PNNL’s BEACONS project is turning a Pasha Hawaii cargo route into a long-term Pacific observatory, collecting autonomous measurements of aerosols, clouds, and weather.

From studying the multisector ripple effects of extreme events to exploring the chemical reactions that underlie life on Earth, two up-and-coming PNNL scientists were recognized for their scientific vision and prowess.

Assistant Secretary Katie Jereza toured PNNL capabilities that translate laboratory innovation into operational and industry impact.

Existing stream monitoring efforts capture some fire-affected regions, but most fires are in places without ongoing water quality monitoring.

A new modeling approach uses burn severity maps to test how reduced infiltration shifts surface water from soil penetration into streams after wildfire.

Model simulations in humid and semi-arid basins revealed distinct thresholds where wildfires begin to significantly alter river water flows and dissolved nutrient transport.

Across 47 sites in the Yakima River Basin of Washington State, faster oxygen consumption occurred with warmer water, more nutrients, and more suspended solids.

Researchers reveal how uncharacterized molecules affect the diversity and composition of dissolved organic matter in rivers.

Measurements show river flow volumes and seasonal timing have shifted; models project where flows will rise, fall, or shift in the future.

A theoretical index linking precipitation and atmospheric evaporative demand explains historical land humidity changes across observations, reanalyses, and climate models.

A 14-year comparison with satellite observations identified robust mesoscale convective cloud statistics and systematic precipitation biases in ERA5.

Observations, reanalysis, and E3SMv3 experiments linked inter-annual variability of Congo Basin surface temperature to the zonal position of precipitation over the Indo-Pacific maritime continent region.

Quasi-stationary Rossby waves shape North American temperature extremes, but higher model resolution does not always improve their modeled representation.

Short-term flooding of an experimental coastal forest impacted soils but not trees, with implications for understanding ecosystem disturbance responses.

Tests show which low-cost 3D method best matches field measurements to minimize errors in mapping headwaters.

Watershed-based representation discretized into topographic subgrid units better captured small-scale land cover, precipitation, temperature, and snow variability across multiple spatial scales.

Lab experiments show that just a few saltwater pulses can rapidly alter soil pore structure and reduce oxygen flow, stressing tree roots in coastal forest soils.

Differences in dissolved organic matter between rivers and estuaries follow similar patterns across freshwater and saltwater coasts.

Numerical simulations reveal how well-controlled wall temperature and moisture can generate a stratocumulus-like cloud top in a laboratory cloud chamber.

A new tracer model tracked how May 2015 storm water re-entered the atmosphere and contributed to later rainfall.