including urgently needed COVID-19 research.

Economic Impact of COVID-19 will Make the Fight Against Climate Change Harder

Measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus have reduced the demand for fuel and slashed oil prices. Global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the chief long-term cause of climate warming, have slid perhaps by one-fifth, but can we expect COVID-19 to create lasting change for the planet?

Supercomputers Assist International Engineering Team on Wave Energy Project

Researchers at SDSU and the Polytechnic University of Turin used simulations done on SDSC's Comet supercomputer to study how ocean wave energy converters harness energy and turn it into electricity, offering the potential to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.

Listen Up: Scripps Scientists Use Underwater Microphones to Study Calving Arctic Glacier

Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego are eavesdropping on an Arctic glacier in the name of science. In a new study, Scripps scientists Oskar Glowacki and Grant Deane describe a new method to measure glacier mass loss from iceberg calving.

Online Civic Design Challenge to Help San Diego Address COVID-19

Human-centered design can help San Diego address the COVID-19 pandemic and put our city on course to be more sustainable, too. That’s the basic premise of the 2020 edition of the city-wide design challenge from UC San Diego’s Design Lab called “Design for San Diego,” or D4SD for short.

Pathways Toward Realizing the Promise of All-Solid-State Batteries

UC San Diego nanoengineers offer a research roadmap describing four challenges that need to be addressed in order to advance a promising class of batteries, all-solid-state batteries, to commercialization. The researchers describe their work to tackle these challenges over the past three years.

SDSC Announces Comprehensive Data Sharing Resource

The San Diego Supercomputer Center at UC San Diego has announced the launch of ‘HPC Share’, a data sharing resource that will enable users of the Center’s high-performance computing resources to easily transfer, share, and discuss their data within their research teams and beyond.