While we generally think of water in nature as a cool liquid that we can see — streams, lakes, oceans — there is a great deal of “hot fluid” activity taking place far out of sight, deep within the earth, that influences what ultimately takes place on the surface, including the amount of rainfall and the buildup of new land mass.
What exactly is the nature of that hidden fluid deep beneath the surface and what changes does it undergo as it seeks an ever-deeper venue?
Answ
Researchers from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and Durham University (UK) have discovered that a million years ago, global climate changes occurred due to changes in tropical circulation in the Pacific similar to those caused by El Niño today. Changes in atmospheric circulation caused variations in heat fluxes and moisture transport, triggering a large expansion of the polar ice sheets and a reorganisation of the Earth’s climate. The discovery, published in Geology, shows that local climate
One million years ago a change in the tropics made the northern hemisphere ice masses expand
Researchers from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and Durham University (UK) have discovered that a million years ago, global climate changes occurred due to changes in tropical circulation in the Pacific similar to those caused by El Niño today. Changes in atmospheric circulation caused variations in heat fluxes and moisture transport, triggering a large expansion of the polar ice she
A relatively large number of algae grow in the North Sea. These form the basis for a much richer food chain than that found in the Atlantic Ocean. Dutch-sponsored researcher Yann Bozec calculated that coastal seas such as the North Sea remove about three times as much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than would be expected on the basis of their small surface area.
The measured annual increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere is only 60 percent o
Water from the Indian Ocean does not reach the South Atlantic Ocean continuously, but in separate packages. These are called Agulhas eddies, after the current along the east coast of Southern Africa where they originate from. Dutch researcher Astrid van Veldhoven characterised the fate of these rapidly rotating, three hundred kilometre wide and five kilometres deep, warm eddies during their journey to the Atlantic Ocean.
Over the past four years, the Royal Netherlands Institut
Scientists from nine nations have set sail for the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Tahiti Sea Level Expedition, a research expedition initiated to investigate global sea level rise since the last glacial maximum, approximately 23,000 years ago. For six weeks, aboard the DP HUNTER, the expedition science party will work on the most extensive geological research investigation ever undertaken in a coral reef area. Off the coast of Tahiti, IODP scientists will take samples of fossil cora
Researchers from the University of Maryland (UMD) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a new and improved technique for the simultaneous measurement of sulfur isotopic ratios and concentrations of atmospheric sulfate using snow samples from Greenland and Kyrgyzstan.
Sulfur plays an important role in the Earth’s climate. Sulfate particles in the atmosphere scatter and absorb sunlight, provide “seeds” for cloud formation, and affect the r
An ambitious initiative to utilise ESA satellite data to improve availability and management of African water resources took a further step forward on a hill slope overlooking Rome this week.
ESRIN, the European Centre for Earth Observation in Frascati near Rome, was the setting for the two-day TIGER Workshop which is being followed by three days of Earth Observation technology training sessions.
ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes and Head of ESRIN
Hurricane Erin raced across the North Atlantic and along the eastern seaboard in September 2001. She was used as an experiment for a study to improve hurricane tracking and intensity predictions, allowing meteorologists to provide more accurate and timely warnings to the public. Studies show that temperatures measured at an extremely high altitude collected from a hurricane’s center or eye can provide improved understanding of how hurricanes change intensity.
Hurricane Eri
From this week, researchers worldwide can follow the flow of rivers and height of lakes across the African continent from the comfort of their desks. A new web-based demonstration launched to coincide with this week’s TIGER Workshop makes Envisat-derived altimetry data for African inland water freely available in near-real time.
Envisat’s Radar Altimeter-2 (RA-2) sensor fires around 1800 radar pulses a second down to the surface of the Earth, then measures very precisely ho
Broadband access terminals from the ESA supported project ‘Pacific Skies’ are being used in the Aceh region of Indonesia, scene of the devastating 2004 tsunami. The communications needs of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and local people are being met in an area that suffered severe infrastructural damage.
The service is being deployed in co-operation with the AirPutih Foundation. One of the foundation’s key roles is to provide emergency telecommunication facilities and a medi
A possible culprit? Gulf’s “Loop Current”
Scientists monitoring ocean heat and circulation in the Gulf of Mexico during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have a new understanding of how these tropical storms can gain intensity so quickly: The Gulf of Mexico’s “Loop Current” is likely intensifying hurricanes that pass over eddies of warm water that spin off the main current.
“A positive outcome of a hurricane season like this is that we’ve been able to learn more a
As the Amazon River floods every year, a sizeable portion of South America sinks several inches because of the extra weight – and then rises again as the waters recede, a study has found.
This annual rise and fall of earth’s crust is the largest ever detected, and it may one day help scientists tally the total amount of water on Earth.
“What would you do if you knew how much water was on the planet?” asked Douglas Alsdorf, assistant professor of geological scienc
Two satellite sensors work better than one for the study of Earth’s oceans, atmosphere and land – that was the message of a major ESA workshop bringing together scientific users of Envisat’s MERIS and AATSR instruments.
Launched three and a half years ago, ESA’s Envisat satellite was built with a synergistic approach in mind. Its ten onboard instruments observe the Earth in a variety of ways, but Envisat’s two most closely aligned sensors are the Medium Resolu
Study does not discount the suspected contributions of ’greenhouse gases’ in elevating surface temperatures
At least 10 to 30 percent of global warming measured during the past two decades may be due to increased solar output rather than factors such as increased heat-absorbing carbon dioxide gas released by various human activities, two Duke University physicists report.
The physicists said that their findings indicate that climate models of global warming need to be co
The first, high resolution continuous record of oxygen concentration in the earth’s atmosphere shows that a sharp rise in oxygen about 50 million years ago gave mammals the evolutionary boost they needed to dominate the planet, according to Paul Falkowski, Rutgers professor of marine science and lead author of a paper published Sept. 30 in the journal Science.
Falkowski and his colleagues have measured the abundance of carbon 13, a byproduct of photosynthesis, in deep-sea core samples th
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