Weather Satellites Can be Better Used
March 31 — Weather satellites could be even more effective forecasting and charting climate change if the agencies that run them keep up with the latest technology, an expert panel has reported. (New York Times)

In Aftermath of Volcanic Eruption, Photosynthesis Waxes, Carbon Dioxide Wanes
March 28 — Measurements taken during the years following the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption are providing new insight into how atmospheric aerosols affect photosynthesis. (Scientific American)

Earthquake Warnings in Ionosphere?
March 27 — Earthquakes may be sounding an early warning system in the outer reaches of the Earth?s atmosphere, says an international team of scientists. (Discovery Channel)

Rising Clouds Leave Forests High and Dry
March 26 — The base of clouds that form over the north-eastern states of the US have been getting ever higher over the past 30 years. (New Scientist)

Geocryology Important Tool in Global Change Science
March 25 — Geocryology, or the study of permafrost, is an increasingly important area of study in the larger field of global change science, Frederick E. Nelson, professor of geography at the University of Delaware, writes in the March 14 issue of Science magazine. (SpaceDaily)

Carbon Storage in Northern Forests Linked to Fire
March 24 — Researchers studying Canada's northern forests found that the ability of tree stands to store carbon changes as they regenerate from fire. (Environment News Service)

East Coast Drought Is History
March 22 — A snowy and rainy winter has pulled the East Coast out of its five-year drought, replenishing lakes and aquifers from Georgia to Maine. (CBS News)

Lightning Adds to Ozone Level
March 21 — Lightning can produce significant amounts of ozone and other gases that affect air chemistry, say researchers at Texas A&M University. (UPI, Cosmiverse)

Sun's Output Increasing in Possible Trend Fueling Global Warming
March 21 — In what could be the simplest explanation for one component of global warming, a new study shows the Sun's radiation has increased by .05 percent per decade since the late 1970s. (Space.com, MSNBC, Yahoo News)

Greenhouse Gases May Be Shifting Wind, Rainfall
March 19 — Greenhouse gas increases already blamed for global warming also may be shifting wind and rainfall patterns in the Northern Hemisphere by changing the atmospheric pressure, a new study suggests. (CTV Canada, Nature)

Rising Clouds Leave Forests High and Dry
March 19 — The base of clouds that form over the north-eastern states of the US have been getting ever higher over the past 30 years.

Latest El Nino Wimps Out
March 18 — The 2002-2003 El Nino was weaker than its record-setting predecessor in 1997-98, but it still had enough oomph to dump lots of snow in the East and dry out the West, scientists reported Tuesday. (UPI)

3 Great Lakes Frozen Over, First Time Since 1994: Environment Official
March 13 — For the first time in nearly a decade, the surfaces of Lakes Erie, Huron and Superior are coated with ice, said an official with Canada's Ice Service department Thursday. (TerraDaily)

Drought May Have Aided Fall of Maya Civilization
March 13 — Decades of declining rainfall, marked by three serious droughts, may have played a key role in the collapse of the Maya civilization, a team of Swiss and American researchers said in a study published Thursday. (TerraDaily)

Pinatubo Eruption Affected Arctic Climate
March 12 — New research has linked the 1991 eruption of the Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines to a strengthening of a climate pattern called the Arctic Oscillation. (Environment News Service, ScienceDaily)

Warmer Climate to Soak California
March 11 — A warmer globe means a wetter winter for California punctuated by bigger storms more likely to flood valleys than blanket the Sierra Nevada in snow that is valuable to cities and farmers. (Tri-Valley Herald, Oakland Tribune, Environment News Service)

Chemists Make Air Quality Discovery
March 11 — Chemists find that the diesel and coal smoke that make East Coast air acidic also could be a major factor in another air-quality problem: fine-particle pollution. (Raleigh News & Observer)

Greenland Cools as World Warms
March 11 — While scientists report warming trends in many parts of the globe, it seems this northern polar region has been moving in the other direction. (BBC News)

Rain Kills Reindeer
March 10 — The reindeer, caribou and elk that many indigenous peoples depend upon starve when it rains on snow-covered land in Scandinavia, Canada, Alaska. (Nature)

Changes in the Earth's Rotation Are in the Wind
March 10 — Because of Earth's dynamic climate, winds and atmospheric pressure systems experience constant change and these fluctuations may affect how our planet rotates on its axis, according to NASA-funded research that used wind and satellite data. (SpaceDaily)

Climate Changes May Increase Extreme Rain/Snow Events in California
March 7 — Increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere may lead to a rise in the number of annual extreme precipitation events in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, which in turn could increase the frequency of flooding in California, a NASA-funded study finds. (Environment News Service, ScienceDaily)

Weak El Niño Means Less Snow in West
March 7 — A new climate model shows that weak El Niños like the one this winter make for diminished snowfall in the Northwest and the Rockies into the spring. (Scripps Howard News Service, United Press International)

El Niño Weakening, Experts Say
March 6 — The El Niño that has helped bring unusual weather to parts of the country is weakening, federal climate experts said Thursday. (CNN)

Changes in the Earth's Rotation Are in the Wind
March 6 — Because of Earth's dynamic climate, winds and atmospheric pressure systems experience constant change that may affect how our planet rotates on its axis, according to NASA-funded research that used wind and satellite data. (ScienceDaily)

Climate Studies Hold Key to Future of Desalination Plant
March 6 — Paleontologists and hydrologists are being called in to help the US government decide what to do with a disused, $400-million desalination plant on the banks of the Colorado River. (Nature)

Winter Weather Won't Replenish Great Lakes
March 3 — Call it an irony of science, but the Great Lakes region - home of the world's largest collection of fresh surface water - remains entrenched in a drought. (Toledo Blade)

Winter's Engine?
March 1 — East Coast snow and cold may be powered by an Atlantic weather pattern called the North Atlantic Oscillation. (CNN)

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