NASA Sensor Captures Plight of Periled Antarctic Penguins
December 27 — A NASA remote sensing instrument is capturing an unfolding ecological disaster affecting hundreds of thousands of penguins at Earth's southern tip. More

All Systems "Go" on New Weather Satellite
December 21 — The nation's new geostationary weather satellite, GOES-12, has successfully completed testing and is ready to replace one of the country's older weather satellites when needed. More

MODIS Improves Global Vegetation Mapping
December 20 — Unique observations of Earth's vegetation are coming down from the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite. More

New NASA/SGI Supercomputer Brings "Early Spring" to Climate Models
December 18 — As winter arrives across the country, a new supercomputer that will create the best-ever models of how the Earth's climate works is being "fired up" as part of NASA's efforts to better understand the global environment. More

Observations of 1998 El Niño Provide Powerful Climate Test
December 17 — NASA satellite observations of the 1998 El Niño?the strongest ever recorded?show never before seen changes in cloud structures that provide a challenging test for even the world's best climate models. More

Satellite Data Help Researchers Track Carbon in Northern Hemisphere Forests
December 11 — NASA-funded Earth Science researchers, using high-resolution maps of carbon storage derived from NASA-developed satellite data sets, suggest that forests in the United States, Europe and Russia have been storing nearly 700 million metric tons of carbon a year during the 1980s and 1990s. More

SAFARI 2000 Captures Pollution and Climate Interactions
December 10 — During the year 2000, above average seasonal rainfall spurred vegetative growth in South Africa, providing more fuel for biomass burning and adding pollution to the atmosphere. More

Cotton Doesn't Shrink From Climate Change
December 10 — A new NASA-funded study finds that cotton yields are likely to increase in the Southeastern United States if carbon dioxide levels continue to rise as projected this century, and if farmers can adapt their agricultural practices to the resulting climate change. More

Methane Explosion Warmed the Prehistoric Earth, Possible Again
December 10 — A tremendous release of methane gas frozen beneath the sea floor heated the Earth by up to 13 degrees Fahrenheit (7 degrees Celsius) 55 million years ago, a new NASA study confirms. NASA scientists used data from a computer simulation of the paleo-climate to better understand the role of methane in climate change. While most greenhouse gas studies focus on carbon dioxide, methane is 20 times more potent as a heat-trapping gas in the atmosphere. More

Red Alert! "Recycled" Ozone Adds to Health Hazards in Zambia
December 10 — Researchers analyzing harmful low-level ozone or "smog" over the African country of Zambia measured high amounts of pollution throughout the burning season in the year 2000, and discovered that the pollution is "recycled" from other southern African countries. More

Large Volcanic Eruptions Help Plants Absorb More Carbon Dioxide From the Atmosphere
December 10 — New NASA-funded research shows that when the atmosphere gets hazy, like it did after the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines in June 1991, plants photosynthesize more efficiently, thereby absorbing more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. More

Study of Cirrus Clouds May Improve Climate Change Forecasts
December 7 — Studies of cirrus clouds by some 150 scientists may lead to improved forecasts of future climate change. More

'Restless Earth' May Give Advance Notice of Large Earthquakes
December 7 — Signals that come from deep within the Earth eventually may give us a few days' warning before some large earthquakes, according to a scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center. More

Ames Earth Scientists Present at AGU Meeting in San Francisco
December 7 — Earthquake studies and how much carbon North America absorbs annually into its ecosystems are just two of many subjects that NASA Ames Earth scientists will present during the annual fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Dec. 10 -14. More

Jason Sets Sail; Satellite to Spot Sea's Solar/Atmospheric Seesaw
December 7 — The joint NASA/French Space Agency oceanography satellite Jason 1 successfully rode a Delta II rocket into orbit from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base Space Launch Complex 2W at 7:07:36 a.m. PST today. More

The Sun's Chilly Impact on Earth
December 6 — A new NASA computer climate model reinforces the long-standing theory that low solar activity could have changed the atmospheric circulation in the Northern Hemisphere from the 1400s to the 1700s and triggered a "Little Ice Age" in several regions including North America and Europe. More

Satellites Help Scientists Understand Dining Habits of Sea Lions, Seals
December 3 — The Alaska Ecosystems Program, which includes Sterling and more than a dozen other researchers, has been using satellites to track northern fur seals and Steller sea lions in the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea for nearly a decade. More

Global Positioning System May Help Measure Sea Height
December 3 — Researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., have conducted groundbreaking research, proving that Global Positioning System altimetry may be an inexpensive, effective tool to measure sea levels. More

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