Distributed science is thriving at PNNL, where scientists share data and collaborate with researchers around the world to increase the impact of the work.

From developing new energy storage materials to revealing patterns of Earth’s complex systems, studies led by PNNL researchers are recognized for their innovation and influence.

Predicting how organisms’ characteristics respond to not only their genes, but also their environments (a nascent field called predictive phenomics), is extraordinarily challenging. Researchers at PNNL are using AI to tackle that challenge.

Peter Heine, senior advisor in the Strategic Threat Analysis group at PNNL, recently travelled to Brussels, Belgium, to support the World Customs Organization's Operation Stingray.

A team of researchers at PNNL has received the 2025 National Nuclear Security Administration CIO Award for developing an innovative solution to enhance secure communications.

PNNL researchers have found yet another way to turn trash into treasure: using algal biochar, a waste production from hydrothermal liquefaction, as a supplementary material for cement.

The ability of a storm-resolving weather model to predict the growth of storms over central Argentina was evaluated with data from the Clouds, Aerosols, and Complex Terrain Interactions (CACTI) field campaign in central Argentina.

Understanding molecular modifications of proteins in the red yeast could help scientists re-engineer the organism’s phenotype.

Researchers have developed the first coastal transport model for microplastics to understand how particles move in waterways and coastal currents.

Large clusters of organized thunderstorms, called mesoscale convective systems, account for half of summer rainfall in the central and eastern U.S. Their formation can be influenced by weather patterns in the mid-levels of the troposphere.

Atmospheric aerosol particles modulate climate and the Earth’s energy balance by scattering and absorbing sunlight. They also seed clouds, acting as cloud condensation nuclei.

High-resolution hydrodynamic-sediment modeling shows that inundation, suspended sediment concentration in the Amazon River, and floodplain hydrodynamics drive sediment deposition in Amazonian floodplains.

Lakes are important sentinels of climate change and contribute significantly to the emissions of the second most important greenhouse gas—methane.

The rate of conversion of cloud droplets to precipitation, known as the autoconversion rate, remains a major source of uncertainty in characterizing aerosol’s cloud lifetime effects and precipitation in global and regional models.

This study used historical data, remote sensing, and aquatic sensors to measure how far wildfire impacts propagated through the watershed after the 2022 Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon fire, New Mexico’s largest wildfire in history.

The prediction of rainfall over the Amazon rainforest by weather and climate models is highly uncertain, particularly for large rainstorms which are commonly seen during the wet season, from March to May.

Extensive in situ and remote sensing measurements were collected to address data gaps and better understand the interactions of convective clouds and the surrounding environment.

To assess the impact of observation period and gauge location, model parameters were learned on scenarios using different chunks of streamflow observations.

PNNL scientist James Stegen and an international team of collaborators recently published a comprehensive review of variably inundated ecosystems (VIEs).

This study presents an automated method to detect and classify open- and closed-cell mesoscale cellular convection (MCC) using long-term ground-based radar observations.