An extremely intense El Niño event in 1983 prompted an international surveillance programme, involving the deployment of moored or drift measurement buoys and observation satellites. This research effort is proving to be fruitful. The data obtained provide a key to understanding how the two components of the now-famous two-phase system El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) -El Niño and its reverse counterpart La Niña- are generated. Forecasting models for three months in advance are quite reliable. How
In the 1960s, scientists anticipated a `New Ice Age`. Later, they warned of humans triggering a ‘Nuclear Winter’. Now, it’s ‘Global Warming’. Why this change in emphasis? And why did it take 100 years for the theory behind ‘Global Warming’ to take hold?
New research by scientists from the University of Gloucestershire indicates that a remarkable combination of circumstances sparked widespread scientific interest in ‘Global Warming’ in the later decades of the 20th Century.
Prof.
For years scientists have been studying the impact of different geophysical fields on the earthquakes occurrence. It has been assumed that the fields, generated due to the solar activity, earth flows fluctuations, the Earth`s speed of rotation and even the launch of magnetohydrodynamic generators affect the strained state of the earth`s crust, these fields `pumping` additional energy into the crust. Normally the aroused earthquakes are recorded several days after the provoking key event.
Knee-high relative of Triceratops unearthed.
The fearsome horns and bony neck plates of Triceratops have scared generations of kids. Now fossil finds reveal that its predecessor was a little more huggable: it was a dog-sized creature with a beak.
Triceratops is the most famous member of the late ceratopsians, which were rhinoceros-like dinosaurs with horns. Little is known about the early evolution of this large and varied group of plant-eaters because their fo
Satellite images have revealed the collapse of Larsen B ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula fulfilling predictions made by British Antarctic Survey (BAS) scientists. The collapse of the 3250 km2 ice shelf is the latest drama in a region of Antarctica that has experienced unprecedented warming over the last 50 years.
Earlier this month Ted Scambos of the University of Colorado alerted BAS glaciologists David Vaughan and Chris Doake to images from the NASA MODIS satellite. Meanwhile, in Antar
Deserts covered Central Asia as early as 22 million years ago
The great Asian deserts developed 22 million years ago at the latest, 14 million years earlier than had been thought. So concludes a new analysis of Chinese soils, filling in another piece of the puzzle of the Himalayas’ birth.
Today, huge deserts characterize the vast landmasses inside Asia, the largest continent on Earth. Here, cut off by the Himalayas from the humidity of the Indian Ocean and far from any othe
Blue jets connect Earth’s electric circuit.
Video images captured in Puerto Rico suggest that blue flashes of light, much like lightning, feed energy from thunderstorms up into the Earth’s ionosphere – a blanket of electrically charged air some 70 kilometres above the ground 1 .
Some researchers suspect that such phenomena may also fix nitrogen for plants to use and interact with the ozone layer 2 .
The images, taken in September 2001
Five times as much water as in all the world’s oceans may lurk deep below its surface.
Geologists have divined water where you might least expect it: 1,000 kilometres below the Earth’s surface. Here, rocks heated to over 1,000 oC and squeezed under high pressures may harbour around five times as much water as in all the world’s oceans. This could give clues to how the Earth formed and how it behaves today.
Between 650 and 2,900 km below the Earth’s surface hot, compressed mi
Scientists at Umeå University in Sweden are putting forward an entirely new picture of climate change and the first immigration of trees following the last Ice Age. Research shows that 8,000-14,000 years ago the climate was considerably warmer than was previously thought. When it was at its warmest 9,000-10,000 years ago, the timberline was 500 m higher than today, and leafy trees grew in the mountains. The spruce immigrated considerably earlier that was assumed until now, and it probably came from t
Since its successful launch into sun synchronous orbit on the morning of the first of March, Envisat has been getting ready to start observing the Earth.
Its 70 m2 of solar arrays are fully deployed, thus enabling it to obtain power from the Sun, and the ASAR antenna is now extending to its full 10 m, ready for its deployment in space. This will bring to an end the Launch and Early Orbit Phase.
The next step is the Switch on and Data Acquisition Phase that starts today. One by on
Four years ago, torrential rains battered the Southern US, mudslides struck in Peru – and the inhabitants of Canada`s west coast saved up to 30% on their winter heating bills. The cause? El Niño, a huge temperature shift in the Pacific Ocean which spawns climate changes globally. Today, using satellite Earth observation data, scientists are detecting the early warning signs of a new El Niño event and predicting that it will develop over the next 3 to 6 months, bringing climate changes to countries th
The Scotia Sea, located between the Antarctic and the tip of South America, acts like a ‘blender’ on the very cold ocean waters that influence global ocean circulation patterns and ultimately climate, according to new research from the University of East Anglia (UEA) and published today (28 February) in the international journal Nature.
The research, carried out by Dr Karen Heywood, Dr David Stevens and Dr Alberto Naveira Garabato, shows that the dense, cold waters formed in the Weddell Sea
Europe’s showpiece in climate monitoring is called Envisat. Fully equipped, the largest, most complex, and most powerful Earth observation satellite of the European Space Agency (ESA) is 25 meters high, ten meters wide and weighs over eight tons, scheduled for launch in the night of 28 February /1st March on an Ariane 5 launcher.
Europe’s flying behemoth is on the trail of climate change. It will deliver data about global warming, ozone depletion and climate change for at least five
Satellites see through snow to steer safely across Antarctica.
Satellite images that expose perilous crevasses now reveal safe overland routes to the South Pole. Carolyn Merry of Ohio State University in Columbus has pieced together high-resolution satellite pictures that see through the snow, to map the passable Pole 1 .
Since a snow tractor, floundered into a hidden fissure in 1991, all supplies have been flown into the US South Pole research station. Safe t
Using tiny bone fragments from fossilized fish, scientists have traced the roots of the climate phenomenon known as El Niño, the intermittent warming of ocean waters off the coast of Peru that can affect weather worldwide. According to a report published in the current issue of the journal Science, modern El Niño conditions arose around 5,000 years ago.
Previous research based on fossilized mollusk remains had suggested that El Niño conditions did not exist thousands of years ago, but those
Africa’s malaria resurgence isn’t down to global warming
Climate change cannot explain the growth of malaria in the highlands of East Africa, say researchers. Drawing simplistic links between global warming and local disease patterns could lead to mistaken policy decisions, they warn.
Drug resistance, or the failure of the health-care system to keep pace with population growth, are more likely culprits for malaria’s rise, say Simon Hay, of the University of Oxf
Feedback
