Newsworthy clips from around ARL
Boundary Briefs
ARL participates in a hackathon for HYSPLIT
May 12, 2026
ARL’s HYSPLIT team members Sonny Zinn, Christopher Loughner, Fantine Ngan and Alice Crawford participated in an Open Hackathon to improve the speed in which the HYSPLIT model can simulate the transport of hazardous airborne materials. Mentored by David Appelhans from NVIDIA, the team used a modified version of HYSPLIT to improve performance and drafted a plan to integrate this improvement into operation. Supported by ARL’s IT team Rick Jiang and Fred Shen with software and compiler setup, the team gained critical skills in parallelization, benchmarking, and profiling—expertise that will also benefit future AI and machine learning applications. The three-week event began with planning sessions on April 21 and 28, culminating in a focused code sprint from May 5–7.
*This work was completed in part at the NCAR/NLR/NOAA Open Hackathon, part of the Open Hackathons program. We would like to acknowledge OpenACC-Standard.org for their support.
Congratulations Dr Xinrong Ren
May 6, 2026
Xinrong Ren was recognized with the Order of Sherman’s Lagoon award.
The award reads: “For exceptional initiative in advancing NOAA’s urban air quality monitoring. Dr. Ren has gone above and beyond by personally leading extensive field campaigns with the Air Resources Car and research aircraft to capture critical data on greenhouse gases and ozone. His tireless dedication to maintaining complex instrumentation, coupled with his commitment to mentoring the next generation of atmospheric scientists, significantly enhances the agency’s service to the nation and supports vital regional environmental policies.
Congratulations Xinrong!
NASA honors ARL researchers
May 6, 2026
A number of ARL scientists were honored to receive a NASA Group Award for their work on the Atmospheric Emissions and Reactions Observed from Megacities to Marine Areas (AEROMMA) project.
Xinrong Ren, Phillip Stratton, Nebila Lichiheb, Paul Kelley, Winston Luke (retired) and Kaitlin Escobar (intern) were among the group awardees.
The AEROMMA project continued decades of successful collaborative field efforts between NOAA and NASA, investigating how anthropogenic and marine emissions alter tropospheric composition and impact air quality and climate over North America. Combining airborne, ground, and satellite systems with advanced air quality and climate models, AEROMMA addressed emerging research needs in urban air quality, marine-urban atmospheric interactions, marine emissions, satellite observations, and climate change.
As a result of this exceptional accomplishment, the AEROMMA team was awarded the prestigious NASA Group Achievement Award in June of 2025. This honor is one of NASA’s highest accolades for a team and awarded only to those who have made exceptional contributions to NASA’s mission and scientific endeavors. This recognition reflects the hard work, dedication and remarkable accomplishments of the entire AEROMMA team.
Air Resources Car inspires NOAA kids
April 29, 2026
NOAA hosted Kids Day on April 23 in honor of National Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day. NOAA employees and affiliates were invited to bring their children to the NCWCP building to see what we do at NOAA. 75 kids as young as five participated in a variety of activities to show them how NOAA scientists work relates to weather, oceans and space.
Scientists at the Air Resources Lab participated by showing off the Air Resources Car (ARC). Xinrong Ren and Randy Bowers engaged kids with hands-on demonstrations of the instruments and sensors on the ARC, explaining they are used to measure air pollutants in urban environments. Kids explored the instruments, viewed real-time monitoring equipment and learned how scientists collect data to study air quality. The interactive event sparked curiosity and provided a fun, educational introduction to atmospheric science and environmental research.
Randy Bowers (left and right) and Xinrong Ren (middle picture) interact with the kids at NOAA Kids Day. Credit: NOAA/ARL
Millersville University students visit ARL
March 23, 2026
More than 20 students from Millersville University toured the NCWCP building in College Park Thursday, March 19. One of their stops was the ARL Atmospheric Sciences and Modeling Division’s lab where Howard Diamond gave them an overview of ARL’s history, mission and current work.
Millersville University students gather in the lab during Howard’s talk. Credit: Tracey Bien-Aime (NOAA/ORAU)
Inspiring the next generation of scientists
March 10, 2026
On 5 March, Temple Lee gave a virtual presentation to about 15 students in a high school meteorology class at Eastern View High School in Culpeper, Virginia. During his presentation, Temple talked about his own career pathway, describing how he made the decision in college to switch from studying medicine to studying the atmosphere prior to becoming a scientist at NOAA. He then talked about the different observing systems that NOAA ARL uses to study the Earth’s atmospheric boundary layer and how knowledge gained of the underlying physical processes therein helps inform improvements to our weather forecasting models.
February 23, 2026
Last Tuesday, ARL scientist Temple Lee delivered a presentation entitled “Observing systems used by scientists at the NOAA Air Resources Laboratory to study Earth’s atmosphere” to more than a dozen cadets from the Civil Air Patrol’s Oak Ridge Composite Squadron.
During his talk, Temple highlighted the importance of ARL’s work to improve fundamental knowledge of processes happening in Earth’s atmospheric boundary layer and how these activities help to improve our current suite of weather forecasting models.
ARL scientist analyzes the HYSPLIT-dust model at National Weather Service seminar.
September 4, 2025
ARL scientist Mark Cohen spoke on evaluations of the HYSPLIT-dust modeling system at a NOAA National Weather Service (NWS) seminar last Wednesday. The seminar focused on evaluating forecasts for dust events in 2025 and was organized by NWS Public Program Coordinator Amanda Reinhart. Hyun-Cheol Kim, a research scientist at ARL, also developed some materials and analyzed data for Cohen’s presentation.
The HYSPLIT-dust model is the NOAA operation model for dust forecasts that underpins the dust forecasts on the Air Quality Forecast Guidance Viewer. It forecasts significant events for locations impacted by dust storms. Arizona experienced a recent example last Monday when a Haboob, an intense type of dust storm featuring a fast-moving wall of dust thousands of feet high, tore through the Phoenix area causing property damage and power outages.
ARL responds to Maryland Department of the Environment request for measurements
August 21, 2025
On Friday, August 15, the NOAA Air Resources Laboratory was in the Baltimore area with the Air Resources Car (ARC) for routine monitoring when the Maryland Department of the Environment made a request. Since they were in the area, the ARC obliged by driving through Locust Point, near the North Locust Point Marine Terminal to collect air quality measurements.
The ARC occasionally receives requests from the Maryland Department of the Environment, most recently after a diesel fuel spill near Fells Point, Maryland in June. A mobile lab mounted on a sport utility vehicle, the ARC drives through urban areas and measures hazardous atmospheric materials. It primarily travels the Washington D.C. and Baltimore, MD region and up the northeast corridor; but also participates in field campaigns such as the 2025 Baltimore Air Quality and Marcellus Survey (BAQMS) this summer.
Howard Diamond hosts Knauss Fellows at the ASMD lab
July 22, 2025
The 2025 Knauss Fellows toured the NCWCP building in College Park, MD on Friday, July 18. Their last stop was ARL’s Atmospheric Sciences and Modeling Division Lab where Howard Diamond talked about the history and current work at ARL. The Fellows asked questions and were interested in how Howard came to ARL.
There was so much interest from the 2025 cohort in this tour, that they are looking to set up a second tour to allow more of the group to attend!
John Kochendorfer recognized with WMO award
July 10, 2025
ARL’s Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Division Director John Kochendorfer received the World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) Professor Dr Vilho Väisälä Award for Outstanding Research Paper on Instruments and Methods of Observation.
John was a co-author on a paper titled Adjustment of Solid Precipitation during the Filomena Extreme Snowfall Event in Spain: From Observations to “True Precipitation” published in November 2022 in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.
The award will be presented at a ceremony during the WMO’s Technical Conference on Instruments and Methods of Observation in 2026.
Nebila Lichiheb joins AGU Voices for Science
July 10, 2025
ARL scientist Nebila Lichiheb was selected to join the 2025-2026 AGU Voices for Science cohort, a year-long course for scientists interested in science communication and policy research.
Nebila has been an active member of AGU since 2017. Over the past eight years, she has served as an Outstanding Student Presentations Awards judge, served as a panelist at the Chapman Conference, and participated on a career panel for AGU Bridge students to promote equitable practices in graduate education. In 2024, she was nominated to the AGU Global Engagement Committee for a two-year term.
Scientists often have difficulty explaining their research to non-technical audiences. Voices for Science steps into that gap to train scientists to communicate the value of Earth and space sciences to the public with plain language messaging different audiences. Participants work with AGU staff on regular outreach activities with a variety of audiences.
Nebila applied in June and out of over 100 applications, she was one of about 20 who were selected to participate. The selection committee invited her to join stating, “We are very impressed by your passion and dedication and would like you to be a part of our program from September 2025 – August 2026.”
Emergency managers use ARL HYSPLIT model in nuclear leak training exercise
July 7, 2025
ARL’s HYSPLIT model was used in an exercise with Holt Summit Fire Department, the Callaway County Emergency Management Agency, Health Department and Sheriff Offices, the Missouri Department of Health and FEMA on June 27. The Weather Forecasting Office (WFO) in St. Louis provided emergency decision support and HYSPLIT models of the path of travel and amounts of the simulated nuclear leak.
The HYSPLIT model is one of the most extensively used atmospheric transport and dispersion models in the atmospheric sciences community and has been developed and updated for nearly three decades by ARL scientists. The National Weather Service has a custom-designed version of the model which WFOs around the country routinely use for real and simulated emergencies at the request of local, state and federal agencies.
The Holt Summit Fire Department Assistant Chief thanked the WFO in Saint Louis, saying: “I would like to thank you for your plume model for the training exercise this morning. The sheriff deputy was able to upload [this information] into his map overlaying the controlled access areas, allowing for better evacuation plans. State and County Health is [then] able to take physical sample reading in the higher exposure areas, while the real time weather made the training exercise more realistic.”
ARL scientists inspire students during tour of Air Resources Lab
June 3, 2025
On Thursday, May 29, 25 rising college juniors toured the Air Resources Lab. Howard Diamond gave an overview of the work at ARL and Phillip Stratton answered some questions about the equipment used in the Air Resources Car and the NOAA Twin Otter airplane during field missions, such as the AiRMAPS campaign this summer in Baltimore, MD.
The HYSPLIT Team released HYSPLIT v5.4.0 on May 7th
May 20, 2025
Congratulations to the entire HYSPLIT team and thank you for your excellent work that made this happen!
The new release is a major update and includes important new features and improvements such as upgrading graphics capabilities, which makes more user-friendly graphical outputs. The update also includes the ability to create windrose diagrams; these are map diagrams that summarize wind speed and direction at a specific location over time.
More details about the changes can be found on the HYSPLIT model update page.
On a related note, check out one of the ways HYSPLIT helps communities.
