Off to London, guvnor!

Jud Partin and I are off to University College London to attend a workshop entitled Palaeovariability: Data-Model Comparisons. The main aim of the workshop is to facilitate interaction between paleoclimate data gatherers (or "proxy people" such as myself who produce paleoclimate records) and paleoclimate modelers (who use state-of-the-art GCMs to model ancient climates) to figure out novel and optimal methods to actually compare model output to proxy data.

Climate models used to forecast future climates can also be used to simulate past climates based on different climate forcings in the past (such as variations in the Earth's orbit, CO2 etc.) Paleoclimate records of temperature, salinity, rainfall etc. that are generated from proxy data, can be used to test and validate the hindcasts of these climate models. However, there are multiple sources of uncertainty, both from the modeling side and the proxy side, that hinder straightforward comparison between paleoclimate proxy data and paleoclimate model output. For example, the world in models is divided into multiple grids, the size of which defines the spatial resolution of the model. Paleoclimate records obtained from proxy data on the other hand, are generated from one spatial point (eg. a coral, sediment cores, ice cores etc.) What is the best way to compare data and model output? Grid-to-spatial point? Extrapolation? Interpolation? These questions don't have straightforward answers either. Further, there can be multiple age-related uncertainties in the proxy (analytical radiogenic error, bioturbation etc.) that might make you think you are comparing apples and apples from the same time period, when they are actually apples belonging to totally different eras. Most importantly, how well can different climate models simulate climates in a particular region/time and how well can different proxies actually reconstruct climatic parameters?

Well, I hope to gain some insights into all these questions and more, during my time in London! I will be talking about interpreting individual foraminiferal analyses data and how best to reconcile them with model output. My talk is entitled: Paleoceanographic reconstructions using individual foraminifera in the tropical Pacific: Records of annual cycle or ENSO variability? Jud will be bringing his tropical paleoclimate expertise to the table with a talk entitled Tropical Climate Variability in the Western Pacific on Sub-annual to Orbital Timescales. All in all, I'm looking forward to a great week in London, guvnor!

A Liquid Nitrogen Incident

A couple of Tuesdays ago, Marissa Vara, an undergraduate researcher in our lab, and I were expecting our weekly liquid nitrogen delivery from Air Products. Before the delivery arrived, I remembered an errand I had to run in the other building. Before leaving, I told Marissa to text me when our delivery person showed up. Unfortunately, Marissa did not know that I had changed my phone number and I hadn't bothered to tell her either. So naturally she texted my old phone number, which, as we later figured out, now belongs to someone else. Comedy ensued (Marissa in blue; owner of my old ph. no. in silver):

Of course, with my penchant for eccentricity, Marissa thought this was weird but not outside the 2σ realm of possibilities. So she didn't mention the incident until yesterday when I told her that my phone number had changed. The eureka moment was, "Wait, then who was I texting about liquid nitrogen?!"

2012: A Review

The past year was quite eventful for me. Here are twelve photographs and associated trivia from the months of 2012:

January

  In January, I returned to India after 1.5 years in the US and it was a treat to see my family and friends. Pictured here is my awesome grandmother, who takes pride in that I study 'nature' for a job.

February

 I was back in Austin around late January and was gearing up to get my Master's thesis on the statistics of individual foraminiferal analyses started while working on Gulf of Mexico sediment cores. Staying late in the department became a norm, after which I used to pass the UT Austin tower to catch the bus back home.

March

South by Southwest (SxSw) is an annual festival of music & film that happens in Austin. March 2012 was my 2nd SxSw adventure. The above picture was shot at Emo's East. High on Fire were the headlining act and there was a half-pipe where anyone with a skateboard could join in on the fun. Yes, the show was fantastic.

April

This is a noisy Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) in my backyard - April was a quiet, but hectic month - I got my Master's degree in geological science and was prepping to leave for the South Pacific.

May

In May 2012, my life changed forever when I went to do field work in the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific. We encountered this fisherman with his kids on his canoe, in southern Ngela Sule.

June

Continuing my Solomon Island field visit into June, I was spotting lifer after lifer. This pretty fellow is an Olive-backed Sunbird (Cinnyris jugularis) shot at Husuzo, Rendova.

July

After two months in the Solomon Islands, I came back to Texas in July - for three weeks. July was a very, very busy month. I had, amongst other things, a paper and three AGU abstracts to submit, to obtain a visa for my upcoming German trip and most importantly, I had to acquire data from the Gulf of Mexico sediment cores. Pictured above is sea-floor sediment collected by a multi-core from the Garrison Basin in the northern Gulf of Mexico

August

This was a gorgeous sunset at Tulaghi. Due to -ahem- certain technical difficulties, we had to return to the Solomon Islands and finish what we had started to do - coring and slabbing massive corals.

September

After getting back from an excruciating second field campaign, I spent all of three days in Austin before leaving for Hamburg in the first week of September. I was attending a summer school on 'Climate Change in the Marine Realm' where I spent two weeks in (primarily northwest) Germany. The sand dunes you see above are on the island of Sylt which could easily have been Frank Herbert's muse.

October and November

October and November were (happily) spent in Austin, preparing for the AGU conference. I had three presentations to prepare for which meant that there was no dearth of work. However, being in Austin, I made sure I had my fair share of fun as well.

December

The 2012 AGU meeting at San Francisco was a big deal for me as it was my first time presenting (though it was my 2nd time there). I had a fantastic meeting and it was great catching up with familiar faces and meeting new scientists and students alike. After the conference, a couple of friends and I stuck around the Bay Area and took a few of days off. This Rough-skinned newt (Taricha granulosa) was the coolest amphibian I had seen since the Solomons!

And with that, as I said, 2012 was an eventful year so here's hoping 2013 keeps me on my toes too! I wish you guys have an intriguing and eventful year as well!