Global Warming Melts Australia?s Glaciers
May 31, 2001The shrinking of Australia?s glaciers on Heard Island, a remote, sub-Antarctic island, shows that global warming?s effects stretch from the tropics to the edge of Antarctica. (Reuters)
New Techniques for Hurricane Monitoring
May 31, 2001NASA jets will be dropping robotic drones into hurricanes to more accurately measure their strength. The National Weather Service is adding ocean temperatures into new computer models to improve hurricane predictions. (Associated Press)
El Nino Phenomenon Boosts Snowfall
May 31, 2001New research indicates that the El Nino phenomenon brings more snowfall to Stowe, Vermont, and Amarillo, Texas, and can reduce snowfall in other areas of the United States. (Associated Press)
The Greening of the Arctic
May 30, 2001Aerial photographs of the Arctic indicate that the amount of vegetation has doubled in some areas in the past 50 years. (BBC News online)
Satellite Paints Smoggy Portrait of the Planet
May 30, 2001The MOPITT instrument on NASA's Terra satellite is observing plumes of carbon monoxide move around the world, indicating that pollution is not a local problem. (CNN Cable News, CBS Evening News)
Landsat on Steroids: Seeing Urban Impact from Space
May 30, 2001The ASTER instrument on NASA's Terra satellite enables scientists to better study surface materials. New results were presented at the American Geophysical Union meeting in Boston. (David Chandler, Boston Globe; Space.com, Scientific American online)
Rising Sea Level Will Swallow Some Coastlines
May 29, 2001Oceans are currently rising one-tenth of an inch each year worldwide. The extra water comes from melting glaciers and ice sheets and swelling of the oceans as they heat. In the next 50 years, scientists warn, the seas will rise a foot. (ENN.com)
Explorer Reports Evidence of Global Warming
May 29, 2001A Norwegian explorer has reported that the ice sheets covering the Arctic seas have thinned noticeably over the last seven years, most likely as a result of global warming. (Reuters)
Scientists Link El Nino to Antarctic Wave
May 24, 2001Australian scientists have discovered that El Nino produces increased rainfall in southern parts of Australia with a three-year lag time. (Reuters)
Questioning the Future Power of Carbon Sinks
May 24, 2001Researchers have discovered that a shortage or water and nutrients in soil could limit how trees respond to increases in carbon dioxide. (Reuters; Andrew Revkin, New York Times)
Climate Change Leaves Migrating Bird Behind
May 21, 2001Scientists have determined that birds can?t easily alter their migrations to the changes that a warming climate brings and are not arriving at breeding grounds when food is plentiful. (Los Angeles Times)
Hurricane Forecast: Normal
May 21, 2001The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts a normal hurricane season for the United States, 8 -11 storms, 5-7 of which will reach hurricane strength. (ABCnews.com)
A Vicious Cycle ? Dust Aggravates Drought
May 16, 2001A Hebrew University researcher says that desert dust particles inhibit rainfall, and more dust means less rainfall. (Weather.com, Space.com, Scientific American online)
Amazon Destruction Hits 5-Year High
May 16, 2001Based on satellite imagery, logging in the world?s largest tropical forest reached 7,659 square miles last year, roughly the size of Belgium. (Reuters, Discovery.com)
USGS Decommissioning Two Satellites
May 16, 2001The U.S. Geological Survey is decommissioning the Landsat 4 and Landsat 5 satellites because they are more expensive to operate than the more recent Landsat 7 satellite. (Space.com)
Ocean Warming-Cooling Cycle Affects Rainfall
May 14, 2001The regular warming and cooling of the North Atlantic Ocean has a strong impact on U.S. rainfall and may complicate efforts to measure global climate change. (CNN.com)
NASA Satellite Eyes Dust from China
May 14, 2001NASA?s Terra satellite keeps an eye out for dust storms moving around the world, and recently tracked a plume of dust from China to the United States. (Space.com)
Global Warming Helps Arctic Animals
May 11, 2001Global warming may benefit Arctic animal populations, and may harm Antarctic penguin populations. Polar bear and bowhead whale populations are booming after decades of decline because a warming climate has led to increases in their food supplies. (BBC News Online)
Biodiversity Is a Buffer Against Climate Change
May 10, 2001A research team from the U.S. Department of Energy has found that diverse plant ecosystems are better able to absorb carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide, two greenhouse gases. (ENN.com)
Tall Mountains and Rolling Seas Affect Global Weather
May 10, 2001New research suggests that mountain ranges have a profound impact on weather by preventing moisture from entering a region, and ocean white caps caused by winds generated from mountains reflect more solar energy skyward, lowering surface temperatures. (ABCNews.com)
Penguin Decline Linked to Climate Change
May 9, 2001French researchers studying 50 years of data have linked the 50 percent drop in Antarctic emperor penguins to an abnormal warm spell in the late 1970s, they suggest global warming will continue to have an adverse effect on future populations. (NationalGeographic.com)
Global Warming Triggers Public Health Warning
May 8, 2001A recent assessment by scientists at the Bloomberg School of Public Health indicate a warming climate may generate adverse health affects from air pollution, water-borne and food-borne diseases, vector and rodent-borne diseases, and extreme weather events. (Margot Higgins, ENN.com)
Dust Particles Have Global Impact
May 7, 2001Scientists studying Saharan desert dust found that dust particles absorb much less heat from the sun than previously thought, possibly reducing the amount of warming of Earth’s surface. (ENN.com)
A Decline in a Natural Air Cleanser
May 4, 2001Human activity is causing a decline in a chemical that naturally purges the air of many contaminants including the greenhouse gas, methane. (Andrew Revkin, New York Times)
Arctic’s Big Melt Challenged
May 3, 2001A Canadian researcher challenging the idea that Arctic ice is disappearing says the northern ice may move into areas not surveyed. (BBC News online)
The Big Melt: Vanishing Glaciers and Ice Caps
May 1, 2001Researchers studying the world’s tropical glaciers and ice caps project that many will vanish in the next 20 years due to climate change. (Dawn Stover, Popular Science)