University of Maryland and state government officials joined Monday to hoist a 30-foot tower into place in a farm field near Ellicott City, Md., activating the first piece of a statewide system that will speed early warnings about the kind of dangerous weather that twice in recent years took lives and destroyed buildings in the city’s historic downtown.

The National Science Foundation awarded Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, Dr. R. Dwi Susanto a $0.75 million grant to monitor Indonesian throughflow (ITF), the only pathways of the Pacific to Indian Ocean exchange through the Indonesian seas, which is essential for understanding the role of the ocean in Earth’s climate system.

AOSC Professor Ross Salawitch questions some findings in a recently published study in a Washington Post interview.

Xin-Zhong Liang has been elected Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).

For a Baltimore urban farmer who needs to know spring rain trends for planting or a Chesapeake Bay waterman looking to confirm whether disruptively windy days are on the rise, Alfredo Ruiz-Barradas is ready with answers.

The article addresses fundamental cloud issues – why cloud heights differ and the resulting impact on climate – and the open questions.