Might be the last
chance to hear his findings before his research gets Trumped
Knowing
how much and where the ocean is warming is important to understand how fast the
atmosphere will warm and how much seas will rise.
Gregory
C. Johnson, an oceanographer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, is an expert on
measuring ocean warming—and now he’ll share his research during a talk at the
University of Rhode Island.
Johnson’s
presentation at 4 p.m., Sept. 27 at the Graduate School of Oceanography is part
of the annual Vetlesen Distinguished Speaker Series.
Free
and open to the public, “Improving Estimates of Earth’s Energy Imbalance” will
be held in the Coastal Institute Auditorium on URI’s Bay Campus, 215 South
Ferry Road, Narragansett.
Because of the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere due to human activity, including burning fossil fuels, more energy is entering than leaving at the top of the Earth’s atmosphere.
The
ocean has been absorbing most of this energy, slowing atmospheric warming but
raising sea levels as it expands in response to the warming.
Climate
change is expected to bring profound changes to coastal communities throughout
the world. In Rhode Island, scientists project sea levels to rise 3 to 5 feet
by 2100, and recent government projections are as high as 7 feet. This could
cause catastrophic flooding, especially during storms.
Greatly
improved ocean sampling over the last decade has made it easier to pin down how
much and where the ocean is warming, says Johnson.
Johnson
and his research group collect oceanographic data from Argo, an international
program of 3,800 free-drifting floats that measure the temperature and salinity
of the upper part of the ocean. Data are available on the Internet just hours
after collection.
Scientific
research papers using Argo data are published daily, Johnson says. The data are
also used for weather, seasonal and El Niño forecasts; commercial navigational
and naval operations; and fisheries research and operations.
“My
talk will focus on measurements of uptake of heat energy by various parts of
Earth’s climate system,” he says, “especially by ocean warming analyzed with
Argo data.”
Johnson
is also an affiliate professor at the University of Washington’s School of
Oceanography, a position he’s held since 1993. He earned his doctorate in
oceanography from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution in 1991.
He
was awarded the Georg Wüst Prize in 2013 by the German Society for Marine
Research and the NOAA Administrator’s Award in 2014. He will receive the Henry
Stommel Research Award from the American Meteorological Society in 2018.
The
lecture series is sponsored by the G. Unger Vetlesen Foundation, presented by
GSO, and coordinated by Brian Heikes, URI professor of oceanography.
The
other Vetlesen lectures are:
Oct.
18, Patricia Yager, professor in the department of marine sciences at the
University of Georgia, on “Climate Change Impacts on Antarctic Marine
Ecosystems.”
Nov.
1, M. Dennis Hanisak, director of the Harbor Branch Marine Ecosystem Health
Program at Florida Atlantic University, on “Exploring Pulley Ridge: The Deepest
Mesophotic Coral Reef on the U.S. Continental Shelf.”
Since
its founding in 1955, the Vetlesen Foundation has advanced prominent
oceanographic and earth science institutions in the United States. The
foundation provides grants totaling $5 to $7 million annually to various
institutions.
The
foundation also gives out the Vetlesen Prize, which is awarded biennially for
scientific achievement that results in a clearer understanding of the Earth and
its history or connection to the universe. The international award is one of
the highest honors an earth, oceanographic or atmospheric scientist can
receive.