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‘Tis the Season — for Plasma Changes at Saturn

By Guest PostMay 5, 2013Scienceautumn, cassini spacecraft, cell phone communication, charged particles, electrically charged gas, flux tubes, iowa city, jupiter, magnetosphere, NASA, plasma changes, radiation belts, rotation period, satellite, saturn, saturnian plasma sheet, season, seasonal effect, southern hemispheres, spring, tim kennelly, university of iowa, van allen

Researchers working with data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft have discovered one way the bubble of charged particles around Saturn — known as the magnetosphere — changes with the planet’s seasons. The finding provides an important clue for solving a riddle about the planet’s naturally occurring radio signal. The results might also help scientists better understand variations in Earth’s magnetosphere and Van Allen radiation belts, which affect a variety of activities at Earth, ranging from space flight safety to satellite and cell phone communications.

The paper, just published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, is led by Tim Kennelly, an undergraduate physics and astronomy major at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, who is working with Cassini’s radio and plasma wave science team. (more…)

NASA’s HyspIRI Sees the Forest for the Trees and More

By Guest PostApril 28, 2013Environment, Scienceairborne campaign, algal blooms, aviris, california, droughts, dryden aircraft, dynamics, ecosystems, environmental changes, er 2, forest, high altitude aircraft, hyperspectral infrared imager, hyspiri, imaging spectroscopy, methane emissions, NASA, operations facility, palmdale, petya campbell, quantitative assessments, robert green, season, simon hook, stephen ungar, surface of earth, surface phenomena, tree, volcanoes, wildfires

To Robert Green, light contains more than meets the eye: it contains fingerprints of materials that can be detected by sensors that capture the unique set of reflected wavelengths. Scientists have used the technique, called imaging spectroscopy, to learn about water on the moon, minerals on Mars and the composition of exoplanets. Green’s favorite place to apply the technique, however, is right here on the chemically rich Earth, which is just what he and colleagues achieved this spring during NASA’s Hyperspectral Infrared Imager (HyspIRI) airborne campaign.

“We have ideas about what makes up Earth’s ecosystems and how they function,” said Green, of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., who is principal investigator of the campaign’s Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) instrument. “But a comprehensive understanding requires us to directly measure these things and how they change over landscapes and from season to season.” (more…)

Southwest Regional Warming Likely Cause of Pinyon Pine Cone Decline, Says CU Study

By Guest PostFebruary 18, 2013Environmentbird, black bears, black chinned hummingbirds, boulder, climate change, climate warming trend, cone initiation, creeping climate change, crossbill, dramatic warming, drought, ecologists, ecosphere study, ecosystems, environmental stimulus, fire, forcella, frank forcella, germination, growing season, impact, increases in temperatures, insects, jeffry mitton, lower elevations, mammal species, masting events, miranda redmond, negative effect, new mexico, northern arizona, northwestern oklahoma, nut carrying cones, nutcrackers, pinyon pine, pinyon pine reproduction, pinyon pine seedlings, pollination, precipitation, season, southwest, temperature, university, university of colorado, us tree, woodland ecosystems

Creeping climate change in the Southwest appears to be having a negative effect on pinyon pine reproduction, a finding with implications for wildlife species sharing the same woodland ecosystems, says a University of Colorado Boulder-led study.

The new study showed that pinyon pine seed cone production declined by an average of about 40 percent at nine study sites in New Mexico and northwestern Oklahoma over the past four decades, said CU-Boulder doctoral student Miranda Redmond, who led the study. The biggest declines in pinyon pine seed cone reproduction were at the higher elevation research sites experiencing more dramatic warming relative to lower elevations, said Redmond of CU’s ecology and evolutionary biology department. (more…)

Water in a Changing World

By Guest PostJune 25, 2012Entertainment, Sciencealgal blooms, biogeochemistry, cancer causing byproduct, carbon, changing world, chesapeake bay, climate change, delphis levia, disinfection, experimental watershed, fair hill, forest canopy, groundwater level, high frequency data, natural ecosystem, nitrogen, nitrogen cycling, nsf, season, shreeram inamdar, soils, stream runoff, university of delaware, water, water quality, watershed hydrology, watersheds

Experimental watershed provides new insights, rich educational experience

Six years and about 4,000 water samples later, an outdoor experimental watershed laboratory established by University of Delaware faculty members Shreeram Inamdar and Delphis Levia at Fair Hill, Md., is now producing valuable data and novel insights into how water and chemicals move through the forest canopy, soils and watersheds, and how future climate change may impact or alter such responses.

Inamdar, associate professor in the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, has investigated the role of soils, streams, and watersheds in leaching water and nutrients, while Levia, professor in the Department of Geography, has studied the interactions of atmosphere and the forest canopy in leaching water and nutrients. Together, they have provided a complete picture of watershed hydrology and biogeochemistry. (more…)

Tag Archives: season

‘Tis the Season — for Plasma Changes at Saturn

NASA’s HyspIRI Sees the Forest for the Trees and More

Southwest Regional Warming Likely Cause of Pinyon Pine Cone Decline, Says CU Study

Water in a Changing World