NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, scheduled for launch Jan. 31, will gather information key to the University of Hawaii's research on the aftermath of volcanic eruptions. The mission will employ an advanced measurement technique called "radar interferometry" to obtain topographic maps of most of the Earth's surface. "It's providing a first look at the Earth's topography at this scale," said volcanologist Peter Mouginis-Mark of the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology.

Mounting evidence now suggests that large changes in climatic conditions have occurred across the globe over the last millennium and could reoccur independent of human-induced global warming. New research in the journal Nature shows that extreme fluctuations in the Earth's water resources during the last millennium occurred naturally in Eastern Africa. "We should be prepared for naturally occurring, extreme climate changes that will provoke water shortages in the future," says Brian Cumming of Queen's University. (Queen's University release)

The cold Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica soaks up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere like a sponge, but scientists have discovered that the greenhouse gas does not stay there. Researchers have found that the carbon dioxide ends up deep in the subtropical ocean. The new findings are reported in the journal Science.

New research in the journal Nature has confirmed that the atmosphere has gotten warmer and wetter over the last decade. Frank Wentz of Remote Sensing Systems, Santa Rosa, Calif., compared data from three different satellites to see if changes in sea surface temperature, air temperature, or humidity matched. "The combination of these three instruments can produce a much better definition of climate trends than any of the instruments could alone," said Wentz.

Twice an Exxon Valdez spill worth of oil seeps into the Gulf of Mexico every year, according to a study presented Jan. 27 at the Ocean Sciences Meeting in San Antonio, Texas. The ooze, a natural phenomena that has been going on for many thousands of years, was measured with satellite images by Roger Mitchell of the Earth Satellite Corp., Rockville Md.

The Amazon rainforest is striking a precarious balance in terms of the greenhouse gasses that are released as its rainforests are consumed, according to a new study using Landsat satellite images. The study in the journal Nature indicates that the carbon released into the atmosphere by deforestation offsets that absorbed by new forests growing. "It appears that tropical forests that have been thought of as large sources of greenhouse gasses may be neutral," said David Skole of Michigan State University, one of the study's authors. (Michigan State University release)

With predicted sea level rise, wetland loss, subsidence, and the absence of restoration programs, the future of New Orleans appears bleak. "We have the greatest coastal land loss problem in North America," says University of New Orleans coastal geologist Shea Penland. The director of the U.S. Geological Survey, Chip Groat, agrees: "With the projected rate of subsidence [the natural sinking of land], wetland loss, and sea level rise, New Orleans will likely be on the verge of extinction by this time next century." (University of New Orleans release)

In the first years of the new millennium, scientists will be able to, for the first time, peer inside forests across the world, accurately measure changes in the amount of ice in the polar caps, and get a global look at how clouds and airborne dust particles affect global warming. Many of these advances will be made when a new generation of laser-based sensors called "lidar" makes their debut in space, says M. Pat McCormick, co-director of the Center for Atmospheric Sciences at Hampton University. (Hampton University release)

Colorado State University researcher Roger Pielke, Sr., believes that regional climate change assessments of the United States and one prepared by a United Nations panel overlook factors that are critically important to the realism of models of global climate change. Research has shown that the effect of landscape and human-caused land-use changes can have a profound effect on climate variability and change. This calls into question the realism of the climate predictions because these factors have not been included in the model. (Colorado State University release)

This year's La Niña spring could bring increased streamflows to the Pacific Northwest and Appalachia, but lower streamflows in the Southwest United States, in parts of the Northeast and center of the nation, according to a new report by the U.S. Geological Survey and its partners. The new report shows areas of the country where it is more likely that streamflows will be high, including flooding, and areas where streamflows will be low, which could spell drought. The new maps are a statistical survey that identifies areas where, during past La Niña years, very high flows and very low flows have occurred. (U.S. Geological Survey release)