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NASA Satellites Find Freshwater Losses in Middle East

By Guest PostFebruary 14, 2013Scienceamount of water, austin, basin, data, dead sea, drought, euphrates river, geosciences, german aerospace center, german research center, goddard, grace data, greenbelt, ground based data, hydrologic observations, hydrological modeling, international laws, iran, Iraq, irvine, jay famiglietti, lost freshwater reserves, matt rodell, middle east region, nasa satellites, pumping of groundwater, satellite data, space flight center, stakeholders, syria, tigris, turkey, underground reservoirs, united states, university of california, university of texas, water management

PASADENA, Calif. – A new study using data from a pair of gravity-measuring NASA satellites finds that large parts of the arid Middle East region lost freshwater reserves rapidly during the past decade.

Scientists at the University of California, Irvine; NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.; and the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., found during a seven-year period beginning in 2003 that parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran along the Tigris and Euphrates river basins lost 117 million acre feet (144 cubic kilometers) of total stored freshwater. That is almost the amount of water in the Dead Sea. The researchers attribute about 60 percent of the loss to pumping of groundwater from underground reservoirs. (more…)

Sea Change – Penguins Provide Window into Shifting Antarctic Ecosystem

By Guest PostJanuary 29, 2012Environmentadelie penguins, Antarctic, chinstraps, climate change, ecosystem, environmental change, environmental dynamics, food web, gentoos, gliders, google earth, indicator species, kim bernard, krill, matthew oliver, nasa satellites, ocean, ocean substructure, ocean temperature, penguin, phytoplankton, predator, rising temperature, Rutgers University, south america, teresa messmore, travis miles, underwater robots, west antarctic peninsula

What’s the best way to study the Antarctic’s ecosystem? Follow the penguins.

Scientists are tracking penguins on land, under the sea, and even from space to unravel the environmental dynamics in the West Antarctic Peninsula as the region experiences climate change.

“We’re not just down there bird watching,” said Matthew Oliver, assistant professor of oceanography in UD’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment. “This is a concerted effort to put the whole ecosystem together.” (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: nasa satellites

NASA Satellites Find Freshwater Losses in Middle East

Sea Change – Penguins Provide Window into Shifting Antarctic Ecosystem

Russian River Water Unexpected Culprit Behind Arctic Freshening