The project aims to help high-altitude aircraft harness atmospheric gravity waves, increasing flight endurance and enabling year-round operations.

USC Dornsife researchers studying the history of Utah’s Great Salt Lake identified two brief, deep-lake phases when the water was much fresher than now. Their analysis of core samples spanning the past 240,000 years shows that the most recent freshwater phase, which formed Lake Bonneville, lasted longer and was fresher than the earlier Little Valley lake phase. The researchers found that both lakes shrank and became salty as the regional climate warmed and dried, offering possible insights into Great Salt Lake’s future in the face of climate change.

The University at Buffalo is leading a $2 million National Science Foundation project to improve wildfire resilience. The three-year REKINDLE initiative combines artificial intelligence, infrastructure modeling, Earth-observation data, and social science to understand cascading impacts such as debris flows, flash floods, and failures in power, water, and transportation systems. Researchers will study communities in California, develop predictive tools, and examine household responses. The project aims to guide infrastructure investments, emergency planning, recovery efforts, education, and workforce development.