Joel A. Thornton | Lightnews

Light up
your news

Create account Sign in

About Privacy Terms Help

Joel Thornton

Joel Thornton

@atmostaj.bsky.social

400 followers 58 following 140 posts

Professor of Atmospheric and Climate Science at the University of Washington. I study the natural and perturbed chemistry and composition of the atmosphere and how it interacts with weather and climate. But, I like other things too. Opinions my own, etc. .. more

Environmental science 44%

Geology 20%

more

Posts Replies Media Videos

Reposted by Joel A. Thornton

UW College of the Environment @uwenvironment.bsky.social · 18h

A new University of Washington-led study in Science shows that space dust sandwiched between layers of sediment tells scientists where and when ice covered the Arctic, and what happened to marine life when it disappeared.

https://bit.ly/4orvD4q

@science.org @uwnews.uw.edu

Space dust reveals Arctic ice conditions before satellite imaging

A new University of Washington-led study shows that space dust sandwiched between layers of sediment tells scientists where and when ice covered the Arctic, and what happened to marine life when it...

Reposted by Joel A. Thornton

UW College of the Environment @uwenvironment.bsky.social · 10d

Happy #Halloween! 🎃 🐟 👻 Check of some of our favorite creepy creatures in our UW Fish Collection.
@uwsafs.bsky.social @burkemuseum.bsky.social

Joel Thornton @atmostaj.bsky.social · 17d

"The idea, Yedvab explained, is that “instead of displacing the particles out to the stratosphere and start following them, to do the other way around — to suck air from the stratosphere and to conduct in situ experiments, without dispersing essentially.”

Joel Thornton @atmostaj.bsky.social · 22d

It is taking into account that the Blue Jays will lose to the Mariners

Reposted by Joel A. Thornton

Hugh McLaughlin @humaglobin.bsky.social · 25d

Cosmic crisp are generally even better than honey crisp, IMHO. I will pay almost anything for them.

Reposted by Joel A. Thornton

UW College of the Environment @uwenvironment.bsky.social · 25d

A new study proposes that a tsunami struck the Caribbean island of Anegada between 1381 and 1391, carrying huge coral boulders inland and leaving behind a valuable record of geologic and climatic history.

https://bit.ly/4nUN90N

@uwess.bsky.social @uwnews.uw.edu

Coral skeletons left by a medieval tsunami whisper warning for Caribbean region

A new collaborative study led by scientists at the University of Washington and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science proposes that a tsunami struck the Caribbean island of...

www.washington.edu

Reposted by Joel A. Thornton

Pacific Northwest Seismic Network @pnsn1.bsky.social · Oct 11

You feel that Seattle?! Check out that Polanco P-Wave! Polanco Game Winning Single, Crawford Scores, MARINERS WIN!! @Mariners are Toronto Bound! @Tmobilepark @FoxSports
#SeisTheMoment #SeizeTheMoment

Seismogram showing ground motion at T-Mobile Park for game-winning single by Seattle Mariner Jorge Polanco, JP Crawford scores!

MLB poster for PostSEAson 2025 that reads Seis the Moment with a small seismogram between the Seis and the The. Has website for PNSN seismograms of the game. mariners.pnsn.org

Reposted by Joel A. Thornton

UW College of the Environment @uwenvironment.bsky.social · Oct 10

Congratulations to Ángel F. Adames Corraliza, @uwmad-aos.bsky.social associate professor and UW Atmospheric and Climate Science alum, for being named a 2025 MacArthur Fellow!

https://bit.ly/3IIHxHQ

@uwnews.uw.edu @macfound.org

UW Atmospheric and Climate Science alum Ángel F. Adames Corraliza named 2025 MacArthur Fellow

University of Washington Department of Atmospheric and Climate Science alum and University of Wisconsin–Madison atmospheric scientist Ángel F. Adames Corraliza has been awarded a prestigious MacArthur...

environment.uw.edu

Reposted by Joel A. Thornton

Mike Eliason @holz-bau.bsky.social · Oct 6

the work underway to produce positive energy buildings (buildings that produce more energy than they consume) is really quite rad

renplushomes.eu

Homepage - Ren + Homes

As the urgency to combat climate change intensifies, RENPLUSHOMES takes the lead in developing a universal methodology for Positive Energy Homes and residential districts. This approach addresses the ...

renplushomes.eu

Reposted by Joel A. Thornton

UW College of the Environment @uwenvironment.bsky.social · Sep 29

Join us for our flagship fall event on Wednesday, Oct. 22 at Town Hall Seattle.

More info and tickets: https://bit.ly/42AiP39

Reposted by Joel A. Thornton

UW Department of Atmospheric and Climate Science @uwatmossci.bsky.social · Sep 25

🥇🥇TWO @agu.org AWARDS
📢@chriskenseth.bsky.social, a NSF AGS Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department, was selected as the recipient of the 2025 James R. Holton Award.
📢Professor Dale Durran received the Jule Gregory Charney Lecture.

Congratulations to both and all the 2025 AGU Honorees!

Joel Thornton @atmostaj.bsky.social · Sep 21

Just doing some Chemical Ionization research with Google AI - I'm learning a lot!

Google AI says HOCl is more acidic than acetic acid because it has a higher pKa

Google AI says a higher pKa means a weaker acid.

Joel Thornton @atmostaj.bsky.social · Sep 21

Thanks!

Joel Thornton @atmostaj.bsky.social · Sep 20

Dear Manu-

Can you please add me to the science feed? I am an atmospheric chemist:

www.atmos.washington.edu/~thornton/

Thornton Lab – atmospheric chemistry and instrumentation at the University of Washington

www.atmos.washington.edu

Reposted by Joel A. Thornton

UW College of the Environment @uwenvironment.bsky.social · Sep 11

Scientists long believed that Prochlorococcus, the smallest and most abundant phytoplankton on Earth, would thrive in a warmer world. But new research suggests the microscopic bacterium will decline sharply as oceans heat up. @uwnews.uw.edu

Read the @apnews.com story: https://bit.ly/46celQV

Warming seas threaten key phytoplankton species that fuels the food web, study finds

New research suggests that a tiny phytoplankton that is an essential part of the marine food web may decline sharply as oceans warm.

Reposted by Scott C. Doney, Joel A. Thornton, Debra Wunch , and 4 more Scott C. Doney, Joel A. Thornton, Debra Wunch, Colette L. Heald, Delphine K. Farmer, Mattias Hallquist, Jonathan M. Gilligan

Jennifer Murphy @envchemjen.bsky.social · Sep 11

Atmospheric Physics faculty position at Univ of Toronto - help us make use of satellite and aircraft capabilities that are on their way in Canada! jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-...

Assistant Professor - Space-based and Suborbital Experimental Atmospheric Physics

Assistant Professor - Space-based and Suborbital Experimental Atmospheric Physics

jobs.utoronto.ca

Reposted by Joel A. Thornton

UW News @uwnews.uw.edu · Sep 10

For years, researchers have hypothesized that westerly winds were ferrying warm water toward the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, accelerating ice melt. A new @uwess.bsky.social study flips the existing narrative on its head, pointing toward winds from the north instead.
www.washington.edu/news/2025/09...

Penguins walking across sea ice by a large iceberg

Joel Thornton @atmostaj.bsky.social · Sep 6

Oh, I meant the river of smoke extended all that way. Flow has been from SE today, and yes a big flare up just east of Mt Rainier visible from GOES this afternoon.

That said fires are also in BC too 😬

Joel Thornton @atmostaj.bsky.social · Sep 5

Today has taken a turn. A river of smoke from BC through WA

Purple air sensors map of Seattle and western Washington showing elevated PM2.5 from wildfire smoke

Reposted by Joel A. Thornton

UW News @uwnews.uw.edu · Sep 3

“We are developing a tool that examines the variability in our current climate to help answer this lingering question: Is a given event the kind of thing that happens naturally, or not?” said Dale Durran, @uwatmossci.bsky.social.

This AI model simulates 1000 years of the current climate in just one day

University of Washington researchers use AI to simulate the Earth’s current climate and interannual variability for up to 1,000 years. The model runs on a single processor and takes just 12 hours to.....

www.washington.edu

Joel Thornton @atmostaj.bsky.social · Sep 1

More measuring while biking (funded by Beckman Foundation): air pollution measuring, mass spectrometry development, & e-bikes

w/Tofwerk @uwchemistry.bsky.social @uwengineering.bsky.social @uwenvironment.bsky.social

goes back to a dream I had as grad student (in which the bike was always stolen) 🧪

Cargo e bike with battery powered mass spec to measure air pollution

Nitric acid (HNO3) in the air along the ride, it comes from air chemistry of nitrogen oxide emissions (mostly from gas or diesel cars/trucks)

Reposted by Joel A. Thornton

UW College of the Environment @uwenvironment.bsky.social · Aug 18

@uwess.bsky.social Assistant Research Professor TJ Fudge talks about the status of glaciers in the Pacific Northwest and the dangers of shrinking glaciers.

www.king5.com/video/tech/s...

#UWEnvironment

UW professor on threats to glaciers, impact on western Washington

UW Assistant Research Professor TJ Fudge talks about the status of glaciers in the Pacific Northwest and the dangers of shrinking glaciers.

Reposted by Joel A. Thornton

UW College of the Environment @uwenvironment.bsky.social · Aug 18

A familiar bird of Northwest summer takes a perilous journey to Costa Rica. #UWEnvironment #UWPOE

www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...

A familiar bird of Northwest summer takes a perilous journey to Costa Rica

The Swainson’s thrush is a common sight here in the Northwest. But this is only its summer home. Join us on a trip to Costa Rica.

www.seattletimes.com

Reposted by Joel A. Thornton

UW College of the Environment @uwenvironment.bsky.social · Aug 16

Seismic waves from the magnitude 8.8 #earthquake that struck the #Kamchatka Peninsula July 29 reached a seafloor observatory offshore from Oregon just 9 minutes later. The vibrations were so intense they rattled a seafloor instrument for over four hours. Listen: environment.uw.edu/news/2025/08...

Offshore observatory detects Russian earthquake and tsunami

The July 29 magnitude 8.8 earthquake that struck the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia and unleashed seismic energy and a tsunami that surged across the Pacific Ocean was captured in remarkable detail by ...

environment.uw.edu

Reposted by Joel A. Thornton

UW Department of Atmospheric and Climate Science @uwatmossci.bsky.social · Aug 13

Former graduate student Aodhan Sweeney and Prof. Qiang Fu's paper, "Recent Warming of the Southern Hemisphere Subtropical Lower Stratosphere and Antarctic Ozone Healing," is featured on EOS Editor's Highlight. <2% of all AGU papers are selected to be featured this way!

eos.org/editor-highl...

Southern Hemisphere Subtropical Lower Stratosphere is Warming - Eos

Warming of the Southern Hemisphere (SH) subtropical lower stratosphere is due to slowing of Brewer-Dobson Circulation, thus cooling the Antarctic lower stratosphere and masking anticipated ozone recov...

Reposted by Scott C. Doney, Joel A. Thornton

AGU (American Geophysical Union) @agu.org · Aug 12

Know a dataset making an impact for people, planet, or prosperity?

🌎 Nominate it for AGU’s upcoming commentary by 10 Oct. You may be featured!

🔗: buff.ly/XLFfYqM
#ImpactfulData #EarthScience

Nominate an Impactful Dataset

You are invited to nominate a dataset to be included in a commentary about the impact of Earth, space, and environmental data using the dimensions of people, planet, and prosperity. Selected…

docs.google.com

Reposted by Joel A. Thornton

UW College of the Environment @uwenvironment.bsky.social · Aug 11

Seismologists tapped into the fiber optic cable network to study offshore faults #UWEnvironment

www.washington.edu/news/2025/07...

@uwnews.uw.edu @uwess.bsky.social @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social #UWOceanography

Seismologists tapped into the fiber optic cable network to study offshore faults

University of Washington researchers showed that they can monitor seismic activity at the ocean floor using fiber optic cables without disrupting telecommunications. They developed this technique in.....

www.washington.edu

Joel Thornton @atmostaj.bsky.social · Aug 2

Gonna need a bigger orifice on my mass spec

Reposted by Joel A. Thornton

UW College of the Environment @uwenvironment.bsky.social · Jul 31

What makes a tsunami — and what to do if one comes.

www.npr.org/2025/07/30/n...

@haroldtobin.bsky.social @pnsn1.bsky.social @uwess.bsky.social #UWEnvironment

What makes a tsunami — and what to do if one comes

Several factors help determine whether a given earthquake will generate a dangerous tsunami, but the process is not yet fully understood.

Joel Thornton @atmostaj.bsky.social · Jul 31

One door way opens, another has a deer in the way. #fridayharbor