atmos-news | College of Science

Wilkes Center names leadership team for expanded climate mission

June 19, 2025

The Wilkes Center for Climate Science & Policy at the University of Utah has selected Fielding Norton as its new managing director and John Lin as scientific director to lead the center’s increasing focus on translating climate research into real-world solutions. Norton, a climate scientist and startup investor and advisor, will head the center's overall strategy and operations, while Lin, a U atmospheric sciences professor, will oversee its research initiatives and academic programs.

The Wilkes Center, founded in 2022 by philanthropists Clay and Marie Wilkes, connects rigorous climate research with practical solutions to address environmental and human health challenges.

A vision for broader impact

Fielding Norton at Climate Roundtable

Norton began his career as a science and math educator, then earned his M.S. in applied physics and Ph.D. in earth and planetary sciences at Harvard University before working in the global insurance/reinsurance industry for more than 25 years. There, his teams used science and engineering-based models to manage and price the risk of extreme disasters including floods, hurricanes and wildfires. Norton’s most recent executive role was chief enterprise risk officer of XL Group, a Fortune 100 global insurer and reinsurer based in Bermuda. Now, Norton invests in and advises startups in the insurtech (insurance technology) and climatech (climate technology) space, and serves as senior fellow at the U’s College of Science.

As managing director, Norton’s ambition is to expand the Wilkes Center's benefits to society in several ways. For example, building on the success of the Wilkes Climate Prize, which has funded three promising climate solutions, Norton envisions the center supporting the innovation ecosystem more broadly.

“Now that the Climate Launch Prize attracts more than 1,000 applicants per year, we’re looking to partner with U students, faculty, and alumni, and with investors in Utah, the U.S., and worldwide to fund, incubate, and accelerate the growth of innovative startups that promote growth and energy abundance while decreasing the carbon intensity of our economy.”

Norton also sees opportunities for the Wilkes Center to support communities’ climate resiliency. As wildfires increasingly threaten homes and livelihoods across the West, Norton is working across the U and with external partners to pilot programs that help homeowners and businesses assess and cost-effectively mitigate their risk, both to protect their property and to be more insurable. This demonstrates how the center's research and partnerships can directly address the ways climate change impacts people's daily lives.

"A changing climate is not an abstract scientific challenge—it amplifies risk for communities and increases uncertainty about the future,” said Norton. “We bridge cutting-edge research with practical solutions that make a real difference in people's lives."

Expanding scientific leadership

John Lin. Credit: Todd Anderson

Having served as associate director for the past three years, John Lin brings deep expertise to his new role as scientific director. A Harvard University-trained atmospheric scientist, Lin has led innovative research projects on greenhouse gases and air pollution, including partnering with Google to equip their street view cars to measure air pollution street-by-street across Salt Lake County. His research group oversees greenhouse gas and air quality observations in the Salt Lake area and the Uinta Basin, and works regularly with satellite observations from NASA to determine carbon emissions from cities around the world.

As the Wilkes Center prepares to move into the new L. S. Skaggs Applied Science Building this fall, Lin sees the transition as more than just a change of address. Beyond providing more space and visibility on campus, the move will enable deeper collaboration with students, faculty and researchers across disciplines. This increased capacity arrives at a critical moment, as significant opportunities await the center's attention—like supporting efforts to improve air quality along the Wasatch Front ahead of the 2034 Winter Olympic Games.

Lin's expertise positions the Wilkes Center to play a leading role in developing solutions for the region's air quality challenges. As a trusted leader and collaborator on complex policy issues such as the receding Great Salt Lake, the Wilkes Center is well-positioned to bring together stakeholders and drive meaningful progress on air quality.

“I'm incredibly honored and excited to step into the scientific director role and help guide the center's research initiatives forward,” said Lin. “The Wilkes Center has incredible momentum. I will continue building on this foundation and work with the managing director to expand the center’s impact.”

The new positions come as founding director William Anderegg prepares to step down on June 30 after three years of establishing the center as a national leader in climate research and collaboration.

A unified vision

“With Fielding and John at the helm, we’re entering an exciting new chapter extending the Wilkes Center’s international prominence in bridging academic research with actionable solutions,” said Peter Trapa, vice provost and senior dean of the Colleges and Schools of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the U. “I’m confident their leadership will drive meaningful, lasting change.”

Pearl Sandick, interim dean of the U’s College of Science, also praised the center’s new direction. "John's scientific expertise paired with Fielding's vision for practical climate solutions creates an ideal leadership team for the Wilkes Center," said Sandick. "Their complementary strengths will help the organization continue its trajectory as a leader in climate research and innovation.”

Wilkes Center Leadership Transition

June 19, 2025

After three years as the founding director of the Wilkes Center for Climate Science & Policy at the University of Utah, William Anderegg, professor in the School of Biological Sciences, will step down as the center’s director on June 30th.

Fielding Norton, a venture investor with a climate background, will lead the center’s overall strategy and operations as managing director, while John Lin, a University of Utah atmospheric sciences professor, will oversee the center’s research initiatives and academic programs.

“It has been an incredible privilege to launch the Wilkes Center and guide it through these foundational years,” said Anderegg. “I remain deeply optimistic about addressing climate challenges, and that optimism is fueled by the remarkable work of our faculty, students, and team. They continue to inspire me with their innovative research and commitment to developing real-world climate solutions.”

A solid foundation for climate innovation

Under Anderegg’s leadership, the Wilkes Center positioned the U as a state, national and international leader in science-based climate solutions. Created in 2022 and founded by Clay and Marie Wilkes, the center was designed to promote research, inform public policy and support entrepreneurial solutions to the challenges that climate change poses to society and ecosystems.

Among its major accomplishments, the center launched the annual international Wilkes Climate Prize and several annual events including the Climate Solutions Hackathon for students, the Wilkes Climate Summit and a public speaker series. The center also supported the hires of new climate-focused faculty across campus as well as the creation of the Great Salt Lake Strike Team, a task force designed to inform strategies to increase the lake’s water level, extending its influence beyond the U campus.

Anderegg’s deep expertise in climate change impacts on forests and society in the western U.S. and around the world helped steer the center’s focus during its initial years. He oversaw nation-wide collaborations to develop policy recommendations for nature-based climate solutions, which included partnerships with Microsoft, among others.

“I’m excited to continue and expand our research at the science-policy interface, particularly around the climate risks to forests and society of wildfire, drought, and other disturbances,” Anderegg said.

“It has been an incredible privilege to launch the Wilkes Center and guide it through these foundational years. I remain deeply optimistic about addressing climate challenges, and that optimism is fueled by the remarkable work of our faculty, students, and team. They continue to inspire me with their innovative research and commitment to developing real-world climate solutions.”
~ William Anderegg

Anderegg’s tenure as director solidified his reputation as a world-renowned climate scientist. In 2023, he was awarded both the National Science Foundation’s Alan T. Waterman Award and the Blavatnik Foundation’s National Laureate in Life Sciences award for his work on forest ecosystems and climate change. Anderegg was also recognized as one of the world’s most highly cited researchers by Clarivate.

Anderegg will be remembered not only for his own research and his expert convening of climate innovators but his skill at communicating science to a wide variety of audiences. He demonstrated this routinely, whether as a moderator of a panel on Utah’s energy future, crafting the messaging of center publications or, each year, insightfully framing the annual Wilkes Summit as a forum for thoughtful, real-life, real-time solutions to one of the defining issues of our time. In his final Summit appearance, for example, he memorably summarized the “three pillars of urgency” related to climate change: “it’s here, it’s us, it’s damaging.”

Anderegg’s signature of conveying data-driven science in a concise and clear way continually resonated with academics, industry leaders and policy makers alike.

“Bill’s leadership of the Wilkes Center has inspired so many young science scholars and future innovators across the University of Utah,” said Pearl Sandick, dean of the College of Science. “We are grateful for his leadership for helping launch the center and we’re excited to see what new research projects and partnerships will emerge in the coming years.”

This story originally appeared on the Wilkes Center website here.

Trailblazing with Earth & Environmental Science

June 5, 2025

The program fuses principles from atmospheric science, geology, and ecology to address key questions about the environment — including freshwater availability, the effects of extreme weather, and ecosystem resilience, among other topics. Students in the program join a faculty research stream — studying in a campus lab or out in the field — to acquire valuable experience.

Utah is known worldwide for its geological attributes and abundance of outdoor recreational opportunities. From the Wasatch Mountains to Zion National Park, the state serves as a natural classroom for EES students to study a variety of research topics, including snowfall dynamics, watershed health, aerosol chemistry and much more.

EES students study together in small cohorts, supported by faculty mentors, to develop practical skills for fruitful careers like environmental consulting, resource management, policy, among others. Students can also supplement their studies with a Sustainability Certificate.

Among the first graduating EES students are Ryker Ray and Tucker Hastings.

Ryker Ray

Ryker Ray

"I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience these past two years in the EES major,” says Ray, reflecting on his experience. “A brand-new major can be a little rough around the edges at times, but overall my classes were interesting and challenging."

One of the biggest draws for Ray to study EES was its interdisciplinary focus, reflected in the variety of his research work in the Science Research Initiative. He initially investigated the links between air quality and wildfires in atmospheric scientist Gannet Hallar’s Aerosol Research Lab. Later, he transitioned to biologist Austin Green’s Wildlife-Human Interaction Lab to engage in fieldwork and ecological data analysis. It was there that Ray developed a particular interest in studying carnivores.

"I am evaluating how certain extreme climate variables, which mirror future climate change conditions, are affecting the spatial and temporal behavior of small to large carnivores," says Ray. He focused on developing a framework for wildlife and land management, with the hope of influencing policy.

"We still lack an understanding of the degree to which our urban development affects the behaviors and populations of carnivores across the world," he adds.

Through his research, Ray benefited from a strong mentorship bond with Green. "I have never had such a compassionate and helpful mentor. Austin has always made time for me and the other students in the lab, even when working across two different organizations and caring for a new baby," says Ray.

Beyond the classroom, Ray, who hails from Park City, Utah, co-founded and served as Vice President of the Utah Students for Conservation Club, inspired by his studies and a reforestation internship in Costa Rica. Additionally, he contributed writing and photography to the environment-focused Wasatch Magazine.

Looking ahead, Ray hopes to work in fire ecology. "I want to begin repairing and building a bridge to work with the many Native American tribes and nations who have been using fire to maintain the health of the Western U.S." He hopes to pursue this ambition by founding his own company dedicated to public education and environmental awareness on the issue.

Tucker Hastings

Tucker Hastings

Originally from Santa Fe, New Mexico, William "Tucker" Hastings graduated with a double major in EES and Spanish, along with a minor in atmospheric sciences. As a member of the inaugural EES cohort, he valued the program’s interdisciplinary collaboration. "I enjoyed being able to connect with professors and students in the three different disciplines,” says Hastings. “The major’s emphasis on holistic perspectives and practical experience were also highlights." His EES studies were a particular highlight of his undergraduate career, and he eagerly engaged in research, labs and cross-disciplinary connections.

Hastings’ research focused on Utah's landscapes, stemming from his childhood adventures exploring the state’s wild places. His interest was sparked by a pivotal Science Research Initiative field trip to Costa Rica, where he met with biologists and conservationists. This led to his work in the Şekercioğlu Lab, assisting with trail camera image identification and conducting biodiversity surveys in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

For this project, he collaborated with the Aparecido Lab in the School of Biological Sciences to study the impact of invasive species. He compared areas invaded by Russian olive trees to non-invaded sites to build a model of biogeographic trends. Hastings highlighted a significant knowledge gap: "Despite its long history in Utah, Russian olive has gone largely unstudied in the United States. The work of my lab [was] some of the first to investigate its impacts."

Following graduation, Hastings plans to continue his studies in ecology by pursuing a Ph.D., ideally in desert ecology. His core aspiration is "to use science to promote conservation, as well as community engagement in science and ecology."

by Ethan Hood

Students interested in the Earth & Environmental Science major at the University of Utah can learn more here.

Urgency and hope at 2025 Wilkes Climate Summit

May 22, 2025

Conor Walsh, assistant professor at the Columbia Business School, delivering his keynote address.

Anderegg’s message resonated with his audience of scientists, policymakers, business leaders and others gathered at the third annual Wilkes Climate Summit, hosted by the Wilkes Center on May 15 at the Cleone Peterson Eccles Alumni House on the U’s campus.

This year’s theme—innovation, science and solutions—was manifest in the day’s keynote addresses, panel breakout sessions, and presentations from the seven finalists vying for the $250K Wilkes Climate Launch Prize.

“When [the Wilkes Center] was set up a number of years ago, the dream was to bring immediate innovation to the problem of climate,” said U President Taylor Randall, speaking of Clay and Marie Wilkes whose $20 million donation launched the Wilkes Center in 2022. “[They] fundamentally believed in science and science’s ability to create scalable change and create scalable solutions…When I see individuals [here] dealing with this problem, I leave with nothing but hope and optimism.”

The Wilkes Center’s mission is to accelerate climate solutions through research, education and innovation, goals especially important during these tumultuous times.

“Many of the cuts to science and research that those of us around the country are worried about will hinder America’s prosperity, economic growth, competitiveness and global leadership,” Anderegg said in his opening remarks. “We need science and innovation more than ever.”

Anderegg outlined the four core questions guiding everything the center does, which capture the spirit of discussions happening throughout the summit:

How can we accelerate solutions to yield a global, downward trend in greenhouse gas emissions?
How can we get the best science into the hands of decision- and policymakers?
How can we train the next generation of leaders?
How can we foster innovation to develop, deploy and scale these climate solutions?

“The scientific understanding is really crystal clear; the 2020s are a pivotal decade for climate action,” Anderegg said. “We have a rapidly closing window to avoid the impacts of dangerous climate change and chart a sustainable and prosperous future for everyone here in Utah, around the U.S. and around the world.”

Clean energy transition and the global rise of solar power

The summit kicked off with a morning keynote by Conor Walsh, assistant professor at the Columbia Business School studying the economics of the energy transition. You can read the four highlights from his talks, reports on the seven Wilkes Prize finalist presentations as well as other expansive coverage in the remainder of this article by Lisa Potter in @ The U.

Unravelling Nature’s Marine Cloud Brightening

May 22, 2025

Gerald "Jay" Mace

Recent research conducted by Dr Gerald Mace from the University of Utah and colleagues reveals how air masses passing over the Antarctic continent naturally boost cloud brightness through a complex chain of chemical and physical processes. This natural phenomenon may hold important clues for improving climate models and predicting future climate change.

Nature’s Cloud Factory

The Southern Ocean is one of the most remote and pristine regions on Earth, making it an ideal natural laboratory for studying how clouds formed before human industrial activity began altering Earth’s atmosphere. This vast expanse of water encircling Antarctica experiences some of the planet’s strongest winds and stormiest conditions, yet it’s the region’s clouds that have captured scientists’ attention.

These clouds play a crucial role in Earth’s climate by reflecting sunlight back to space, but climate models have struggled to accurately simulate their properties. Understanding the mismatch between models and observations has become increasingly urgent as scientists work to improve predictions of future climate change.

Dr Gerald Mace and an international team of researchers have been investigating an intriguing pattern: clouds near Antarctica’s coast tend to be brighter and more reflective than those further north over the open ocean. This brightness comes from having more numerous but smaller water droplets packed into the clouds – a property that makes them more effective at reflecting sunlight.

Following the Air’s Journey

To understand what creates these especially bright clouds, Dr Mace and his colleagues tracked air masses as they moved across the Antarctic continent and over the Southern Ocean. They combined multiple types of observations, including data from satellites, research ships, and atmospheric measurements, to build a comprehensive picture of how the clouds evolve.

The team’s analysis revealed that air masses which had recently spent time over the Antarctic ice sheets produced clouds with particularly high numbers of droplets. This effect was especially pronounced when the air had travelled over Antarctica’s high-altitude ice domes, where temperatures are extremely cold and the sun’s rays are intense during the summer months.

These conditions, the researchers surmised, create an ideal environment for forming new particles that can later serve as seeds for cloud droplets. When this particle-rich air descends from the Antarctic plateau and moves out over the ocean, it produces clouds with markedly different properties from those formed in air masses that haven’t passed over the continent.

The Chemistry Behind the Clouds

The process begins in the biologically productive waters near Antarctica’s coast, where tiny marine organisms flourish during the summer months. These organisms release a chemical called dimethyl sulphide (DMS) into the air – a process that has been occurring in Earth’s oceans for millions of years. When this DMS-rich air rises and passes over Antarctica’s ice sheets, it undergoes a remarkable transformation.

Research at Australia’s CSIRO research organisation has examined the complex chemistry involved in this process. This work shows that over the ice sheets, where there are very few existing particles in the air and intense sunlight during summer, chemical reactions convert the DMS into sulfuric acid vapour. This vapour can then form completely new particles through a process called nucleation, which eventually become the seeds for cloud droplets.

This natural particle formation process proves particularly efficient because the air over Antarctica’s ice sheets is exceptionally clean – any existing particles have usually been removed by precipitation before the air reaches the continent. The newly formed particles, therefore, have little competition as they grow large enough to serve as cloud condensation nuclei, the essential seeds around which cloud droplets form.

Read the entire story in Scientia here.

Letters from Antarctica #5

April 19, 2025

Nawrath deploying an expendable bathythermograph (XBT) to measure water temperature - Photo by Yuhang Liu

There is something about a maritime environment that draws in a variety of people. This voyage is no different. For the science crew, going to sea is an infrequent experience or a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. For the crew, this is their norm. So many pathways can lead you here, so one of the questions that I find myself asking everyone is “How did you end up on this voyage?”

I hope to share several people’s journey to working on an Antarctic research vessel. In this letter I will be doing a short profile of a fellow scientist.

Katie Nawrath, Biogeochemist

Katie Nawrath is studying biogeochemistry onboard the Nuyina. Her story starts with growing up near the ocean in Queensland, Australia. Her path to marine science wasn’t straightforward though. Originally, she completed a degree in physiotherapy. She practiced it for 5 years, but her heart was never in it.

In what she described as “a sideways move,” she worked as a game tester for Survivor in Fiji. She said that that job “fulfilled her need to be next to the ocean.” The job ended in 2020 with the COVID-19 pandemic, and she moved back to Queensland and started practicing physiotherapy again. During that time, she took a free, six-month online course from University of Tasmania on Antarctic and Climate Science. The coursework covered climate science and marine science, but she found the later the more interesting. At that point, she decided to move to Tasmania to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Marine and Antarctic Science.

In her third year, she was enrolled in a course called Oceanographic Methods that included sailing on a short transit voyage from Fremantle to Hobart after the Multidisciplinary Investigations of the Southern Oceanvoyage last year. Since I was a scientist on the same voyage, Katie and I could have crossed paths last March on the wharf in Fremantle. On the transit voyage, the students learned oceanographic sampling methods like taking CTDs (Conductivity, Temperature, and Depth measurements) and practicing sampling water.

Katie also worked in a lab washing glassware like vials and beakers for upcoming field work. One day, her boss offered her the opportunity to complete an Honors project that would include participating in the two-month Denman Marine Voyage beginning in March. In Australia, an Honors is a year-long project after finishing a bachelor’s degree. It is often a precursor to a PhD. She accepted the offer and is working on a project comparing the productivity and carbon export in the eastern side versus the western side of the Denman Iceglacier Tongue, a floating extension of the eponymous glacier, which is melting from the bottom up and is susceptible to marine ice sheet instability due to warm water intrusion, potentially leading to rapid retreat and contributing to global sea level rise.

Katie is a volunteer on this voyage although her lab is funded through Australian Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science (ACEAS) which is a government funded program. In Australia, Centres for Excellence are formed which focus on research areas and topics.

Katie’s Honor's project will last nine months. After she is finished with the project, she wants to keep embarking on voyages, hopefully to Antarctica. She said “It is the ocean that brought me here” and she wants to keep studying it.

Letters from Antarctica #4

April 19, 2025

Stapleton shoveling away at the constant deluge of snow and ice onboard - Photo by Pete Harmsen

I hope to share several people’s journey to working on an Antarctic research vessel. In this letter I will be doing a short profile of a field safety officer on board, with the next being of a fellow scientist.

Mick Stapleton, field safety officer

I am lucky enough to share a volunteer shift of sea ice observations with Mick Stapleton, the field safety officer for the seal tagging team. His job is to ensure that ice floes are safe for people to walk on in order to complete seal tagging operations. There is a long list of skills that the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) of the country’s Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment & Water is interested in when hiring field safety experts. It is impossible for one person to have expertise in everything, so most field safety officers have a niche of experience. For Mick, if it involves watercraft or snow machines, his name is likely to come up when looking for a field safety officer.

In the southern hemisphere summers, Mick works as a field safety officer in Antarctica. But his homebase is Victoria, Australia where he works in the winters as ski patrol for a ski resort. His interest in skiing and snow is what started him on this career path. According to Mick, “most Australians don’t work in snow or have experience with snow machines,” so his experience as a ski patroller helped him stand out when applying for field safety officer positions.

Beyond that, Mick has a BA in Outdoor Education and a Diploma of Education. He taught secondary school previously and has experience as a white-water kayaking instructor. Teaching experience, especially in the outdoors, and training in water rescue and first aid are two things that the AAD looks for in field safety officers.

Even with Mick’s experience, it took him six years of applying before he was hired. A small-world connection between participants on this voyage is that during Mick’s first season in Antarctica, he was the safety officer for a field campaign run by another scientist, Benoit, who is on this voyage as well. Earlier their work involved riding snowmobiles around a sea ice field to map out the topography of the area. They lived in tents on the ice for 40 days. That was 20 years ago but both Mick and Benoit both still find themselves coming back to the Antarctic.

On this voyage, Mick helps to assess if a floe is safe for the seal team to walk on. He measures the thickness of the floe, making sure it can support the weight of the team walking around on it. He also checks for structural weaknesses like ridges, undercuts, or snow filled cracks in the ice. He is the first person on the floe and the last person off, ensuring that the whole operation is safe.

Letters from Antarctica #3

April 19, 2025

Boddy releasing a weather balloon for atmospheric research - Photo by Pete Harmsen

I hope to share several people’s journey to working on an Antarctic research vessel. In this letter. I will start with a member of Nuyina’s crew. In subsequent letter’s I will move to a short profile of a field safety officer on board and a scientist.

Stephen Boddy, Deck Operations

Stephen Boddy is one of the IRs (integrated rating) on board Nuyina. He is from Melbourne. One morning at breakfast, Stephen told me that he had a job working for IBM directly out of college where his father worked. However, he quickly learned that he didn’t want to work in an office. At 21 he made a promise to himself that “he would never work inside again” and he has stuck to that. He has stories about working as a windsurfing instructor, an extra in a movie and a field geologist.

After hearing some of Stephen’s stories, I was curious to understand how he ended up working on Nuyina. He said, “It all started when I was 11 when I learned to sail.” Starting his maritime career, he worked on racing boats, delivering yachts, and working on fish farms. This foundation in maritime work is what set him up for an apprenticeship when he found himself in the right circles to become an IR.

The IR certification qualifies a person to operate deck equipment to help with deployments of instruments for the science teams. For each balloon launch the atmospheric science team completes, there is an IR helping us with the deployment by opening the 15 ton heli-hangar door. Their work for other operations includes tasks ranging from operating heavy-duty winches for the sea water sampling to lowering the seal tagging team’s boats off the ship with cranes. The IRs keep the operations on board the ship going and our science wouldn’t be possible without them.

IRs are in high demand, but the certification is very competitive. Stephen said that nine years ago, when he completed his training, most IR positions were passed down through family lines from fathers to sons. However, he met the lecturer for an IR course in Perth while playing poker one night. Because of Stephen’s maritime background the lecturer helped him to get into the 15-week, full-time course at a technical college to become an IR. The coursework is followed by a one and a half year apprenticeship. As an apprentice, he worked on six ships including Australia’s other research vessel, RV Investigator.

While the pay of working on oil and gas tankers was better, Stephen was at odds with the industry and preferred working on the science vessels. Two years ago, a representative of the maritime union called Stephen and asked him what his ideal ship to work on would be. He answered, “The Nuyina.”

The West’s latest air quality threats

April 14, 2025

Kevin Perry

Both are associated with climate change, which is making the West drier and warmer. Neither can be controlled through traditional emission-reduction programs that have helped reduce smog all over the West, especially in Los Angeles.

The symposium’s keynote speaker Nsedu Obot Witherspoon, executive director of the Children’s Environmental Health Network, explored the need for greater equity in how we protect children from air pollution. The other featured speaker, UCLA law professor Ann Carlson, discussed the progress Los Angeles has made in recent decades to rein in emissions responsible for its once-notorious air pollution and what lessons it offers for other cities struggling with bad air.

Reducing vehicle and industrial emissions alleviates particulate and ozone pollution, but such measures make little difference for smoke and dust.

A new Dust Bowl?

Salt Lake City is affected by countless dust sources—gravel quarries, the long-dried Sevier Lake, roads and lands disturbed by cattle grazing and off-roading. But the most troubling could be the shrinking Great Salt Lake, yet the state of Utah has yet to deploy the monitoring equipment to know for sure, said Kevin Perry, a professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences. His tireless sampling forays by bike have earned him the moniker of Dr. Dust.

Derek Mallia

According to Perry’s research, there are four major “hotspots” on the 750 square miles of exposed playa where winds can lift dust into the air and potentially push it into populated areas and nearby mountains, Perry said on a panel devoted to the dust issue. These spots occur where the lakebed crusts have been disturbed, exposing the underlying sediments to the influence of the wind.

Hotspots closest to residential areas are in Farmington Bay, as well as in Bear River Bay, where most of the dust sources are located at elevations above 4,202 feet, nearly 10 feet above where the lake level stands, Perry said. The Farmington Bay spots tend to be at lower elevations.

“You can cover up a significant quantity of these dust hotspots at a lake elevation of 4,200 feet and get 70% coverage at 4,202,” he said. The lake’s ever-fluctuating level is currently at 4,193, a good 5 feet below what officials say is needed to restore Great Salt Lake’s ecological health.

“All of these dust hotspots that I’ve measured are currently exposed. They’re too wet to blow right now, but that’ll change as we move into the drier season,” Perry said. “Even if you bring that lake up to 4,198 feet, that will only cover up about 40% of the dust hotspots.”

Wind events, especially in spring, drive a big share of the Wasatch Front’s dust problem, pushing particulate pollution from the lake and other sources into the cities of Salt Lake, Davis and Weber counties and into the mountains where it settles onto the snowpack. Research shows this dust contains elevated levels of cadmium, arsenic, lead and other hazardous metals, depending on its source.

“Before a cold front hits our valley, we have really strong winds from the south that scream 25 mph or more for up to 18 hours. As that front passes, the winds change and move from the west to the northwest and stay strong for a few hours. So if you look at the data from the airport at Salt Lake International Airport, when we have these strong wind events that create these big dust storms, 75% of the time the dust is moving north to communities of Layton and Syracuse and Ogden.”

Perry and his colleagues, including Derek Mallia, are eager to quantify the impact of lake playa dust on Wasatch Front cities, but there is currently not sufficient data being collected along the lake’s populated eastern shore, he said.

Read the full article by Brian Maffly in @ The U.

Dust in the Wind: How cities alter natural airborne particles

April 5, 2025

Map of the study area in the southwestern United States. Dust collectors are marked by stars corresponding to their position. The background image is an atmospheric footprint map derived from HYSPLIT-STILT backward trajectory simulations denoting the frequency with which air masses crossed different landscape positions en route to the Salt Lake City/Provo urban area during the two-year duration of this study. Warmer colors (higher values) correspond to areas more likely to have served as a regional source for dust reaching the urban collectors.

Airborne dust pollution has been a concern for Utahns for several years, especially with the exposed lakebed of Great Salt Lake potentially becoming more hazardous as the lake dries. Natural dust blows from the Great Basin and settles along the western edge of the Wasatch Front, Utah’s major population center, and the surrounding mountains. While airborne, the dust mixes with local human-made materials, potentially contaminating the nearby watershed and resulting in other negative consequences, according to new research from the University of Utah that investigates the influence of urban environments on transient dust.

A study team led by U atmospheric scientist Kevin Perry and Jeff Munroe, a geology professor at Middlebury College, considered Earth’s “Critical Zone,” a near-surface layer where organisms interact with rock, air, soils and water. Dust processes such as deposition, erosion and transport influence the Critical Zone.

Dust particles are typically diverse in their composition, as they are influenced by natural environments. However, agriculture, grazing, off-roading, construction, mining and other human activities alter the dust composition, with important implications for places like Utah’s populated Salt Lake Valley.

“The problem is that there are lots of dust sources in the urban area, and when it’s windy and it’s picking up dust from Great Salt Lake and other places upstream, it gets mixed in with this local dust that has a lot more junk in it,” Perry said. “So if we think about the contaminants of concern in Great Salt Lake dust, and then you add in additional contaminants from the local dust, it just makes it that much more potent, and not in a good way.”

Home to 2.5 million people, or three-fourths of Utah’s population, the Wasatch Front is particularly susceptible to dust pollution, so it provides an ideal laboratory for investigating interactions between natural and urban dust, according to the study, which was funded by the National Science Foundation.

“Our dust comes from various sources. We have natural sources like the West Desert, the Bonneville Salt Flats, Sevier Lake, but then we also have a lot of dust from Great Salt Lake and anthropogenic dust sources, quarries at Point of the Mountain, the Staker quarry in North Salt Lake,” said co-author Derek Mallia, a research assistant professor of atmospheric sciences. “This can be locally sourced, but you can also get dust impacts from sources on the other side of the Great Basin. An artifact of being on the eastern side of the Great Basin is we’re just downwind of a ton of dust sources.”

Read the full article by Ethan Hood in @The U.

Wilkes Center names leadership team for expanded climate mission

Climate physicist Fielding Norton and U atmospheric scientist John Lin take new positions.

A vision for broader impact

A unified vision

Inaugural Director William Anderegg has established a legacy of communicating science and convening innovators at The Wilkes Center for Climate Science & Policy

A solid foundation for climate innovation

Trailblazing with Earth & Environmental Science

One of the newest majors available for undergraduate students at the University of Utah is Earth & Environmental Science (EES).

Ryker Ray

Tucker Hastings

Urgency and hope at 2025 Wilkes Climate Summit

Clean energy transition and the global rise of solar power

Unravelling Nature’s Marine Cloud Brightening

In the pristine waters of the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica, scientists have discovered fascinating patterns in cloud formation that could have major implications for understanding Earth’s climate.

Nature’s Cloud Factory

Following the Air’s Journey

The Chemistry Behind the Clouds

Science with high honors

Katie Nawrath, Biogeochemist

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Keeping Seal Taggers safe

Mick Stapleton, field safety officer

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Deck operations

Stephen Boddy, Deck Operations

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the West’s latest air quality threats

A new Dust Bowl?

Dust in the Wind: How cities alter natural airborne particles

Salt Lake's locally sourced dust pollution carries far more hazardous elements than natural dust blown in from Great Basin.