Atmospheric Sciences
Researchers nurture innovative biofuel crops to reduce carbon footprint
October 26, 2011 10:38 am | News | CommentsFears of global warming and its impact on our environment have left scientists scrambling to decrease levels of atmospheric carbon we humans produce. Now, Tel Aviv University researchers are doing their part to reduce humanity's carbon footprint by successfully growing forests in the most unlikely place—deep in Israel's Aravah Desert.
Tool clears the air on cloud simulations
October 26, 2011 6:12 am | News | CommentsClimate models have a hard time representing clouds accurately because they lack the spatial resolution necessary to accurately simulate the billowy air masses. But Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists and international collaborators have developed a new tool that will help scientists better represent the clouds observed in the sky in climate models.
California adopts extensive 'cap-and-trade' plan
October 21, 2011 8:13 am | by Jason Dearen, Associated Press | News | CommentsOn Thursday, California formally adopted the nation's most comprehensive so-called "cap-and-trade" system. The system will be an experiment by the world's eighth-largest economy to provide financial incentives for polluters to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Some businesses claim it will hurt job growth and increase electricity costs; proponents say it will do the opposite.
Study: Urban 'heat island' effect is a small contributor to global warming
October 20, 2011 4:41 am | News | CommentsCities release more heat to the atmosphere than the rural vegetated areas around them, but how much influence these urban "heat islands" have on global warming has been a matter of debate. Now a study by Stanford University researchers has quantified the contribution of the heat islands for the first time, showing that it is modest compared with what greenhouse gases contribute to global warming.
New evidence pushes oldest oxygen-breathing life further back in time
October 19, 2011 11:34 am | News | CommentsBy investigating a link between atmospheric oxygen levels and rising concentrations of chromium in the rock of ancient sea beds nearly 2.5 billion years ago, researchers in Canada theorize that the oxygen-breathing bacteria arrived on land earlier than previously thought.
Links in the chain: Global carbon emissions and consumption
October 18, 2011 4:48 am | News | CommentsIt is difficult to measure accurately each nation's contribution of carbon dioxide to the Earth's atmosphere. Carbon is extracted out of the ground as coal, gas, and oil, and these fuels are often exported to other countries where they are burned to generate the energy that is used to make products. In turn, these products may be traded to still other countries where they are consumed. A team led by the Carnegie Institution has tracked and quantified this supply chain of global carbon dioxide emissions.
Future forests may soak up more carbon dioxide than previously believed
October 17, 2011 5:58 am | News | CommentsNorth American forests appear to have a greater capacity to soak up heat-trapping carbon dioxide gas than researchers had previously anticipated. As a result, they could help slow the pace of human-caused climate warming more than most scientists had thought, according to a University of Michigan ecologist and his colleagues.
Photos prove triple, even quadruple, rainbows exist
October 5, 2011 12:12 pm | News | CommentsDouble rainbows are rare, but until now, sightings of triple, and even quadruple, rainbows have never been proven. A meteorologist whose perseverence recently generated photograph evidence of these compound rainbows has also provided guidelines that shows how to find them.
Rising carbon dioxide levels at end of Ice Age not tied to Pacific Ocean
October 3, 2011 8:33 am | News | CommentsAt the end of the last Ice Age, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels rose rapidly as the planet warmed; scientists have long hypothesized that the source was carbon dioxide released from the deep ocean. But a new study using detailed radiocarbon dating of foraminifera found in a sediment core from the Gorda Ridge off Oregon reveals that the Northeast Pacific was not an important reservoir of carbon during glacial times.
Researchers try solve the puzzle of the MJO
October 3, 2011 8:24 am | News | CommentsFrom monsoons in Mumbai to windstorms in Seattle, weather patterns around the world are influenced by the MJO, or Madden-Julian Oscillation, a 30- to 60-day atmospheric wave that is poorly understood. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the National Center for Atmospheric Research have joined forces to model MJO and better understand how tropical weather affects global climate.
Physicists consider their own carbon footprint
September 30, 2011 11:31 am | News | CommentsAn astrophysicist at the University of Oxford calls on physicists to pull their weight when it comes to climate change, drawing on his own research showing that astronomers average 23,000 air miles per year flying to observatories, conferences, and meetings, and use 130 KWh more energy per day than the average U.S. citizen.
Venus weather not boring after all
September 27, 2011 2:28 pm | by Bill Steigerwald | News | CommentsThe climate on the surface of Venus is consistently nasty, with searing temperatures and crushing atmospheric pressures, with no water and no relief from any change in seasons. In the upper atmosphere, however, scientists have spotted surprising signs of dynamic, changing patterns.
The American 'allergy' to global warming: Why?
September 26, 2011 5:41 am | by Charles J. Hanley, AP Special Correspondent | News | CommentsThe term first appeared in a 1975 report in the journal Science . Since then, disbelief in global warming trends have grown, even as a body of evidence grows that shows the climate is changing. In the U.S., this denial is especially steadfast.
Deep oceans may mask global warming for years at a time
September 19, 2011 10:39 am | News | CommentsAccording to new analysis led by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Earth's deep oceans may absorb enough heat at times to flatten the rate of global warming for periods of as long as a decade—even in the midst of longer-term warming.
Can scientists look at next year's climate?
September 12, 2011 11:15 am | News | CommentsIs it possible to make valid climate predictions that go beyond weeks, months, even a year? University of California, Los Angeles atmospheric scientists report they have now made long-term climate forecasts that are among the best ever—predicting climate up to 16 months in advance, nearly twice the length of time previously achieved by climate scientists.
How and where microbes travel through the air
September 9, 2011 12:17 pm | News | CommentsPreliminary research on Fusarium , a group of fungi that includes devastating pathogens of plants and animals, shows how these microbes travel through the air. Researchers now believe that with improvements on this preliminary research, there will be a better understanding about crop security, disease spread, and climate change.
Global picture of greenhouse gases emerges from pole-to-pole research flights
September 8, 2011 6:02 am | News | CommentsA three-year series of research flights from the Arctic to the Antarctic has successfully produced a portrait of greenhouse gases and particles in the atmosphere. The far-reaching field project, known as HIPPO, ends this week (September 9, 2011), and has enabled researchers to generate the first detailed mapping of the global distribution of gases and particles that affect Earth's climate.
Mobile facility designed to measure greenhouse gases
September 8, 2011 5:38 am | News | CommentsResearchers at Sandia National Laboratories have designed and built a mobile research facility to trace and identify the origin of greenhouse gases. In addition to pinpointing the chemicals' location, the unique mobile facility can help researchers learn whether the gases are biogenic (coming from plant sources) or anthropogenic (coming from man-made sources).
Paving the way to greenhouse gas reductions
August 30, 2011 5:10 am | by David L. Chandler, MIT News Office | News | CommentsConcrete is one of the most extensively used materials worldwide—on average, more than two tons per year of the rock-like stuff is produced for every man, woman, and child on Earth, making its use second only to water. And that vast amount of new concrete is responsible for somewhere between 5 and 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, making it a significant target for improvements.
NASA satellite images Irene, one-third size of East Coast
August 26, 2011 5:56 am | by Rob Gutro, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center | News | CommentsThe first major hurricane threat to the Northeast since 1985, Hurricane Irene is, as of mid-day Friday, a Category 2 storm with sustained winds around 115 mph and a pressure down to approximately 951 millibars. NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer is tracking the storm.
CLOUD experiment produces insights on cloud formation
August 26, 2011 4:59 am | News | CommentsAtmospheric aerosols reflect sunlight and produce cloud droplets, but the mechanism and rate by which they form clusters together with water molecules have remained poorly understood. Using a proton synchrotron as a source for cosmic radiation CERN scientists are simulating conditions for cloud formation in a chamber, yielding insights on natural cloud behavior.
Nitrogen in the soil can clean the air
August 19, 2011 7:58 am | News | CommentsIn large amounts, nitrogen-rich fertilizer is often maligned as harmful to the environment, but researchers in Germany have recently found out that this material indirectly strengthens the self-cleaning capacity of the atmosphere by producing hydroxyl radicals that oxidize pollutants. These pollutants can then be washed out of a collection device.
Model shows ice caps can recover from climate-induced melting
August 17, 2011 1:31 pm | News | CommentsA growing body of recent research indicates that, in Earth's warming climate, there is no "tipping point," or threshold warm temperature, beyond which polar sea ice cannot recover if temperatures come back down.
Cold-region research shows decline in methane, ethane
August 16, 2011 6:24 am | News | CommentsAccording to researchers, fossil-fuel emissions in the form of both methane and ethane, two of the most abundant hydrocarbons in the atmosphere, declined at the end of the 20th century. The finding suggests that a change in human activities may played a leveling role in the shift.
On Greenland, a search for clues to the ice puzzle
August 15, 2011 4:55 am | by Charles J. Hanley, AP Special Correspondent | News | CommentsScattered across the world's largest island, as big as Alaska and California combined and 80% covered by ice, small bands of specialists are searching for signs of how quickly the glaciers the are melting, and what that might mean for the world’s sea level.
