ENVIRONMENT & CLIMATEIf you were in the area of Kailua-Kona, Hawaii last week and thought that you were fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of humpback whale, you were probably right. But the sighting wasn’t such as a rare sight, with the more than 25 ton mammal acting as a sitting duck along the Big Island’s Kona Coast.
While many argue that the fight against greenhouse gases is long over, climatologists and ecologists continue to urge that the battle continues on. And while the culprits are all the same, the problems with these remnants of burning fossil fuels are taking on new problems. A topic of major research has developed from these changes and now researchers are quantify just how it will impact our world in the years to come.
As temperatures on the west coast of the United States start to inch closer to that of summer weather, the east coast continues to face winter storms for the record books. In a new image published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) GOES-East satellite just this morning, NOAA and NASA researchers who collaborate on the project reveal another large snowstorm, bringing several feet of snow to the New England territory.
After 17 years of waiting for his late night dream to come to fruition, former Vice President of the United States Al Gore is going to have to wait a little longer to see his satellite launched into space. A US Air Force ground radar malfunction delayed SpaceX’s launch of the 1,250-pound satellite nicknamed “GoreSat” this weekend, however, in spite of planning a relaunch this morning, the rocket company decided to delay another 24 hours due to weather concerns at its Florida launch site.
While they be fun to look at, a new sight in northern California tide pools are causing quite a bit of concern as the shades of oceanic blue are filled with one-inch blotches of hot pink. The culprits, known as Hopkin’s Rose Nudibranch (Okenia rosacea), are sea slugs common to the warmer waters of southern California. But as water temperatures shift, researchers fear that their migration further up the coast may be a sign of what’s to come.
Scientists from both the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA calculated that in 2014 the world experienced its hottest year in the 135 total years of record keeping. The Japanese weather agency and an independent group from the University of California Berkeley also measured 2014 and determined it was the hottest year on record.
In the midst of the United Nation's Climate Change Summit, held in New York City late last summer, many skeptics bolstered their opinions about the current climate change issues at hand. But with heat waves well into the 100's, the sounds of skepticism were silenced by the buzzing of air conditioners hanging near the window. And as it so happens, when researchers and politicians turned to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admistration (NOAA) for answers, a new study revealed that the blistering heat we felt was unlike anything we had ever seen before.
With development support from national organizations, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA, researchers at the Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed two new mobile apps that will bring the power of satellite data right to your fingertips.
The Great Lakes have been rising over the last two years, putting an end to a decade of lower than average water levels, and creating favorable conditions for both boating and commercial shipping. In fact, scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers say water levels in lakes Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie, and Ontario are all above seasonal averages for the first time in 16 years.
Speed up the models and cut down on your carbon footprints, because a bit of change today could spell better weather and a better Earth only a decade away. While climatologists and researchers across all of science have in recent years discussed the long-term goals of climate change and the effects of carbon emissions, a new study published today, Dec. 2, in the journal Environmental Research Letters reveals that reductions in carbon emissions today will help shape the planet’s atmosphere in as little as 10 years, versus the 30 to 50 year models used by researchers and policymakers until now.
People may not be too observant to what’s happening around them, or what strange things are happening above them in the cloudy skies, but when a “hole punch” cloud filled with rainbows appears just overhead it can definitely be a viral phenomenon.
Earlier this week Australians caught a glimpse of a bizarre sight in their morning sky, something that’s not only rare, but also quite strange to see. Looking like a vortex for clouds, with a looming rainbow trapped in the center, Australians across the continent snapped shots of what they thought was an alien spacecraft, or rather a hole in the atmosphere. Taking to social media, the strange images garnered much attention, but as soon as the mystery was up, the strange solution was found.