Latest and Breaking Atmospheric Science News

Socioeconomics may affect toddlers' exposure to flame retardants
23 May 2012, 4:00 am
(Duke University) A Duke University-led study of North Carolina toddlers suggests that exposure to potentially toxic flame-retardant chemicals may be higher in nonwhite toddlers than in white toddlers.

NSF supports University of Miami climate and 'cloud computing' research
23 May 2012, 4:00 am
(University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science) The NSF announced that it has awarded ~$200,000 to the University of Miami for the application of the latest 'cloud computing' technologies to climate and natural hazards research.

El Niño weather and climate change threaten survival of baby leatherback sea turtles
23 May 2012, 4:00 am
(Drexel University) When critically endangered leatherback turtle hatchlings dig out of their nests, they enter a world filled with threats to survival. Now, Drexel University researchers have found that the climate conditions at the nesting beach affect the early survival of turtle eggs and hatchlings. They predict, based on projections from multiple models, that egg and hatchling survival will drop by half in the next 100 years as a result of global climate change.

Seagrasses can store as much carbon as forests
23 May 2012, 4:00 am
(National Science Foundation) Seagrasses are a vital part of the solution to climate change and, per unit area, seagrass meadows can store up to twice as much carbon as the world's temperate and tropical forests.

Geological record shows air up there came from below
23 May 2012, 4:00 am
(Princeton University) The influence of the ground beneath us on the air around us could be greater than scientists had previously thought, according to new Princeton University research that links the long-ago proliferation of oxygen in Earth's atmosphere to a sudden change in the inner workings of our planet.

NASA sees Tropical Storm Sanvu continue to intensify
23 May 2012, 4:00 am
(NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) Two NASA satellites have provided infrared and rainfall data that has shown Tropical Storm Sanvu continues to intensify as it heads toward Iwo To, Japan. NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite has scanned rainfall rates, and NASA's Aqua satellite has provided a look at cloud temperatures which indicates where the strongest thunderstorms and heaviest rainfall is occurring.

New satellite movie chases post-Tropical Storm Alberto in Atlantic
23 May 2012, 4:00 am
(NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) On May 23, 2012, the remnants of post-tropical storm Alberto were chasing a frontal system over the Atlantic Ocean, several hundred miles east of the US East coast. A new NASA animation of imagery from NOAA's GOES-15 satellite shows the progression of Alberto's remnants.

NASA's TRMM satellite sees heavy rainfall in Tropical Storm Bud
23 May 2012, 4:00 am
(NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) Tropical Storm Bud is dropping heavy rainfall, and appears to be intensifying. NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite has been monitoring rainfall within the storm, and has watched it become heavier over the last day -- a sign the storm is intensifying.

An introduced bird competitor tips the balance against Hawaiian species
23 May 2012, 4:00 am
(Pensoft Publishers) Two researchers from the University of Hawaii at Manoa have determined that tens of thousands of native birds have been lost in the Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge, when the Japanese white-eye, a small perching bird originally introduced to Hawaii in 1929 to control insects, increased in numbers. The increase was initiated in a restoration area on the refuge. This study was published in the open access journal NeoBiota.

Hacking code of leaf vein architecture solves mysteries, allows predictions of past climate
23 May 2012, 4:00 am
(University of California - Los Angeles) UCLA life scientists have discovered new laws leaves follow as they grow and evolve. These easy-to-apply mathematical rules can be used to better predict the climates of the past, as determined from the fossil record. This research has a range of fundamental implications in global ecology, and can improve prediction and interpretation of climate in the deep past from leaf fossils.