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
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
Yang, Da and Ingersoll, Andrew P. (2011) Testing the Hypothesis that the MJO is a Mixed Rossby-Gravity Wave Packet. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 68 (2). pp. 226-239. ISSN 0022-4928
Tadmor, Arbel D. and Ottesen, Elizabeth A. and Leadbetter, Jared R. and Phillips, Rob (2011) Probing Individual Environmental Bacteria for Viruses by Using Microfluidic Digital PCR. Science, 333 (6038). pp. 58-62. ISSN 0036-8075
Park, Hyunwoong and Vecitis, Chad D. and Cheng, Jie and Dalleska, Nathan F. and Mader, Brian T. and Hoffmann, Michael R. (2011) Reductive degradation of perfluoroalkyl compounds with aquated electrons generated from iodide photolysis at 254 nm. Photochemical and Photobiological Sciences, 10 (12). pp. 1945-1953. ISSN 1474-905X
Eiler, John M. (2011) Paleoclimate reconstruction using carbonate clumped isotope thermometry. Quaternary Science Reviews, 30 (25-26). pp. 3575-3588. ISSN 0277-3791
Csank, Adam Z. and Tripati, Aradhna K. and Patterson, William P. and Eagle, Robert A. and Rybczynski, Natalia and Ballantyne, Ashley P. and Eiler, John M. (2011) Estimates of Arctic land surface temperatures during the early Pliocene from two novel proxies. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 304 (3-4). pp. 291-299. ISSN 0012-821X
Lebo, Z. J. and Seinfeld, J. H. (2011) A continuous spectral aerosol-droplet microphysics model. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 11 (23). pp. 12297-12316. ISSN 1680-7316
Galloway , M. M. and Huisman, A. J. and Yee, L. D. and Chan, A. W. H. and Loza, C. L. and Seinfeld, J. H. and Keutsch, F. N. (2011) Yields of oxidized volatile organic compounds during the OH radical initiated oxidation of isoprene, methyl vinyl ketone, and methacrolein under high-NO_x conditions. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 11 (21). pp. 10779-10790. ISSN 1680-7316
Crounse, John D. and Paulot, Fabien and Kjaergaard, Henrik G. and Wennberg, Paul O. (2011) Peroxy radical isomerization in the oxidation of isoprene. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 13 (28). ISSN 1463-9076
Salyk, C. and Pontoppidan, K. M. and Blake, G. A. and Najita, J. R. and Carr, J. S. (2011) A Spitzer Survey of Mid-infrared Molecular Emission from Protoplanetary Disks. II. Correlations and Local Thermal Equilibrium Models. Astrophysical Journal, 731 (2). Art. No. 130. ISSN 0004-637X
Shapiro, Orr H. and Hatzenpichler, Roland and Buckley, Daniel H. and Zinder, Stephen H. and Orphan, Victoria J. (2011) Multicellular photo-magnetotactic bacteria. Environmental Microbiology Reports, 3 (2). pp. 233-238. ISSN 1758-2229
Kirkby, Jasper and Downard, Andrew and Flagan, Richard C. and Seinfeld, John H. (2011) Role of sulphuric acid, ammonia and galactic cosmic rays in atmospheric aerosol nucleation. Nature, 476 (7361). pp. 429-433. ISSN 0028-0836
Hatch, Lindsay E. and Creamean, Jessie M. and Ault, Andrew P. and Surratt, Jason D. and Chan, Man Nin and Seinfeld, John H. and Edgerton, Eric S. and Su, Yongxuan and Prather, Kimberly A. (2011) Measurements of Isoprene-Derived Organosulfates in Ambient Aerosols by Aerosol Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry - Part 1: Single Particle Atmospheric Observations in Atlanta. Environmental Science and Technology, 45 (12). pp. 5105-5111. ISSN 0013-936X
Croteau, Philip and Randazzo, John B. and Kostko, Oleg and Ahmed, Musahid and Liang, Mao-Chang and Yung, Yuk L. and Boering, Kristie A. (2011) Measurements of Isotope Effects in the Photoionization of N_2 and Implications for Titan's Atmosphere. Astrophysical Journal Letters, 728 (2). Art. No. L32. ISSN 0004-637X
Kaspi, Yohai and Schneider, Tapio (2011) Downstream Self-Destruction of Storm Tracks. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 68 (10). pp. 2459-2464. ISSN 0022-4928
Chen, Songye and Beeby, Morgan and Murphy, Gavin E. and Leadbetter, Jared R. and Hendrixson, David R. and Briegel, Ariane and Li, Zhuo and Shi, Jian and Tocheva, Elitza I. and Müller, Axel and Dobro, Megan J. and Jensen, Grant J. (2011) Structural diversity of bacterial flagellar motors. Embo Journal, 30 (14). pp. 2972-2981. ISSN 0261-4189
Eisenman, Ian and Schneider, Tapio and Battisti, David S. and Bitz, Cecilia M. (2011) Consistent Changes in the Sea Ice Seasonal Cycle in Response to Global Warming. Journal of Climate, 24 (20). pp. 5325-5335. ISSN 0894-8755
Wei, Shengji and Fielding, Eric and Leprince, Sebastien and Sladen, Anthony and Avouac, Jean-Philippe and Helmberger, Don and Hauksson, Egill and Chu, Risheng and Simons, Mark and Hudnut, Kenneth and Herring, Thomas and Briggs, Richard (2011) Superficial simplicity of the 2010 El Mayor–Cucapah earthquake of Baja California in Mexico. Nature Geoscience, 4 (9). pp. 615-618. ISSN 1752-0894
Doughty, David M. and Coleman, Maureen L. and Hunter, Ryan C. and Sessions, Alex L. and Summons, Roger E. and Newman, Dianne K. (2011) The RND-family transporter, HpnN, is required for hopanoid localization to the outer membrane of Rhodopseudomonas palustris TIE-1. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108 (45). E1045-E1051. ISSN 0027-8424
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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