NASA: National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationEarth Observatory

Media Alerts: June 2004

  1. May 2004
  2. July 2004
  1. LSU Researchers Examine 100+ Years of Hurricane Hits Along East Coast, Gulf Coast June 30, 2004

    Three LSU researchers have examined more than 100 years of data on hurricane strikes from the coast of Texas to New England and they've found that the "hottest" region for hits is South Florida, followed by North Carolina and the Northern Gulf Coast, from East Texas to the Florida panhandle. (Louisiana State University press release)

  2. Floating University Expedition to Unravel Ocean Bed Secrets of Climate Change June 30, 2004

    Researchers from Cardiff University, UK, have returned from a major research expedition to unravel the complex history of ice-ocean and climate change over the past 50,000 years. (UK Natural Environment Research Council press release)

  3. Deserts and Rainforest Are Equally Productive During Drought June 29, 2004

    A new study finds that during drought conditions, both deserts and rainforests use the same amount of moisture to maintain plant growth. (Yale University press release)

  4. Deserts and Rainforest Are Equally Productive During Drought June 29, 2004

    A new study finds that during drought conditions, both deserts and rainforests use the same amount of moisture to maintain plant growth. (Yale University press release)

  5. DOE Scientists Sample the Skies June 28, 2004

    This summer, scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) will take to the skies above Western Pennsylvania for one month to sample the air for aerosol pollutants and evaluate their effects on Earth's climate. (Brookhaven National Laboratory press release)

  6. Underground Carbon Dioxide Reduces Emissions June 25, 2004

    A new technology that is one of the first to successfully store carbon dioxide underground may have huge implications for global warming and the oil industry, says a University of Alberta researcher. (University of Alberta press release)

  7. NCAR Computer Modelers to Use New Powerful Linux System June 24, 2004

    NCAR has purchased a large-scale, Linux-based computing system that will allow NCAR's major community climate and weather codes to be built, tested, and evaluated in a full-scale Linux environment for the first time. (National Center for Atmospheric Research press release)

  8. Research Supports Theory that Ocean Currents Redistribute Heat During Warming and Cooling June 24, 2004

    A paper published this week in the journal Science supports the hypothesis that heat transfer by ocean currents -- rather than global heating or cooling -- may have been responsible for the global temperature patterns associated with the abrupt climate changes seen in the North Atlantic during the past 80,000 years. (Georgia Institute of Technology press release)

  9. Melting Ice Cap Gives Urgency to New Census of Marine Life Project in Arctic Ocean June 24, 2004

    A new 'Census of Marine Life' project based in Alaska with global partners seeks to find life-forms in the world's oldest seawater. (Census of Marine Life press release)

  10. Dark Days Doomed Dinosaurs, say Purdue Scientists June 23, 2004

    By analyzing fossil records, a team of scientists including Purdue's Matthew Huber has found evidence that the Earth underwent a sudden cooling 65 million years ago that may have taken millennia to abate completely. (Purdue University press release)

  11. NCAR Releases New Version of Premier Global Climate Model June 22, 2004

    The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has unveiled a powerful new version of a supercomputer-based system to model Earth's climate and to project global temperature rise in coming decades. (National Center for Atmospheric Research press release)

  12. Rapid Urbanization in China Warming Region's Climate Faster Than Other Areas June 22, 2004

    Rapid urbanization in southeastern China in the past 25 years is responsible for an estimated warming rate much larger than previous estimates for other periods and locations, according to a new study funded by NASA. (Georgia Institute of Technology press release)

  13. CU-Boulder Satellite Instrument to Provide New Details on Ozone June 21, 2004

    Just after 3 a.m. on July 10, University of Colorado at Boulder researcher John Gille expects to watch a new NASA satellite blast into orbit from the dark California coastline on a mission to study Earth's protective ozone layer, climate and air quality changes with unprecedented detail. (University of Colorado-Boulder press release)

  14. Fish Story Linked to Climate Cycle June 18, 2004

    A team led by three University of Maine scientists reports using fish bones from an archaeological site in Peru to describe the timing of Pacific Ocean climate cycles linked to El Nino. (University of Maine press release)

  15. NSF’s North Pole Researchers Study Climate Change in Arctic June 17, 2004

    Researchers at the "top of the world," supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), are using an array of scientific tools to build a comprehensive scientific picture of environmental change in the Arctic and what it may mean for the rest of the globe. (National Science Foundation press release)

  16. Carbon Dioxide [CO2] Fertilization is Slowing Global Warming June 17, 2004

    A Boston College scientist has published new research introducing the concept of a [CO2] fertilization factor for soil carbon, a way to measure an ecosystem's ability to store carbon in response to increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. (Boston College press release)

  17. New Yorkers' Health Will Be Affected by Climate Change, New Study Shows June 15, 2004

    New York will be hotter in the future, and some New Yorkers could be sicker as a result, according to a study to be released at an event on June 25th hosted by the Earth Institute at Columbia University and Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health. (The Earth Institute at Columbia University press release)

  18. University of Colorado to Receive $20 Million from NASA to Study Nocticulent Clouds June 15, 2004

    The University of Colorado at Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics has been selected by NASA to build two of the three instruments for a satellite that will launch in 2006 to study noctilucent clouds; the shiny, silvery-blue polar mesospheric clouds that form about 50 miles over Earth's polar regions each summer. (University of Colorado-Boulder press release)

  19. Ecosystem Bounces Back from Hurricanes June 14, 2004

    After receiving the brunt of powerful hurricanes in 1996 and 1999, the Neuse River and Estuary and western Pamlico Sound in eastern North Carolina appear to have suffered few long-term ill effects from the storms, and have actually benefited ecologically in some ways from the storms' scouring effects. (North Carolina State University press release)

  20. USA's Built-Up Surfaces Equal Ohio in Area June 14, 2004

    If all the highways, buildings, and other solid structures in the contiguous United States were pieced together like a jigsaw puzzle, they would almost cover the state of Ohio; significantly impact local climates and carbon sequestration cycles of plants. (American Geophysical Union press release)

  21. Two Billion Vulnerable to Floods by 2050; Number Expected to Double or More in Two Generations June 13, 2004

    The number of people worldwide vulnerable to a devastating flood is expected to increase to 2 billion by 2050 due to climate change, deforestation, rising sea levels and population growth in flood-prone lands, warn experts at the United Nations University. (United Nations University press release)

  22. Fifty-two Thousand Years of Marine Fertility Sheds Light on Climate Change June 10, 2004

    New research on marine fertility shows that variations in the workings of the equatorial heat engine may be as important as high-latitude processes in climate change. (The Earth Institute at Columbia University press release)

  23. The Mediterranean Connection: Ecological Effects June 10, 2004

    The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and the El Ni�o/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) are increasingly acknowledged as major climatic sources of ecological variability, and new research provides the first evidence of concurrent NAO and ENSO effects on the long-term dynamics of a natural population. (Blackwell Publishing Limited press release)

  24. Limited Climate Tracking in European Trees Despite 10,000 Years of Postglacial Warmth June 10, 2004

    The relative roles of environment and history as controls of large-scale species distributions is a crucial issue in biogeography and macro-ecology and new research shows that among 55 native European tree species, 36 occupy less than 50 percent of their climatically suitable range. (Blackwell Publishing Limited press release)

  25. New Ice Core Record Will Help Understanding of Ice Ages, Global Warming, CU Professor Says June 9, 2004

    Recovery of a new ice core in Antarctica that extends back 740,000 years -- nearly twice as long as any other ice core record -- is extremely important and will help scientists better understand the Earth's climate and issues related to global warming, according to a University of Colorado at Boulder professor. (University at Colorado-Boulder press release)

  26. Team Set to Upgrade Weather Station on Mt. McKinley June 9, 2004

    A small team from the International Arctic Research Center (IARC) and the Geophysical Institute (GI) will begin scaling Mt. McKinley on June 15 to make repairs to the mountain�s weather station. (University of Alaska-Fairbanks press release)

  27. Tracking Climate Change June 8, 2004

    In August 2004, three icebreakers will set off in the direction of the North Pole to extract cores from beneath the Arctic seafloor to investigate marine sediments, and an international team of scientists will trace the history of the climatic environment of the Arctic over the last 50 million years. (The DFG Ocean Margins Research Center press release)

  28. Continents Played Key Role in Collapse and Regeneration of Earth's Early Greenhouse Gas, Geologists Say June 3, 2004

    New research suggests that rocks played a surprisingly crucial role in the evolution of the Earth's early atmosphere. (Stanford University press release)

  29. Tree Ring Laboratory Receives $5.5 Million to Study Climate Dynamics June 1, 2004

    The National Science Foundation has awarded the Tree-Ring Laboratory of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory a grant to study Asian monsoons.

  30. 17th Century Solar Oddity Believed Linked to Global Cooling is Rare among Nearby Stars June 1, 2004

    A dip in the Sun's activity during the 17th century, what is now called the Maunder minimum, has been linked to a lengthy cold spell during the same period, leading astronomers to look for stellar analogs of this solar funk. (University of California-Berkeley press release)