Sea–surface salinity levels in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans can presage heavy rains in the Midwestern United States.

The researchers are participating in the Prediction of Rainfall Extremes Campaign in the Pacific (PRECIP), a $6 million field campaign in Taiwan and Japan funded by the National Science Foundation to improve our understanding of the processes that produce extreme precipitation.

A recent study by an international team of scientists including Raymond Najjar, professor of oceanography at Penn State, found that the flows of carbon through the complex network of water bodies that connect land and ocean has often been overlooked and that ignoring these flows overestimates the carbon storage in terrestrial ecosystems and underestimates sedimentary and oceanic carbon storage.

Even from the Arctic Circle in Alaska, Penn State professor Jose Fuentes is inspiring his students to learn and grow

Penn State Meteorology and Atmospheric Science faculty including Yunji Zhang, Eugene Clothiaux, Steven Greybush, Xingchao Chen and others lead research initiated by the late Fuqing Zhang for more accurate storm rainfall and intensity forecasts.