Tag Archives: atmosphere

Thawing Permafrost Could Release Vast Amounts of Carbon and Accelerate Climate Change by the end of this Century

By Guest PostAugust 27, 2011Environmentalternative energies and atomic energy commission, amount of soil carbon, atmosphere, berkeley lab, boreal and arctic land ecosystems, canada, carbon, carbon dioxide, charles koven, climate changes, combine, computer modeling, energy, European Union, france, frozen soils, global warming, high latitude permafrost, intergovernmental panel on climate change, land surface ecosystem model, lawrence berkeley national laboratory, methane emissions, orchidee, organic matter, plant growth, project, rate of soil carbon decomposition, simulation, supercomputing facility, temperature, united kingdom

*New computer modeling study, led by a Berkeley Lab scientist, could help revise understanding of permafrost’s role in global warming*

Billions of tons of carbon trapped in high-latitude permafrost may be released into the atmosphere by the end of this century as the Earth’s climate changes, further accelerating global warming, a new computer modeling study indicates.

The study also found that soil in high-latitude regions could shift from being a sink to a source of carbon dioxide by the end of the 21^st century as the soil warms in response to climate change. (more…)

NASA Research Confirms it’s a Small World, After All

By Guest PostAugust 17, 2011Scienceatmosphere, baseline interferometry, champs sur marne, changes in earth size, charles darwin, delft university of technology, doppler orbitography and radiopositioning integrated by satellite, earth expansion contraction theory, earth is a small world, earth lithosphere, earth orbit, earth radius, france, french satellite system, geophysical research letters, global climate change, global positioning system, grace, gravity recovery and climate experiment, ground navigation, high precision space geodesy, international terrestrial reference frame, land, large scale climate events like el nino and la nina, models of ocean bottom pressure, mother nature, NASA, ocean, solid earth, the netherlands, tracking spacecraft, walt disney, xiaoping wu

A NASA-led research team has confirmed what Walt Disney told us all along: Earth really is a small world, after all.

Since Charles Darwin’s time, scientists have speculated that the solid Earth might be expanding or contracting. That was the prevailing belief, until scientists developed the theory of plate tectonics, which explained the large-scale motions of Earth’s lithosphere, or outermost shell. Even with the acceptance of plate tectonics half a century ago, some Earth and space scientists have continued to speculate on Earth’s possible expansion or contraction on various scientific grounds.

Now a new NASA study, published recently in Geophysical Research Letters, has essentially laid those speculations to rest. Using a cadre of space measurement tools and a new data calculation technique, the team detected no statistically significant expansion of the solid Earth. (more…)

UF Study Shows Tundra Fires Could Accelerate Climate Warming

By Guest PostJuly 31, 2011Environmentanaktuvuk river fire, arctic carbon cycle, arctic fires, arctic tundra, atmosphere, atmospheric carbon dioxide, canada, carbon, city of miami, ecologist, ecosystem ecology, global climate, global climate warming, greenhouse gases, michelle mack, Nature, north slope of alaska brooks range, organic matter, permafrost, radiocarbon dating, russia, smoke, soil bound carbon, ted schuur, terry chapin, tundra, university of alaska, university of florida, wildfires

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — After a 10,000-year absence, wildfires have returned to the Arctic tundra, and a University of Florida study shows that their impact could extend far beyond the areas blackened by flames.

In a study published in the July 28 issue of the journal Nature, UF ecologist Michelle Mack and a team of scientists including fellow UF ecologist Ted Schuur quantified the amount of soil-bound carbon released into the atmosphere in the 2007 Anaktuvuk River fire, which covered more than 400 square miles on the North Slope of Alaska’s Brooks Range. The 2.1 million metric tons of carbon released in the fire — roughly twice the amount of greenhouse gases put out by the city of Miami in a year — is significant enough to suggest that Arctic fires could impact the global climate, said Mack, an associate professor of ecosystem ecology in UF’s department of biology. (more…)

Rising Oceans – Too Late to Turn the Tide?

By Guest PostJuly 16, 2011Environmentantarctic ice sheets, anthropogenic reasons, atmosphere, atmosphere ocean interactions, bahamas, barbados, bette otto bliesner, cause and effect relationships, climate, climate models, computer simulations, current global warming, earth, global distribution of sea surface temperatures, great polar ice sheets, greenhouse gas concentrations, greenhouse gases, greenland, ice caps, jonathan overpeck, last interglacial period, melting ice sheets, mountain glaciers, natural reasons, nicholas mckay, paleoceanic records, paleoclimate, rising sea levels, sea level, thermal expansion of seawater, thermal expansion of warming ocean waters, university of arizona

*Melting ice sheets contributed much more to rising sea levels than thermal expansion of warming ocean waters during the Last Interglacial Period, a UA-led team of researchers has found. The results further suggest that ocean levels continue to rise long after warming of the atmosphere levels off.*

Thermal expansion of seawater contributed only slightly to rising sea levels compared to melting ice sheets during the Last Interglacial Period, a University of Arizona-led team of researchers has found.

The study combined paleoclimate records with computer simulations of atmosphere-ocean interactions and the team’s co-authored paper is accepted for publication in Geophysical Research Letters. (more…)

Mars: Red Planet’s Rapid Formation Explains Its Small Size Relative to Earth

By Guest PostMay 27, 2011Scienceali pourmand, atmosphere, chemical behavior, chondrites, composition of chondrites, computer simulation, dauphas and pourmand, earth, embryos, enriqueta barrera, fine scale chronology, geophysicist, hafnium, lithophile elements, mantle of mars, mars, martian meteorites, national science foundation, nicolas dauphas, non volatile elements, nsf, radioactive decay, red planet, refractory, solar system, tungsten in meteorites, tungsten isotopic composition, university of chicago, xenon content

*Mars developed far more quickly than our blue planet*

Mars developed in as little as two to four million years after the birth of the solar system, far more quickly than Earth, according to results of a new study published in this week’s issue of the journal Nature.

The red planet’s rapid formation helps explain why it is so small, say the study’s co-authors, Nicolas Dauphas at the University of Chicago and Ali Pourmand at the University of Miami. (more…)

NASA Mission Will Observe Earth’s Salty Seas

By Guest PostMay 18, 2011Scienceaquarius, aquarius sac d observatory, Argentina, atmosphere, california, climate, comision nacional de actividades espaciales, conae, conveyor belt, deep ocean, delta ii rocket, earth climate, gary lagerloef, melting of sea ice, NASA, ocean circulation, ocean surface salinity, polar regions, radiometer, river runoff, salinity, salinity variations, seattle, space agency, vandenberg air force base, water cycle

PASADENA, Calif. – Final preparations are under way for the June 9 launch of the international Aquarius/SAC-D observatory. The mission’s primary instrument, Aquarius, will study interactions between ocean circulation, the water cycle and climate by measuring ocean surface salinity.

Engineers at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California are performing final tests before mating Aquarius/SAC-D to its Delta II rocket. The mission is a collaboration between NASA and Argentina’s space agency, Comision Nacional de Actividades Espaciales (CONAE), with participation from Brazil, Canada, France and Italy. SAC stands for Satelite de Applicaciones Cientificas. Aquarius was built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. (more…)

NASA Orbiter Reveals Big Changes in Mars’ Atmosphere

By Guest PostApril 22, 2011Scienceatmosphere, dry ice, frozen carbon dioxide, greenhouse effect, lake superior, liquid water, mars, mars reconnaissance orbiter, martian carbon dioxide, martian dust storms, martian surface, NASA, red planet, roberto seu, roger phillips, south pole

PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has discovered the total amount of atmosphere on Mars changes dramatically as the tilt of the planet’s axis varies. This process can affect the stability of liquid water, if it exists on the Martian surface, and increase the frequency and severity of Martian dust storms.

Researchers using the orbiter’s ground-penetrating radar identified a large, buried deposit of frozen carbon dioxide, or dry ice, at the Red Planet’s south pole. The scientists suspect that much of this carbon dioxide enters the planet’s atmosphere and swells the atmosphere’s mass when Mars’ tilt increases. The findings are published in this week’s issue of the journal Science. (more…)

‘Thawing Permafrost Likely Will Accelerate Global Warming in Coming Decades’

By Guest PostFebruary 18, 2011Environmentalaska, Arctic, atmosphere, carbon, carbon dioxide concentration, climate change, CO2, earth, environmental sciences, fossil fuel emissions, frozen in soil, greenhouse gases, industrial age, kevin schaefer, last glacial period, lori bruhwiler, noaa, permafrost, Siberia, tingjun zhang, warming temperatures

Up to two-thirds of Earth’s permafrost likely will disappear by 2200 as a result of warming temperatures, unleashing vast quantities of carbon into the atmosphere, says a new study by the University of Colorado Boulder’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences.

The carbon resides in permanently frozen ground that is beginning to thaw in high latitudes from warming temperatures, which will impact not only the climate but also international strategies to reduce fossil fuel emissions, said CU-Boulder’s Kevin Schaefer, lead study author. “If we want to hit a target carbon dioxide concentration, then we have to reduce fossil fuel emissions that much lower than previously thought to account for this additional carbon from the permafrost,” he said. “Otherwise we will end up with a warmer Earth than we want.” (more…)