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Study Finds Severe Climate Jeopardizing Amazon Forest

By Guest PostJanuary 20, 2013Environment, Natureamazon basin, Amazon rainforest, amazonia, amazonian droughts, amazonian trees, atmospheric condition, california, carbon cycle, carbon dioxide, climate change, climate phenomenon, cloud, decaying wood, degradation, double whammy, drought, earth, ecosystem, effect, forest, forest canopy, forest recovery, global data, katrina, large scale, megadrought, NASA, quikscat spacecraft, radar data, rainfall measuring mission, rainforest, rainforest ecosystem, rita, sassan saatchi, satellite, satellite microwave, scatterometer radar, sea surface temperature, seawinds scatterometer, size of california, southern, steady decline, tropical, tropical atlantic, united kingdom, university of oxford, vegetation, water availability, western amazonia, wildfire, yadvinder malhi

PASADENA, Calif. – An area of the Amazon rainforest twice the size of California continues to suffer from the effects of a megadrought that began in 2005, finds a new NASA-led study. These results, together with observed recurrences of droughts every few years and associated damage to the forests in southern and western Amazonia in the past decade, suggest these rainforests may be showing the first signs of potential large-scale degradation due to climate change.

An international research team led by Sassan Saatchi of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., analyzed more than a decade of satellite microwave radar data collected between 2000 and 2009 over Amazonia. The observations included measurements of rainfall from NASA’s Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission and measurements of the moisture content and structure of the forest canopy (top layer) from the Seawinds scatterometer on NASA’s QuikScat spacecraft. (more…)

World’s Most Powerful Digital Camera Begins Hunt for Dark Energy

By Guest PostSeptember 22, 2012Scienceancient starlight, atmospheric condition, billion years, brazil, brenna flaugher, camera, cerro tololo, Chicago, Chile, chilean andes, chris smith, dark energy, des, distant galaxy, earth, expansion, fermilab, galaxy cluster, Germany, gravitational lensing, inter american, james siegrist, kavli institute, mystery, ngc 1365, noao, observatory, physics, southern sky, spain, spiral galaxy, switzerland, telescope, united kingdom, universe, university, victor m blanco

Eight billion years ago, rays of light from distant galaxies began their long journey to Earth. That ancient starlight has now found its way to a mountaintop in Chile, where the newly constructed Dark Energy Camera, the most powerful sky-mapping machine ever created, has captured and recorded it for the first time.

That light may hold within it the answer to one of the biggest mysteries in physics: Why the expansion of the universe is speeding up. (more…)

Russian River Water Unexpected Culprit Behind Arctic Freshening

By Guest PostJanuary 6, 2012EnvironmentArctic, arctic ocean, arctic oscillation, Arctic sea ice, atmospheric condition, atmospheric pressure, beaufort high, beaufort sea, bottom pressures, canada, canada basin, cecilia peralta ferriz, changes in ocean circulation, clockwise gyre, cold halocline, eurasian basin, fraction, freshwater, freshwater in the upper ocean, freshwater pathway, global climate, global warming, grace, greenland, hemispherewide phenomenon, icesat, ignatius rigor, jamie morison, low pressure, matt alkire, melting ice, mike steele, nasa satellites, poles, roger andersen, ron kwok, russia, russian river water, salinity of the arctic ocean, sources, united states, university of washington

A hemispherewide phenomenon – and not just regional forces – has caused record-breaking amounts of freshwater to accumulate in the Arctic’s Beaufort Sea.

Frigid freshwater flowing into the Arctic Ocean from three of Russia’s mighty rivers was diverted hundreds of miles to a completely different part of the ocean in response to a decades-long shift in atmospheric pressure associated with the phenomenon called the Arctic Oscillation, according to findings published in the Jan. 5 issue of Nature. (more…)

Tag Archives: atmospheric condition

Study Finds Severe Climate Jeopardizing Amazon Forest

World’s Most Powerful Digital Camera Begins Hunt for Dark Energy

Russian River Water Unexpected Culprit Behind Arctic Freshening