WASHINGTON – Today U.S. Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen (both D-Md.) announced that University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) will receive a $499,970 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to train graduate students, postdocs, as well as junior faculty in disciplines to advance knowledge of atmospheric radiation and the Earth’s climate system.

“This is a federal investment both in Maryland’s students and in our ongoing efforts to fight climate change, which begins by training the scientists and engineers necessary to study our climate system and unearth new discoveries in climate science,” said Senator Cardin. “I’m proud of UMBC students for pursuing this field and I’m committed to seeing that all our students have the resources they need to succeed.”

“This National Science Foundation grant will help UMBC scientists and researchers to unlock the secrets of our Earth’s atmosphere,” said Senator Van Hollen. “By advancing our knowledge in atmospheric sciences, this grant will lead to innovations and make critical progress in the understanding of our climate system.”

This project will develop a training program focused on improving the modeling and analysis of atmospheric radiation. The advances of satellite-based remote sensing techniques have made significant changes in the way we observe the state of the atmosphere, leading to increasingly large datasets to analyze. Because of these advances, high-performance computing and ‘big data’ have become essential for tackling some of the most challenging questions in the study of our Earth’s climate system, and this grant will help boost knowledge and skillsets of those doing critical work to advance the atmospheric sciences field.

NSF is the funding source for approximately 24 percent of all federally supported basic research conducted by America’s colleges and universities. In fields such as mathematics, computer science and the social sciences, NSF is the major source of federal backing.

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