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Hidden Wildfires Taking Big Toll on Amazon Rainforest

By Guest PostJune 9, 2013Environmentairs, Amazon, amazon fire season, amazon forests, Amazon rainforest, atmospheric infrared sounder, austin, climate conditions, climate fire connection, climate mechanisms, data, deforestation activity, doug morton, dry conditions, evolution, fire season, frequent understory fire, german aerospace center, global climate, grace, grasses, hidden wildfires, imaging spectroradiometer, irvine, isabella velicogna, kathryn hansen, moderate resolution, modis, nasa scientists, noaa, regional scale, satellite technique, sea surface temperature, shrubs, southern amazon, terra satellite, type of wildfire, understory fires, university of california, university of texas, yang chen

Using an innovative satellite technique, NASA scientists have determined that a previously unmapped type of wildfire in the Amazon rainforest is responsible for destroying several times more forest than has been lost through deforestation in recent years.

In the southern Amazon rainforest, fires below the forest treetops, or “understory fires,” have been hidden from view from NASA satellites that detect actively burning fires. The new method has now led to the first regional estimate of understory fire damages across the southern Amazon. (more…)

Early Warning System Provides Four-Month Forecast of Malaria Epidemics in Northwest India

By Guest PostMarch 9, 2013General, Healthaccurate prediction, anopheles mosquitoes, b a cash, breeding sites, climate link, environmental condition, epidemiological records, India, indicator, infected mosquitoes, malaria epidemics, malaria risk, mercedes pascual, monsoon rainfall, northwest india, plasmodium parasite, red blood cells, sea surface temperature, semi arid region, south atlantic ocean, thar desert, transmitted via bites, tropical, university of michigan, west of africa, x rodo

ANN ARBOR — Sea surface temperatures in the tropical South Atlantic Ocean can be used to accurately forecast, by up to four months, malaria epidemics thousands of miles away in northwestern India, a University of Michigan theoretical ecologist and her colleagues have found.

Colder-than-normal July sea surface temperatures in the tropical South Atlantic are linked to both increased monsoon rainfall and malaria epidemics in the arid and semi-arid regions of northwest India, including the vast Thar desert, according to Mercedes Pascual and her colleagues, who summarize their findings in a paper published online March 3 in the journal Nature Climate Change. (more…)

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…)

Researchers Find Ocean Temperature Threshold for Hurricanes is Rising

By Guest PostNovember 10, 2010Environmentatmospheric convection, climate model, global warming, hurricanes, nat Johnson, rainfall, sea surface temperature, shang ping xie, sst, threshold, tropical atmosphere, tropical ocean thunderstorms

Average observed tropical (black) and estimated SST (blue) rose together in the last 30 years. Image credit: University of Hawaii at Mānoa

Scientists have long known that atmospheric convection in the form of hurricanes and tropical ocean thunderstorms tends to occur when sea surface temperature rises above a threshold. So how do rising ocean temperatures with global warming affect this threshold? If the threshold does not rise, it could mean more frequent hurricanes.

A new study by researchers at the International Pacific Research Center (IPRC) of the University of Hawaii at Mānoa shows this threshold sea surface temperature for convection is rising under global warming at the same rate as that of the tropical oceans. Their paper appears in the Advance Online Publications of Nature Geoscience. (more…)

Tag Archives: sea surface temperature

Hidden Wildfires Taking Big Toll on Amazon Rainforest

Early Warning System Provides Four-Month Forecast of Malaria Epidemics in Northwest India

Study Finds Severe Climate Jeopardizing Amazon Forest

Researchers Find Ocean Temperature Threshold for Hurricanes is Rising