Welcome
Scientists from a broad range of disciplines are collaborating at the Linde Center to generate a comprehensive understanding of our global environment—including the impacts of human activities on it. They investigate Earth's atmosphere, oceans, cryosphere, and biosphere and their mutual interactions, characterizing their present and past states through innovative measurements, developing models to describe their evolution, and synthesizing measurements and models to produce sound predictions of the future. Among the questions addressed at the Linde Center are:
- How has Earth's climate varied in the past and how will it change in the future?
- How does pollution affect air quality locally and far from its sources, and how does it affect cloud cover and climate change?
- What happens to carbon dioxide after it enters the atmosphere?
The Linde Center is located within the unique Linde + Robinson Laboratory, likely the most energy-efficient laboratory building in the United States. The Linde + Robinson Laboratory and nearby buildings house state-of-the art laboratories for oceanography, atmospheric chemistry, biogeochemistry, environmental microbiology, and environmental chemistry and technology.
Featured Event
A Contest to Find the Allusion Hidden in PERCEPTION
The PERCEPTION sculpture in the patio of the Linde + Robinson Laboratory contains various allusions. Many are noted in the Artist’s Statement, but only one additional allusion matches all of the clues contained in this Statement of Clues:History and Mystery: A Number of Clues for a Test in PERCEPTION
If Sherlock Holmes, the fictional master of perception, had been a member of the Caltech community, he would not have needed a dozen clues to discover the allusion. At the time of discovery he characteristically would have exclaimed, "Elementary, my dear Watson!"
Science has progressed enormously since Robinson Laboratory was built. Now the Global Environmental Science initiative will provide a rare opportunity for Caltech’s divisions, working in concert and in parallel, to address an impending crisis that faces our planet.
The first person (or group of persons acting together) in the Caltech community to identify correctly that particular allusion will be awarded bragging rights plus $1,000 in cash. If no correct solution has been submitted by January 24, 2013 (one year from the date of the Linde + Robinson Laboratory dedication), Caltech will be declared the winner; and the cash will be added to the endowment for global environmental science.
Entries may be submitted via email to Perceptionsolution@caltech.edu.
For the complete statement of contest rules, eligibility and terms, please click here.
Recent News
Recent Publications
Schneider, T. and Graves, S. D. B. and Schaller, E. L. and Brown, M. E. (2012) Polar methane accumulation and rainstorms on Titan from simulations of the methane cycle. Nature, 481 (7379). pp. 58-61. ISSN 0028-0836
Liu, Junjun and Schneider, Tapio (2011) Convective Generation of Equatorial Superrotation in Planetary Atmospheres. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 68 (11). pp. 2742-2756. ISSN 0022-4928
Merlis, Timothy M. and Schneider, Tapio (2011) Changes in Zonal Surface Temperature Gradients and Walker Circulations in a Wide Range of Climates. Journal of Climate, 24 (17). pp. 4757-4768. ISSN 0894-8755
Lund, D. C. and Adkins, J. F. and Ferrari, R. (2011) Abyssal Atlantic circulation during the Last Glacial Maximum: Constraining the ratio between transport and vertical mixing. Paleoceanography, 26 . Art. No. PA1213. ISSN 0883-8305
Orton, G. S. and Ingersoll, A. P. and Lai, S. (2011) The atmospheric influence, size and possible asteroidal nature of the July 2009 Jupiter impactor. Icarus, 211 (1). pp. 587-602. ISSN 0019-1035
Ito, Takeo and Simons, Mark (2011) Probing Asthenospheric Density, Temperature, and Elastic Moduli Below the Western United States. Science, 332 (6032). pp. 947-951. ISSN 0036-8075
Braakman, R. and Blake, G. A. (2011) Principles and promise of Fabry-Perot resonators at terahertz frequencies. Journal of Applied Physics, 109 (6). Art. No. 063102. ISSN 0021-8979
Vay, S. A. and Choi, Y. and Vadrevu, K. P. and Blake, D. R. and Tyler, S. C. and Wisthaler, A. and Hecobian, A. and Kondo, K. and Diskin, G. S. and Sachse, G. W. and Woo, J.-H. and Weinheimer, A. J. and Burkhart, J. F. and Stohl, A. and Wennberg, P. O. (2011) Patterns of CO_2 and radiocarbon across high northern latitudes during International Polar Year 2008. Journal of Geophysical Research D, 116 . Art. No. D14301. ISSN 0148-0227
Zhang, Xinning and Matson, Eric G. and Leadbetter, Jared R. (2011) Genes for selenium dependent and independent formate dehydrogenase in the gut microbial communities of three lower, wood-feeding termites and a wood-feeding roach. Environmental Microbiology, 13 (2). pp. 307-323. ISSN 1462-2912
Li, Chao and Sessions, Alex L. and Valentine, David L. and Thiagarajan, Nivedita (2011) D/H variation in terrestrial lipids from Santa Barbara Basin over the past 1400 years: A preliminary assessment of paleoclimatic relevance. Organic Geochemistry, 42 (1). pp. 15-24. ISSN 0146-6380
Tocheva, Elitza I. and Matson, Eric G. and Morris, Dylan M. and Moussavi, Farshid and Leadbetter, Jared R. and Jensen, Grant J. (2011) Peptidoglycan Remodeling and Conversion of an Inner Membrane into an Outer Membrane during Sporulation. Cell, 146 (5). pp. 799-812. ISSN 0092-8674
Orphan, Victoria J. and Hoehler, Tori M. (2011) Microbiology: Hydrogen for dinner. Nature, 476 (7359). pp. 154-155. ISSN 0028-0836
Pontoppidan, Klaus M. and Blake, Geoffrey A. and Smette, Alain (2011) The Structure and Dynamics of Molecular Gas in Planet-forming Zones: A CRIRES Spectro-astrometric Survey. Astrophysical Journal, 733 (2). Art. No. 84. ISSN 0004-637X
Hoffmann, Michael R. and Moss, John A. and Baum, Marc M. (2011) Artificial photosynthesis: semiconductor photocatalytic fixation of CO_2 to afford higher organic compounds. Dalton Transactions, 40 (19). pp. 5151-5158. ISSN 1477-9226
Duong, Hanh T. and Sorooshian, Armin and Craven, Jill S. and Hersey, Scott P. and Metcalf, Andrew R. and Zhang, Xiaolu and Weber, Rodney J. and Jonsson, Haflidi and Flagan, Richard C. and Seinfeld, John H. (2011) Water-soluble organic aerosol in the Los Angeles Basin and outflow regions: Airborne and ground measurements during the 2010 CalNex field campaign. Journal of Geophysical Research D, 116 . Art. No. D00V04. ISSN 0148-0227
Finnegan, Seth and Bergmann, Kristin and Eiler, John M. and Jones, David S. and Fike, David A. and Eisenman, Ian and Hughes, Nigel C. and Tripati, Aradhna K. and Fischer, Woodward W. (2011) The Magnitude and Duration of Late Ordovician–Early Silurian Glaciation. Science, 331 (6019). pp. 903-906. ISSN 0036-8075
Hayase, Sayaka and Yabushita, Akihiro and Kawasaki, Masahiro and Enami, Shinichi and Hoffmann, Michael R. and Colussi, Agustín J. (2011) Weak Acids Enhance Halogen Activation on Atmospheric Water’s Surfaces. Journal of Physical Chemistry A, 115 (19). pp. 4935-4940. ISSN 1089-5639
Ng , N. L. and Canagaratna, M. R. and Jimenez, J. L. and Chhabra, P. S. and Seinfeld, J. H. and Worsnop, D. R. (2011) Changes in organic aerosol composition with aging inferred from aerosol mass spectra. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 11 (13). pp. 6465-6474. ISSN 1680-7316
Zhao, Deming and Cheng, Jie and Vecitis, Chad D. and Hoffmann, Michael R. (2011) Sorption of Perfluorochemicals to Granular Activated Carbon in the Presence of Ultrasound. Journal of Physical Chemistry A, 115 (11). pp. 2250-2257. ISSN 1089-5639
Philibosian, Belle and Simons, Mark (2011) A survey of volcanic deformation on Java using ALOS PALSAR interferometric time series. Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems, 12 . Art. No. Q11004 . ISSN 1525‐2027
Contact
Linde Center for Global Environmental Science
California Institute of Technology
1200 E. California Blvd., MC 131-24
Pasadena, CA 91125
Email: lindecenter@caltech.edu
Phone: (626) 395-8731
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