Written by: Laney Wicker, Xueli Yang, and Morgan Levy

In December 2024, members of the SoCal Heat Hub’s Ecohydrology and Sustainable Greening team presented their research at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) annual meeting in Washington D.C. Scientists and professionals from across the Earth sciences attend the AGU annual meeting every year to learn about and share new, often unpublished, research. Below, UCSD PhD student Laney Wicker and Postdoctoral Researcher Xueli Yang, who work with Heat Hub Co-PI Morgan Levy, describe their experiences at the AGU annual meeting.

Laney Wicker

UCSD PhD candidate Laney Wicker presenting her research at the AGU annual meeting in December, 2024.

Less than a mile from the White House, more than 25,000 people from around the globe gathered at the Walter E. Washington convention center to engage with other members of the geoscience community. Every hour of the day for a week straight consisted of hundreds of scientists presenting new and exciting research findings across a multitude of subjects. Attending large conferences such as AGU reminds me of trying to explore the tourist attractions of a new city in a weekend – try as you might, it’s impossible to see and experience it all. Despite the chaos, I always leave with new insights and feeling inspired to continue my work.

As a fourth-year PhD candidate, AGU is an excellent opportunity to network, collaborate with and learn from other scientists with similar research interests to my own. Broadly, I’m interested in how extreme weather events induced by climate change impact water resource supply and demand, and how climate adaptation can be used to ensure access to water resources in a sustainable manner. The size of AGU allows me to attend many sessions related to these interdisciplinary research interests, from the impact of climate change on precipitation and heat wave events, to sustainable water resource management techniques. At any given time during the conference, there were numerous presentations diving into these topics. Given the size of the convention center, one would need to be able to teleport to attend them all. While AGU is a great opportunity to learn from others, it also serves as a way to reconnect with old colleagues and friends. Over my years as a graduate student, I’ve met a lot of people from around the world at past conferences, workshops, and summer programs. As people graduate and move institutions or enter industry positions, keeping in touch can be difficult. Luckily, AGU draws a large and diverse audience that makes it possible to catch up on these friendships over lunch or during a coffee break. 

In addition to being a great networking opportunity, AGU enables early career scientists such as myself to receive feedback on ongoing research. My research is interdisciplinary, so it’s important for me to get perspectives from other scientists with various areas of expertise to ensure my work is thorough and provides meaningful contributions to my field. As a member of the Southern California Extreme Heat Research Hub at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, my research specifically focuses on the complex interactions between coastal weather conditions and water resources in the highly populated, water-stressed San Diego region. During the conference, I presented some of my Heat Hub work that makes up the first chapter of my dissertation through a poster titled “Interactions between Temperature and Geographic Features in Determining Water Deliveries in Coastal Southern California”. I discussed this work with numerous friends, colleagues, and mentors that stopped by my poster. In the few short hours that I stood by my poster talking with those that passed by, I received invaluable feedback on my work, met several people doing complementary research, and even discussed a few post-graduate opportunities. This feedback, alongside the new connections and insights I had made over the course of the week, made for another successful AGU experience.

Xueli Yang

UCSD postdoctoral researcher Xueli Yang presenting her research at the AGU annual meeting in December, 2024.

“What’s Next for Science”, the theme of AGU 2024, describes the goal of Earth and Space scientists gathered in Washington D.C. for the annual meeting: to find better solutions to address climate change and environmental crises. As an early career researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, as well as a member of the Southern California Heat Hub, I attended the annual meeting and had the chance to present my work, which I produced in collaboration with scientists and researchers from the Heat Hub. 

My presented work, titled “Exploring multiple dimensions of heat waves in the United States” explores patterns and trends in extreme heat using high-spatial resolution surface meteorological and land surface data from California over the last four decades (1979–2023). I characterize heat using both climate-oriented (mainly temperature-based) and impact-oriented (temperature- and humidity-based) indicators of heat. I also explore correspondence between heat indicators and climate patterns (e.g., ENSO and PDO), and with land surface features known to mediate heat such as plant greenness (e.g., NDVI) and urban features (e.g., building volume). Preliminary results suggest that change in heat over time is influenced by land surface features (e.g., plants and built-up area characteristics), and that coastal and inland heat change patterns differ. In future work, we are eager to explore other factors that are likely influencing heat, particularly in coastal regions, such as coastal low clouds.

Because this type of work is interesting to people from different domains, from the atmospheric science community to journalists, I am excited to continue to explore the complex mechanisms behind extreme heat, and to develop research that helps mitigate heat in the future. I can’t wait to share more about my research with these diverse communities at the next AGU annual meeting!

Header image credit: AGU