Josh Willis

Joshua K. Willis is an oceanographer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. His area of expertise is current sea level rise, as well as measuring ocean temperatures.[4] When sea level fell from 2010 to 2011, Willis stated that this was due to an unusually large La Niña transferring more rainfall over land rather than over the ocean as usually happens.[5] In addition, Willis is the project scientist for Jason-3.[6]

For the Neighbours character, see Josh Willis (Neighbours).
Josh Willis
Alma materScripps Institution of Oceanography
Known forArgo (oceanography)
SpouseDixie Aragaki
AwardsCharles K. Witham Environmental Stewardship Award, JPL,[1] 2011 Ocean Sciences Early Career Award from the American Geophysical Union[2] Bruce Murray Award for Excellence in Education and Public Engagement (2016) [3]
Scientific career
FieldsOceanography
InstitutionsJet Propulsion Laboratory
ThesisCombining satellite and in situ data to make improved estimates of upper-ocean thermal variability on eddy to global scales (2004)
Doctoral advisorDean Roemmich

Early life and education

Josh Willis realized he wanted to be a scientist from a young age.[7] After graduating from high school, Willis studied physics and mathematics at the University of Houston earning his B.S. in 1996. While there, he also received a minor in theater.[7] He then went to the University of California where he received his master's degree in physics in 1998.[8] Willis planned to get his Ph.D. in physics, but realized that it wasn't for him. He failed and was kicked out of the University of California. Soon after, Willis discovered Scripps Institution of Oceanography and began studying the physics of climate change and the ocean's effect on global warming. And in 2004, Willis received his Ph.D. in oceanography.[9]

Research

Oceans cooling

In 2006, Willis et al. published a time series measuring ocean heat content, which concluded that the ocean had cooled from 2003 to 2005.[10] A similar conclusion was reached by scientists at NASA's Langley Research Center (LRC).[11] While Willis cautioned against drawing conclusions based on such a short time period, the study was widely covered in the media, with climate change deniers citing it as evidence that global warming was no longer occurring.[11] Willis also noted that some model simulations show periods of four to five years during which the upper ocean does not warm.[12] Willis suspected something was awry when the researchers at LRC concluded that Earth's energy imbalance had remained the same over that period of time, which led to a researcher at LRC named Takmeng Wong becoming "surprised, even a little alarmed" at Willis's results.[11] The original 2006 paper has since been corrected, with Willis et al. stating, "Most of the rapid decrease in globally integrated upper (0–750 m) ocean heat content anomalies (OHCA) between 2003 and 2005 reported by Lyman et al. [2006] appears to be an artifact resulting from the combination of two different instrument biases recently discovered in the in situ profile data."[13]

Challenger expedition

On May 21, 2013, Willis co-authored a paper regarding measurements of ocean temperatures taken during the Challenger expedition in the 1870s, which were compared with measurements from Argo. This paper concluded that the global ocean had indeed warmed since the 1870s,[14] and received wide media attention.[15][16]

Deep ocean warming

On October 5, 2014, Willis was a co-author on a paper reporting that the warming of the deep ocean had not contributed to a detectable extent to either sea level rise or the Earth's energy budget.[17] Willis said its findings did not challenge global warming because "the sea level is still rising".[18]

Willis is the Principal Investigator of Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG).[19][20][21][22][23][24]

Comedy

The Second City

Willis is a graduate of the Conservatory Program of The Second City Training Center[25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] in Hollywood, CA. He graduated in 2014.

Climate Elvis

In order to bring comedy to the topics of climate and climate change, Willis created the character "Climate Elvis", and performed a song called "The Climate Rock".[33] The video was directed by Lizze Gordon.[34]

Unnecessary Talk with Brian Sturges

Willis is a frequent guest on the comedy podcast Unnecessary Talk with Brian Sturges. www.poorlifechoices.TV

Wall of Flesh: A Vintage Comedy

Willis plays Jake Elwood in the award-winning comedy feature film available for purchase and rental on Amazon and YouTube.com

Personal life

Dr. Willis is married to physiatrist Dr. Dixie Aragaki.[35]

See also

References
  1. "Josh K. Willis CV" (PDF). JPL. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 7 September 2013.
  2. "Willis Receives 2011 Ocean Sciences Early Career Award". American Geophysical Union. 2011. Retrieved 7 September 2013.
  3. "Josh Willis". JPL. Retrieved 4 March 2022.
  4. "Josh Willis". Jet Propulsion Laboratory website. Retrieved 7 September 2013.
  5. Buis, Alan (23 August 2011). "NASA Satellites Detect Pothole on Road to Higher Seas". Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 7 September 2013.
  6. "Reddit Interview: Josh Willis". JPL. 17 October 2012. Archived from the original on 16 February 2013. Retrieved 7 September 2013.
  7. "Josh Willis | Project Scientist for Sentinel-6 and Jason-3". NASA Solar System Exploration. Retrieved 2022-03-06.
  8. Willis, Josh. "JPL Science: Josh Willis". science.jpl.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2022-03-06.
  9. "Josh Willis". ArtCenter College of Design. Retrieved 2022-03-06.
  10. Lyman, J. M.; Willis, J. K.; Johnson, G. C. (2006). "Recent cooling of the upper ocean". Geophysical Research Letters. 33 (18): n/a. Bibcode:2006GeoRL..3318604L. doi:10.1029/2006GL027033.
  11. Lindsey, Rebecca (5 November 2008). "Correcting Ocean Cooling". NASA Earth Observatory. Retrieved 7 September 2013.
  12. Revkin, Andrew C. (1 April 2008). "Ocean Cooling and Global Warming". New York Times. Retrieved 7 September 2013.
  13. Willis, J. K.; Lyman, J. M.; Johnson, G. C.; Gilson, J. (2007). "Correction to "Recent cooling of the upper ocean"". Geophysical Research Letters. 34 (16): L16601. Bibcode:2007GeoRL..3416601W. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.409.443. doi:10.1029/2007GL030323. S2CID 55119499.
  14. Hobbs, W. R.; Willis, J. K. (2013). "Detection of an observed 135 year ocean temperature change from limited data". Geophysical Research Letters. 40 (10): 2252–2258. Bibcode:2013GeoRL..40.2252H. doi:10.1002/grl.50370.
  15. Nesbit, Jeff (31 May 2013). "Is More Global Warming Hiding in the Oceans?". Livescience.com. Retrieved 10 September 2013.
  16. "Century-old science helps confirm global warming". Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies. Archived from the original on 24 June 2013. Retrieved 10 September 2013.
  17. Llovel, W.; Willis, J. K.; Landerer, F. W.; Fukumori, I. (5 October 2014). "Deep-ocean contribution to sea level and energy budget not detectable over the past decade". Nature Climate Change. 4 (11): 1031–1035. Bibcode:2014NatCC...4.1031L. doi:10.1038/nclimate2387.
  18. Lloyd, Graham (8 October 2014). "NASA rules out deep ocean for hidden heat". The Australian. Retrieved 7 October 2014.
  19. "OMG". omg.jpl.nasa.gov. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  20. "OMG". omg.jpl.nasa.gov. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  21. Carol Rasmussen NASA releases new, detailed Greenland glacier data January 2, 2017
  22. "Ocean might swallow California sooner than you think – Orange County Register". ocregister.com. 27 April 2017. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  23. Sheets, Hilarie M. (16 September 2016). "Art and Science Meld as NASA Announces a New Artist Collaboration". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  24. Viskontas, Indre. Inquiring Minds Podcast 131 Josh Willis - Greenland Is Melting!
  25. Pacific, Aquarium of the. "Aquarium of the Pacific - Aquarium News - Sketch Comedy Meets Climate Change in The Lollygaggers". www.aquariumofpacific.org. Archived from the original on 4 August 2017. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  26. "Using Comedy to Communicate Climate Change". aaas.org. 11 April 2017. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  27. Willis, Joshua. "Science - Sea Level And Ice (329C): People: Joshua Willis". science.jpl.nasa.gov. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  28. "Josh Willis". YouTube. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  29. "Watch a NASA scientist and a yellow puppet explore Greenland's melting glaciers". motherjones.com. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  30. "Josh Willis". forecastpod.org. 20 December 2016. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  31. "Climate Scientist". Occupassionate. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  32. "Josh Willis (@omgnasa) - Twitter". twitter.com. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  33. "Meet 'Climate Elvis': NASA scientist by day, comedian by night". Grist. 2019-05-06. Retrieved 2019-07-25.
  34. "Lizze Gordon". IMDb. Retrieved 2019-07-25.
  35. "NASA JPL Scientist Receives Presidential Early Career Award". Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Press release). 13 July 2009. Retrieved 2018-05-19.
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