Latest and Breaking Atmospheric Science News

Sediments from the Enol lake reveal more than 13,500 years of environmental history
3 February 2012, 5:00 am
(FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology) A team of Spanish researchers have used different geological samples, extracted from the Enol lake in Asturias, to show that the Holocene, a period that started 11,600 years ago, did not have a climate as stable as was believed.

Batchelor Foundation challenge grant to support helicopter purchase
3 February 2012, 5:00 am
(University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science) The University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science announced that it has received a challenge grant for $700,000 from the Miami-based Batchelor Foundation to support its exploration research efforts. The funds will be applied toward the acquisition of a helicopter outfitted with a suite of scientific equipment that will serve as the basis for a one-of-a-kind platform for environmental observations at the School.

University of Miami student Bignami among 5 Guy Harvey Scholarship recipients
3 February 2012, 5:00 am
(University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science) University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science graduate student Sean Bignami received a Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation scholarship for his studies of how the changing chemistry of marine waters as a result of ocean acidification might affect the early development of large marine fish.

NASA satellites see wind shear battering Tropical Depression Iggy
2 February 2012, 5:00 am
(NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) NASA satellites have watched as wind shear has torn Cyclone Iggy apart over the last day. NASA infrared satellite imagery showed that Iggy's strongest thunderstorms have been pushed away from the storm's center and visible imagery shows the storm is being stretched out. Iggy is weakening and heading for a landfall between Geraldton and Perth.

'First light' taken by NASA's newest CERES instrument
2 February 2012, 5:00 am
(NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) The doors are open on NASA's Suomi NPP satellite and the newest version of the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) instrument is scanning Earth for the first time, helping to assure continued availability of measurements of the energy leaving the Earth-atmosphere system.

New study shows correlation between summer Arctic sea ice cover and winter weather in Central Europe
1 February 2012, 5:00 am
(Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres) Even if the current weather situation may seem to speak against it, the probability of cold winters with much snow in Central Europe rises when the Arctic is covered by less sea ice in summer.

Biofuel cell generates electricity when implanted in False Death's Head Cockroach
1 February 2012, 5:00 am
(American Chemical Society) Scientists have developed and implanted into a living insect -- the False Death's Head Cockroach -- a miniature fuel cell that converts naturally occurring sugar in the insect and oxygen from the air into electricity. They term it an advance toward a source of electricity that could, in principle, be collected, stored and used to power sensors, cameras, microphones and a variety of other microdevices attached to the insects in a paper in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Warning of unrest, new study shows millions risk losing lands in Africa
1 February 2012, 5:00 am
(Burness Communications) New studies released in London today suggest that the frenzied sell-off of forests and other prime lands to buyers hungry for the developing world's natural resources risk sparking widespread civil unrest -- unless national leaders and investors recognize the customary rights of millions of poor people who have lived on and worked these lands for centuries.

Report identifies 16 highest priorities to guide NASA's Technology Development efforts for next 5 years
1 February 2012, 5:00 am
(National Academy of Sciences) During the next five years, NASA technology development efforts should focus on 16 high-priority technologies and their associated top technical challenges, says a new report from the National Research Council.

Yellow-cedar are dying in Alaska: Scientists now know why
1 February 2012, 5:00 am
(USDA Forest Service - Pacific Northwest Research Station) Yellow-cedar, a culturally and economically valuable tree in southeastern Alaska and adjacent parts of British Columbia, has been dying off across large expanses of these areas for the past 100 years. But no one could say why -- until now.