Atmospheric

Venice, December 19th: Flood And Snow

Yesterday morning Venice awoke in the middle of a snowstorm. It is a very rare phenomenon to see snow in sizable amounts in the island, and the times that I have seen four inches build up on the ground are probably no more than a handful. But the morning w ...

Article - Tommaso Dorigo - Dec 20 2009 - 12:38pm

The Wrong Kind of Snow

The Wrong Kind of Snow has struck again.  As this New Scientist article relates, on the 6th of February 1991, trains in South-Eastern England were brought to a halt.  When British Rail announced that this was caused by "the wrong kind of snow", p ...

Blog Post - Robert H Olley - Dec 21 2009 - 12:29pm

Early Pliocene Warming Shows How A Little CO2 Can Have A Major Impact

Researchers studying climate change during the early Pliocene have concluded that slow changes such as melting ice sheets amplified the initial warming caused by greenhouse gases, and that a relatively small rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels was a ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 21 2009 - 1:59pm

Scientists Face-Off Over Global Warming

Global warming may be a reality, but the debate over what causes the warming and what to do about it is nowhere near over, according to a story in the latest issue of Chemical&Engineering News (C&EN) that surveyed climate scientists on both sides o ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 22 2009 - 1:04pm

Volcanic Rocks Would Make Good Carbon Reservoirs, Scientists Say

 Volcanic rocks buried along the coasts of New York, New Jersey and New England, and as far south as South Carolina and Georgia, might be ideal reservoirs to lock away carbon dioxide emitted by power plants and other industrial sources. A new study feature ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 8 2010 - 6:59pm

Forests To Soak Up Less C02 As Climate Warms

Contrary to the conclusions of dozens of other studies, a new paper appearing in  Global Change Biology argues that as the climate warms and growing seasons lengthen, subalpine forests are likely to soak up less carbon dioxide. The authors, scientists at t ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 7 2010 - 6:19pm

South Asian Monsoon Caused By Himalayan Heat And Moisture

 The Tibetan Plateau—thought to be the primary source of heat that drives the South Asian monsoon—may have far less of an effect than moist, warm air insulated over continental India by the Himalayas and other surrounding mountains, say Harvard climate sci ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 13 2010 - 2:51pm

'Biochar': Ancient Technology That Could Slow Climate Change

While most researchers and policy makers are looking to new technologies to slow the pace of climate change, scientists from Cornell University and the University of New South Wales are reporting that "biochar" — a material that the Amazonian Ind ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 19 2011 - 4:34pm

2000-2009: Warmest Decade On Record

2009 was tied for the second warmest year on record, and in the Southern Hemisphere, last year was the warmest on record, according to a new analysis of global surface temperatures by NASA scientists. Although 2008 was the coolest year of the decade becaus ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 8 2010 - 7:01pm

Healing Ozone Layer Could Accelerate Global Warming

The Antarctic ozone hole was once regarded as one of the biggest environmental threats facing. But the discovery of a previously unknown feedback shows that it has instead helped  shield this region from carbon-induced warming over the past two decades. No ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 26 2010 - 12:12pm