Ocean Surface Salinity Influences El Niño Forecasts
January 31 — NASA-funded scientists from the University of Maryland have discovered that by knowing the salt content of the ocean, they may be able to improve predictions of El Ninos. (KBCI-TV (Idaho), Navakal.com (India), Spacedaily, SpaceflightNow, UPI)

Warming Worsened Drought
January 30 — A study in the journal of Science says that global warming probably made the recent U.S. drought worse than it would have been otherwise, and it could increase the risk for future severe droughts. (USA Today)

Satellite, Shuttle Pair for Ozone Studies
January 27 — The Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) satellite was launched from Florida this weekend, and it will measure the total energy output from the Sun and how it affects the Earth?s climate. (Associated Press, CNN, Discovery.com, FoxNews, United Press International)

Monsoon Records Show Link with Global Climate
January 22 — Researchers from India and the U.S. studying sediment samples from the Arabian Sea have created a detailed record of Asian monsoon patterns from the Holocene period to today. It shows weak summer monsoons coincide with cold spells in the North Atlantic (ABC News)

Long-Lost Records Confirm Rising Sea Level
January 22 — Climate records dating back 160 years ago were discovered at the Royal Society in London, and have shown scientists that Australian sea levels have been rising since then. (Spacedaily)

El Niño May Cause Drought in Western U.S.
January 22 — Forecasters say that if the dry winter weather continues in the western states, there could be spring and summer water shortages. (ENN.com)

Nepal Facing Glacier Catastrophe
January 21 — Over the past 25 years, temperatures have risen every year and glaciers like one in the Himalayas have retreated. In its place stands a mile long and 100 meter deep glacial lake. (BBC News)

El Niño Disruption to Last for at Least Another Four Months
January 17 — El Niño, the weather pattern which has been blamed for bringing extreme conditions to many areas around the Pacific Ocean in recent months, should last until at least May 2003, the World Meteorological Organization said on Friday. (CNN, SpaceDaily)

Melting Ice on East Coast Threatens Seals
January 16 — A new report suggests climate change is reducing the amount of ice in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and off the coast of Newfoundland and, in turn, the melting ice may be hurting the marine mammals. (Canadian Broadcast Association)

Probing the Inner Workings of Storm Clouds
January 16 — NASA researchers have aimed a variety of radars into the core of an unusual thunderstorm in the tropics, creating a unique "full body scan" that shows the inner workings of storm clouds. (Scripps Howard News Service, MSNBC, Reuters, ABC News)

Is Remote Sensing the Answer to Today's Agricultural Problems
January 16 — Since current methods for determining the optimum timing of nitrogen fertilizer application can be costly, time consuming, and difficult, wheat growers turn to aerial imagery to overcome economic, environmental challenges. (SpaceDaily)

Climate Changes Disrupt Birds
January 15 — Shifts in spring temperatures in central Europe may be having a significant effect on the ability of birds to breed successfully, say scientists. (BBC)

Lightning Plays on the Radio
January 15 — That whistling static on the radio could be the sound of lightning messing with the Earth's electrically charged magnetic field — and making space a safer place. (Discovery News)

Lightning Really Does Strike More Than Twice
January 15 — NASA-funded scientists have recently learned that cloud-to-ground lightning frequently strikes the ground in two or more places and that the chances of being struck are about 45 percent higher than what people commonly assume. (UPI, SpaceDaily)

Supernova Won't Destroy the World
January 14 — While the cosmic debris from a nearby massive star explosion, called a supernova, could destroy the Earth's protective ozone layer and cause mass extinction, such an explosion would have to be much closer than previously thought, new calculations show. (Universe Today)

NASA Instrument Captures Early Antarctic Ice Shelf Melting
January 14 — An international research team using data from NASA's SeaWinds instrument aboard the Quick Scatterometer spacecraft has detected the earliest yet recorded pre-summer melting event in a section of Antarctica's Larsen Ice Shelf. (SpaceDaily)

Two NASA Research Satellites Launched to Study Environment, Space
January 13 — NASA announced Monday the launch of two research satellites to study the ice cap and conditions in which stars are formed aboard a Delta II rocket. (SpaceDaily)

Atmospheric "Waves" Reduced Ozone Hole
January 12 — A greater number of large "planetary sized waves" in the atmosphere that move from the lower atmosphere into the upper atmosphere were responsible for the smaller Antarctic ozone hole this fall, according to NASA researchers. (ScienceaGoGo)

Two Global Pollutants Work to Offset Each Other
January 10 — University of Colorado at Boulder researchers have found, ironically, that two pollutants — carbon dioxide and hydrocarbons emitted from agricultural forest trees — offset each other somewhat in mitigating air quality problems. (SpaceDaily)

Global Warming Linked to Increase in Tropopause Height
January 10 — Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory have shown that increases in the height of the tropopause over the past two decades are directly linked to ozone depletion and increased greenhouse gases. (UPI, SpaceDaily)

El Niño Now in Strongest Phase in United States
January 10 — The global weather anomaly El Niño has strengthened and is expected to worsen the drought in the U.S. Plains states while drenching California and the Southeast through the spring, the government said. (Reuters)

Polar Bear ‘Extinct Within 100 Years’
January 9 — The polar bear could be driven to extinction by global warming, warns an ecology expert. (BBC, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation)

South Pole Pioneers Find El Niño Climate Changes
January 6 — A U.S. research team that has just completed the first overland trek across Antarctica to the South Pole in 45 years believes its efforts will provide integral insights into the effects of El Niño and the overall workings of the global climate system. (CNN, Environment News Service, Reuters)

A Global Warming Catch-22?
January 6 — The ability of the ocean to buffer the effects of global warming may hinge upon the interactions of tiny marine organisms at various temperatures, according to a marine scientist at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. (SpaceDaliy)

Tree-Ring Study Reveals Long History of El Niño
January 6 — El Niño is not a new phenomenon, according to a recent NASA study that looks 750 years into the past using tree-ring records. (SpaceDaily)

Malaria’s Rise in Africa Parallels Warming Trends
January 6 — Researchers conclude that the increase in the incidence of malaria in East Africa parallel?s warming trends over the last several decades. (SpaceDaily)

Threat to Earth from Supernova Blast Falls
January 4 — The likelihood of a supernova explosion that would strip off the Earth's protective ozone layer and imperil life has been reduced to a remote threat, according to new calculations by American astrophysicists. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, SpaceDaily)

Study: Antarctic Ice Sheet May Melt in 7,000 Years
January 3 — A natural cycle of thawing may cause an Antarctic ice sheet as big as Texas and Colorado combined to melt away in 7,000 years, possible raising sea levels by about 16 feet, new research finds. (AP, CNN, USA Today)

Global Warming Kicks Off a Migration
January 2 — Rising global temperatures that have lured plants into early bloom and birds to nest earlier in the spring are altering the ranges and behavior of hundreds of plant and animal species worldwide, two studies conclude. (AP, CBS, BBC)

Tinkering With Clouds
January 2 — Researchers say evolving technologies could allow manipulation of major weather patterns, but some question whether humans should tamper. (Christian Science Monitor)

Back to: News