A team of researchers has used improved satellite imaging and powerful computer modeling to more accurately forecast the likelihood and intensity of storms and tornadoes. (Purdue University press release)
Mangroves, the backbone of the tropical ocean coastlines, likely provide more than 10 percent of essential dissolved organic carbon that is supplied to the global ocean from land, researchers say. (American Geophysical Union press release)
Officials say the CryoSat-2 mission will replace the aborted CryoSat spacecraft to monitor the thickness of land and sea ice and help explain the connection between the melting of polar ice and the rise in sea levels. (European Space Agency press release)
MetOp-A, planned to be launched this June, will be Europe's first polar-orbiting satellite dedicated to operational meteorology. (European Space Agency press release)
New research into a missing link in climatology shows that the Earth was not overcome by a greenhouse period when dinosaurs dominated, but experienced rapid fluctuations in temperature and sea-level change that resulted in a balance of the global carbon cycle. (McMaster University press release)
A new atmospheric model is able to quantify man-made versus naturally occurring damage to the stratosphere with an eye toward repairing the ozone layer, say researchers. (University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science press release)
New research suggests that by supporting blooms of harmful seaweed, increasing nutrient pollution levels are reducing the areas where reef-building coral can survive. (Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution press release)
Increased carbon dioxide emissions are rapidly making the world's oceans more acidic and, if unabated, could cause a mass extinction of marine life similar to one that occurred 65 million years ago when the dinosaurs disappeared, say researchers. (Carnegie Institution press release)
Scientists report a warmer Arctic Ocean may mean less food for birds, fish, and baleen whales, a significant detriment to that fragile and interconnected polar ecosystem. (University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science press release)
New statistics show 2005 was the second deadliest on record for Florida's endangered manatees, with most of the fatalities caused by toxins produced by "red tide" blooms. (Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution press release)
Human activities are releasing greenhouse gases more than 30 times faster than the rate of emissions that triggered a period of extreme global warming in the Earth's past, according to an expert on ancient climates. (University of California-Santa Cruz press release)
The majority of tiny marine plants weathered the abrupt climate changes that occurred in Earth's past and bounced back, according to a Penn State geoscientist. (Penn State University press release)
Large amounts of a chemical that boosts ozone production are being transported to North America from across the Pacific Ocean in May and may be contributing to significant increases in ozone levels over North America. (Georgia Institute of Technology press release)
Researchers have captured the best images ever produced of "sprites" -- mysterious flashes of light resembling giant undulating jellyfish that can occur above strong thunderstorms -- using a high-speed camera that recorded thousands of video frames a second. (Duke University press release)
Scientists have discovered a mutant enzyme that could enable plants to use and convert carbon dioxide more quickly, effectively taking more of that gas out of the atmosphere. (Emory University press release)
Ocean temperatures might have risen even higher during the last century if it weren't for volcanoes that spewed ashes and aerosols into the upper atmosphere, researchers have found. (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory press release)
Icy chunks of frozen methane and water are not responsible for the periodic increases in atmospheric methane recorded in Greenland ice cores, new research shows. (Penn State University press release)
A new study finds the number of "hot spots" has increased dramatically in the Northern Hemisphere in the last century compared to the past 1200 years. (University of East Anglia press release)
A recent decrease in Rocky Mountain snowpack has slowed the release of heat-trapping carbon dioxide gases from forest soils into the atmosphere during the dead of winter, according to a new study. (University of Colorado-Boulder press release)
A unifying physics principle is helping researchers focus on the primary players in global circulation and climate. (Duke University press release)
A new study shows that if the world continues to burn greenhouse gases, California may have an increased risk of winter floods and summer water shortages, even within the same year. (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory press release)
Ongoing research involving instrumentation on the Proteus, a space-age aircraft equipped with a suite of highly sophisticated sensors, reveals superior images of ice crystals in high-altitude tropical cirrus clouds. (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory press release)
Researchers report that methane gas bubbling through seafloor sediments has created hundreds of low hills on the floor of the Arctic Ocean. (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute press release)
New research suggests clay made animal life possible on Earth. (University of California-Riverside press release)
Scientists are discussing the use of Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite data to assess ocean currents, wave patterns, and local sea state. (European Space Agency press release)