Supporting Safety In Higher Education Laboratories

Pollinator Week is an annual international celebration that emphasizes the importance of bees, butterflies, birds, and other pollinators each June. Pollinators facilitate the reproduction of over 80 percent of the world’s flowering plants and are responsible for one out of every three bites of food we eat. However, pollinators have been experiencing unsustainable mass die-offs…

Since 1986, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Mussel Watch Program has been monitoring and documenting chemical contaminants in coastal waters using bivalves. Used for their ability to filter water and retain contaminants within their tissues, bivalves help quantify the presence of chemical contaminants within the waters in which they reside. The Mussel…

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Unique Combined Atmospheric Processing System (NUCAPS) provides critical information on temperature, moisture, ozone, and other variables that help forecasters and climate experts understand conditions throughout the atmosphere. CSS Employee Owners are key contributors to the team, supporting the development and refinement of advanced atmospheric sounding products.   The work…

CSS plays a key role on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Atmospheric Sciences and Technology Applications Fire Detection Team, contributing to the development and validation of next generation wildfire detection capabilities. Working alongside subject matter experts and scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, CSS Employee Owners support efforts to evaluate and improve experimental…

Every April 22nd, billions of people around the world celebrate Earth Day. This annual event serves as a global call to action, reminding us that collective, small actions can create a large-scale, positive impact. Earth is experiencing a multifaceted, anthropogenic environmental crisis — marked by pollution, resource depletion, loss of biodiversity, and severe climate events…

In the fall of 2026, NOAA released the updated Climate Atlas tool. CSS is proud to support the release of this tool, with personnel as key members of the leadership, development, and user engagement teams.   Climate Atlas offers enhanced accessibility and usability for local communities, businesses, industries, and decision-makers. Reliable climate data underpins strategic planning,…

There are thousands of abandoned mines in the Western United States and residual heavy metal concentrations can be high in mine spoils. These spoils can also be quite acidic. Acidic soils with high concentrations of heavy metals can significantly impact the re-establishment and growth of native plant species at these sites. Even after removal of soils with the…

Drought is one of the most expensive and far-reaching natural disasters we face, contributing to wildfires and impacting everything from the food on our tables to the water in our taps and the barges carrying cargo down our rivers.  To help communities, farmers, and leaders stay ahead of these dry spells, the National Integrated Drought…

More than 30 million people rely on the Great Lakes for drinking water, and they support a fisheries industry valued at $5.1 billion annually. Monitoring the Lakes’ water chemistry is a vital part of maintaining the quality of this key natural resource. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is responsible for collecting and testing water samples in…