An international team of scientists including the University of Leeds’ Liane Benning have successfully trialled techniques to search for life on Mars. Their findings – microbes deep within ice-filled volcanic tubes – reveal how to test for life on the red planet.
Dr Benning from earth and environment is the sole UK member of the AMASE team studying rocks, ice and micro-organisms on the arctic island of Svalbard in Norway, which has a geology similar to that of parts of Mars. “
Petroleum exploration tool may have new use in hurricane study
In 2004 and now in 2005, the hurricane seasons have been horrifyingly intense – so how bad is the long-range forecast? Based on a century of data, meteorologists currently believe that a 30-year lull in hurricane activity is over and we are at the beginning of a new multi-decade period of larger and more frequent storms. However, there is other data that suggests we may also be coming to the end of a thousand year peri
IODP Expedition 311 returns to port with core samples
An international team of scientists supported by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) has completed a unique research expedition aimed at recovering samples of gas hydrate, an ice-like substance hidden beneath the seafloor off Canada’s western coast. Gas hydrate, a mixture of water and mostly methane, is believed to occur under the world’s oceans in great abundance, but it quickly “melts” once removed from the h
California’s iconic oak woodlands have endured many assaults over the years–they’ve been cut for fuel, cleared for vineyards and housing developments, and their seedlings face intense grazing pressure and competition from invasive grasses. But the future will bring a new threat–climate change–which could drastically reduce the areas in which oaks can grow.
Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have taken a close look at the implications of climate
Scientists aboard pioneering icebreaking ships investigate ocean conditions in unexplored region to better understand Arctic’s role in global climate change
Two ships taking part in a recently completed research voyage investigating the oceanography, marine geology, geophysics and ice cover of the Arctic Ocean have become the first surface vessels to traverse the Canada Basin, the ice-covered sea between Alaska and the North Pole.
The Swedish vessel Oden and the
An agreement on space-based information services and access to, and provision of, Earth Observation data was signed today by ESA and the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. The signature took place at ESRIN, the ESA Earth Observation Centre in Frascati, Italy.
Dr Volker Liebig, Director of ESA’s Earth Observation Programme, signed the agreement on the ’Specific arrangement concerning the development of space-based information services and the access to and provi
Typically we think of rainfall as cleaning the air by removing dust as it falls through the atmosphere and helping plants grow that protect and hold the soil. But a new NASA-funded study looking at some of the world’s dustiest areas shows that heavy downpours can eventually lead to more dust being released into the atmosphere.
Typically drought reduces vegetation growth, increasing soil vulnerability to wind erosion, while rainfall tends to have the opposite effect. In the
As Hurricane Wilma barrels towards the Florida coast, a last-minute acquisition by a unique instrument aboard ERS-2 is helping strengthen weather forecasters’ final predictions of its future course and strength.
The ERS-2 radar scatterometer data shown here was acquired by the satellite on 04:30 UTC this morning (06:30 CEST), then relayed via the ground station of the Center for Southeastern Tropical Advanced Remote Sensing (CSTARS) at the University of Miami to be speedily p
Recent advances in wireless computing technology could improve deep-space missions like asteroid research and remote spacecraft operations by changing the way signals are sent from Earth. A new method designed to effectively deliver commands and instructions using hundreds of millions of tiny transmitters linked together could also free the giant satellite dishes currently used to send and receive the long-range information for other applications. A research paper describing the scheme for rela
This Envisat acquisition showing Typhoon Kirogi passing beneath Japan is the latest of more than 480 satellite images so far available for viewing in ESA’s new Earth Images Gallery.
The Gallery is a user-friendly showcase of spectacular images acquired by ESA Earth Observation satellites. The collection can be searched on a geographical basis, using a spinning globe to specify a continent of interest. The site then displays the distribution of available images. Select one to vi
The rapid structural breakdown of some important parts of the ice sheets on Greenland and Antarctica is possible, has happened in the distant past, and some “startling changes” on the margin of these ice masses has been observed in recent years – raising disturbing concerns about sea level rise.
In a new report to be released Friday in the journal Science, researchers from Oregon State University and four other institutions in the U.S. and Europe outline dynamic mechanisms of
The deadly landslide that killed 10 people and destroyed approximately 30 homes in La Conchita, California last January is but a tiny part of a much larger slide, called the Rincon Mountain slide, discovered by Larry D. Gurrola, geologist and graduate student at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The slide started many thousands of years ago and will continue generating slides in the future, reported Gurrola at the national meeting of the Geological Society of America today in Salt Lake
The tracks of a previously unknown, two-legged swimming dinosaur have been identified along the shoreline of an ancient inland sea that covered Wyoming 165 million years ago, according to a University of Colorado at Boulder graduate student.
Debra Mickelson of CU-Boulder’s geological sciences department said the research team identified the tracks of the six-foot-tall, bipedal dinosaur at a number of sites in northern Wyoming, including the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation
Rapidly fluctuating wind gusts blowing over mountains and hills can create “hotspots” high in the atmosphere and significantly affect regional air temperatures. A research paper to be published this month in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Space Physics reports that the actions of such winds can create high-frequency acoustic waves and could stimulate a 1000-Kelvin [1,000-degree Celsius; 2,000-degree Fahrenheit]spike in a short period of time in the thermosphere, at an altitude of 200-300 k
Scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory’s Marine Meteorology Division in Monterey, CA, (NRL-Monterey), working with researchers from Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute and the National Geophysical Data Center, presented the first satellite detection of a phenomenon known as the “milky sea.” The satellite observations were corroborated by a ship-based account. This research was published in the October 4, 2005, issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Climate warming brought on in part by human activities is producing major ecological changes in remote arctic lakes at an alarming rate, according to new University of Alberta research–the first study to show a whole lake biological response to warming in these waters. Even in the most remote, pristine parts of the earth–far from the direct influence of human activities–changes are occurring in entire ecosystems, says Dr. Neal Michelutti, a post-doctoral fellow in the U of A’s Faculty
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