Scientists are deploying an advanced research aircraft to study a region of the atmosphere that influences climate change by affecting Earth's thermal balance. Findings from the project, based at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), will be used by researchers worldwide to improve computer models of global climate in preparation for the next report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Since Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, many have championed the idea of raising the height of the levees to protect New Orleans from future storm surges. While recognizing the necessity of that plan, a multi-disciplinary team of scientists funded by the National Science Foundation's Center for Earth Surface Dynamics (CESD) has proposed a longer-term solution: harnessing the power of the Mississippi River to replenish the soil of the Delta, which would restore the wetlands and the region's natural storm surge barrier.

The term "500-year flood" has been used to describe the recent flooding in the Midwest. Midwesterners who experienced the Great Flood of 1993 – said to be a 500-year flood at the time – can hardly be faulted for thinking they were off the hook for seeing that designation again for, say, a few hundred years.

A new NASA-French space agency oceanography satellite launched today from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., on a globe-circling voyage to continue charting sea level, a vital indicator of global climate change. The mission will return a vast amount of new data that will improve weather, climate and ocean forecasts. With a thunderous roar and fiery glow, the Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason 2 satellite arced through the blackness of an early central coastal California morning at 12:46 a.m. PDT, climbing into space atop a Delta II rocket. Fifty-five minutes later, OSTM/Jason 2 separated from the rocket's second stage, and then unfurled its twin sets of solar arrays. Ground controllers successfully acquired the spacecraft's signals. Initial telemetry reports show it to be in excellent health.

Scientists are deploying an advanced research aircraft to study a region of the atmosphere that influences climate change by affecting the amount of solar heat that reaches Earth's surface. Findings from the project, based at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo., will be used by researchers worldwide to improve computer models of global climate in preparation for the next report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

When Tropical Storm Gaston hit Richmond, Va., in August 2004, its notable abundance of small and mid-sized raindrops created torrential rains that led to unexpected flash flooding throughout the city and its suburbs. New research from NASA has concluded that tropical cyclones like Gaston produce rain differently than another class of storms called "extra-tropical" cyclones. According to the study, making a proper distinction between these systems by looking at both raindrop size and abundance may be a key to assisting weather forecasters in estimating rainfall intensity. By doing so, forecasters can reduce the surprise factor of flash flooding and the unfortunate loss of property and life.

In a bid to control greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change, the European Union has been operating the world's first system to limit and to trade carbon dioxide. Despite its hasty adoption and somewhat rocky beginning three years ago, the EU "cap-and-trade" system has operated well and has had little or no negative impact on the overall EU economy, according to an MIT analysis. The MIT results provide both encouragement and guidance to policy makers working to design a carbon dioxide (CO2)-trading scheme for the United States and for the world. A key finding may be that everything does not have to be perfectly in place to start up similar systems.

The rate of climate warming over northern Alaska, Canada, and Russia could more than triple during periods of rapid sea ice loss, according to a new study led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The findings raise concerns about the thawing of permafrost, or permanently frozen soil, and the potential consequences for sensitive ecosystems, human infrastructure, and the release of additional greenhouse gases.

“Marine ecosystems are undoubtedly under-resourced, overlooked and under threat and our collective knowledge of impacts on marine life is a mere drop in the ocean,” wrote Dr Anthony Richardson, from The University of Queensland and CSIRO, and his co-author, Dr Elvira Poloczanska from CSIRO in Hobart. “There is an overwhelming bias toward land-surface studies which arise in part because investigating the ocean realm is generally difficult, resource-intensive and expensive,” they said.

New research that integrates seismic recordings with Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements indicates that a 7,000-square-mile region of the Whillians Ice Stream in West Antarctica moves more than two feet twice every day in an earthquake-like pattern equivalent to a Magnitude 7 temblor. The findings were published in this week's edition of the journal Nature by a group of scientists that includes investigators from Washington University in St. Louis, Penn State University and the University of Newcastle in Great Britain. The National Science Foundation (NSF) funded the U.S. researchers.

A report released this month by the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts asserted that the Lone Star State is poised to become a national powerhouse for generating and distributing alternative energy. The first-of-its-kind report doesn’t pose recommendations or analysis; rather, its purpose is to address a broad range of topics in one resource, said Tom Currah, the manager of research and analysis at the comptroller’s office. “It’s just kind of basic, background information that can be used as a resource to lawmakers,” he said.

A device to help some of the most impoverished farmers in Africa maximise their crop yields is being tested at London’s Kew Gardens. Developed by engineers at the University of Leeds, the sensor device gathers data on air temperature, humidity, air pressure, light, and soil moisture and temperature – information crucial to making key agricultural decisions about planting, fertilisation, irrigation, pest and disease control and harvesting.

Ecosystems are constantly exchanging materials through the movement of air in the atmosphere and water in lakes and rivers. The effects of humans, however, are another major source of connections among ecosystems. In a special issue of the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment on "Continental-scale ecology in an increasingly connected world" (June 2008), ecologists discuss how human influences interact with natural processes to influence global connectivity.

Past Earth Science and Climate Change News

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