NASA to Test New Weather, Climate Instrument
December 20 — The next Earth-observing mission under NASA's New Millennium Program has been selected. Earth Observing 3 will study temperature, water vapor, wind, and the atmosphere, which could lead to revolutionary improvements in weather observation and prediction. (Associated Press)

Scientists Release Earthquake Map
December 19 — Scientists released the first map detailing the entire planet's earthquake hazard zones, which shows that much of the world's population live on potentially shakyground. Domenico Giardini at the Swiss Seismological Service in Zurich says that as a result of this map, more than half of the countries of the world have new seismic hazard maps. (Matthew Fordahl, Associated Press)

1999 Continues Warming Trend Around the Globe
December 19 — Last month was the warmest November in 105 years of record keeping in the contiguous 48 United States. Thomas R. Karl, the director of the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C., said that he was surprised at the persistent warmth on land during a La Niña year and that nothing like this has ever been observed in the temperature record. (William K. Stevens, New York Times)

NASA Launches Satellite
December 18 — NASA's Terra satellite was launched Saturday on a $1.3 billion-plus mission to observe the interactions between the Earth, atmosphere, and ocean. Terra is carrying five instruments that have measurement and accuracy capabilities that have never been put into space. (Associated Press)

Polar Wind Shift Marks New Global Weather Worry
December 17 — Scientists say that shifting wind patterns around the North Pole are partly to blame for the weather changes in recent decades. David Thompson at the University of Washington says that the recent trend of climate changes is unprecedented in climate models. (Reuters)

Volcano Soft Spot Trigger Mudflows
December 15 — Soft spots on volcanoes can collapse at any time and trigger mudflows that can be more devastating than eruptions according to volcanologist Michael Sheridan at the University of Buffalo in New York. Sheridan says that avalanches and mudflows could be a big issue for Mount Rainier in Washington. (Environmental News Network)

Old Trees' Rings Tell Tales of Climate's Past
December 13 — Studying the tree rings at the summit of Mt. Baden-Powell in Wrightwood, Calif., reveal clues about past climate changes. Franco Biondi, who is leading the study to assemble a 1,500-year chronology of drought and rainfall for the Los Angeles region, says that the limber pines, named for their flexible branches, have grown more in the past 20 years than at any time during that past 1,000 years. Biondi speculates that the growth spurt may be the result of an increase in carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. (Eric Niiler, Boston Globe)

Buoy Oh Buoy: Comprehensive El Niño Data
December 11 — The El Niño-La Niña event of 1997-98 was the largest ever observed and studied in great detail says Michael R. Landry at the University of Hawaii. This event provided the first clues about how ocean ecosystems, global carbon dioxide concentrations, and the physical forces behind El Ni�o interrelate said Landry. (O. Baker, Science News)

Terra Launch Spotlights NASA Observing System
December 10 — The Terra satellite, the first of three major satellites in NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS), will be launched next week. Terra will gather information about the Earth's climate and how humans are altering it. Ghassem Asrar, chief of NASA Earth sciences, says that for the first time a mission is trying to understand the whole Earth system. (Andrew Lawler, Science)

El Niño Affecting Carbon Dioxide
December 9 — A team of researchers found that El Niño reduces the amount of carbon dioxide in the equatorial Pacific releases into the air. Francisco Chavez at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, found that the 1997-98 El Niño caused a loss of over 700 million metric tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere and a dramatic decrease in the phytoplankton population in the equatorial Pacific Ocean.

Sky High View of a Huge Flood
December 9 — The flooding and heavy rainfall from hurricane Floyd did more damage to North Carolina marine life than to humans. Pat Tester, an oceanographer at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminitration, says that if the floods would have come during the summer there would have been an explosion of aquatic plant growth that would deplete the oxygen levels in that water and would have led to a massive suffocation of marine life. (Robert C. Cowen, Christian Science Monitor)

Arctic Thawing May Jolt Sea's Climate Belt
December 7 — Watching the Arctic ice melt may be the key to understanding climate changes in the future. Peter Schlosser at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, suggests that if the Arctic ice completely melts, the result will be changes in temperature and rainfall patterns similar to the changes during an El Niño event. (William K. Stevens, New York Times)

Arctic Sea Ice is Rapidly Dwindling
December 3 — Arctic sea ice is shrinking by 14,000 square miles a year, an area larger than Maryland and Delaware combined, probably because of global warming caused by human activity. Konstantin Vinnikov, at the University of Maryland, used a climate model to determine that 98 percent of Arctic sea ice shrinking was not a result of natural climate variability. (Curt Suplee, Washington Post)

Will the Arctic Ocean Lose All Its Ice?
December 3 — Climatologists have been watching a slow shrinkage of Arctic ice and have been trying to determine if the shrinking is due to natural or human-induced climate changes, but new evidence suggests that the Arctic ice may melt completely in a few decades. Andrew Rothrock at the University of Washington says that the Arctic ice is not only shrinking in area but is also rapidly thinning, which may impact our climate in the future. (Richard A. Kerr, Science)

Burying World's Extra CO2 on Ocean Bottom
December 2 — Federal energy officials have joined scientists worldwide to study the disposal of carbon dioxide as a way of slowing down the "greenhouse effect." John Houghton, program manager at the Department of Energy, says that they will find the best ways to dispose of carbon dioxide by looking at other projects such as a Norwegian petroleum company that has pumped 1 million tons of liquified carbon dioxide below the North Sea each year since 1996. (Eric Niiler, Christian Science Monitor)

NASA Ames Joins International Effort to Study Ozone Layer
December 1 — The most thorough mission probing damage to the ozone layer is under way in Sweden, where 370 researchers are studying the ozone layer over the next four months. Max Loewenstein, a physicist at Ames and one of the mission's principal investigators, says that by March scientists will have a better understanding of what is happening to the ozone layer. (Glennda Chui, San Jose Mercury News)

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