Earth Sciences15
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Struggling With Towed Equipment, Repairing GPS, and Home
We switched to a towed electromagnetic system to image the fresh and saline groundwater in Bangladesh, and ran into a variety of problems, including high winds, strong currents and running aground.
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A Key U.S. Earth-Sciences Official Visits Columbia to Explore Research Ideas
Oceanographer Richard Spinrad of NOAA participated in a town hall and discussed funding opportunities with Columbia Climate School researchers.
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Solar Energy Explains Fast Yearly Retreat of Southern Ocean Sea Ice
Sea ice in the Southern Ocean retreats each year much faster than it develops. This has puzzled scientists, but the explanation turns out to be simple.
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Continuing the Survey: Watermelon and Winds
Continuing our electromagnetic survey of fresh and saline groundwater, we saw the landscape change from lush watermelon fields to fallow rice fields as the salinity increased towards the sea.
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Barisal and the Eastern Channel
We are continuing our measurements of fresh and saline groundwater in Bangladesh using electromagnetic instruments. We finished our first set of measurements and have now shifted farther east near Barisal where groundwater is fresher.
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Deploying in the Mangrove Forest
We continued our electromagnetic expedition to image fresh and saline groundwater into the Sundarbans Mangrove Forest, the world’s largest. While guards protected us from tigers, it was a wild boar that dug up some of our equipment.
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Scientists Find Surprisingly Stable Carbon Uptake by Land and Oceans From Air
Estimates that predate satellite imagery fill in a missing link and imply that oceans and land have been removing carbon from the air more efficiently than previously thought.
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Sailing Around the Bangladesh Coastal Zone
I am back in Bangladesh to explore the distribution of fresh and saline groundwater in the coastal zone, needed for drinking in the dry season.

AGU25, the premier Earth and space science conference, takes place December 15-19, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana. This year’s theme—Where Science Connects Us—puts in focus how science depends on connection, from the lab to the field to the ballot box. Once again, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Columbia Climate School scientists, experts, students, and educators are playing an active role, sharing our research and helping shape the future of our planet. #AGU25 Learn More

