UCI underground drought research gets big visibility

UCI Earth system science professor Jay Famiglietti and his team have made the cover of the Sept. 26 issue of the prestigious journal Science. The image was requested by Science Editor-in-Chief Marcia McNutt to accompany her editorial on the drought in California and the West as well as a paper from UC San Diego-Scripps on using GPS to measure changing water storage across the West. The UCI researchers created an image from their 2013 findings that showed how NASA’s GRACE satellites could provide detailed data on the Earth’s changing water cycle, an essential prerequisite for contemporary water management. “For a scientist, having your work on the cover of Science is like being on the cover of Time,” said Famiglietti, who’s also senior water scientist with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “It’s a career achievement that represents decades of hard work from our research team.”