Atmospheric
If you did not know Arctic hurricanes happen, you are not alone. They even come with a central "eye", extreme low barometric pressure and towering 30-foot waves that can sink ships and cover metal platforms with thick ice, threatening oil and gas exploration.
Climate scientists report the first conclusive evidence that Arctic hurricanes, also known as polar lows, play a significant role in driving ocean water circulation and climate. Their results point to potentially cooler conditions in Europe and North America in the 21st century than other models predict.
Geoscientists Alan…
The oncoming train wreck of climate change has an upside if you live in the Northeast part of America: fewer Snowmageddons brought on by cold weather.
A new high-resolution climate projection applied regional climate models to examine likely near-term changes in temperature and precipitation across the Northeast United States and says temperatures are going to be significantly warmer winter in the next 30 years, especially in winter. Winters will also be wetter.
The climate scientists say they have created the highest resolution climate projections to-date for the Northeast from…
Some 3,300 years ago a tsunami must have hit the the island of Bonaire in the Caribbean, though no historical records of tsunamis exist.
Sediments don't lie and the sediments studied by scientists writing in Naturwissenschaften – The Science of Nature showed that this tsunami entirely changed the coastal ecosystem and sedimentation patterns in the area.
The Caribbean is no stranger to coastal hazards, including tropical cyclones, earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis, but historical records for the island of Bonaire only go back 500 years. It has not experienced a tsunami during that time…
NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite was able to estimate rainfall rates of Typhoon Bopha over the Philippines, where severe flooding killed several hundred people. Bopha is now a tropical storm in the South China Sea but high winds, flooding and landslides from heavy rains with Typhoon Bopha have caused close to 300 deaths in the southern Philippines.
Why was it a typhoon rather than a hurricane? Tropical cyclones west of the International dateline but in the NW Pacific are counterclockwise. Hurricanes are clockwise in the southern hemisphere and counterclockwise…
Two NASA satellites, Terra and the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) , gathered data as a Super Typhoon passed over Bopha on Dec. 2nd, gathering valuable data for forecasters. Since then, Bopha's maximum sustained winds fluctuated up and down from its previous high of 155 mph and today, Dec. 3rd, the storm reached its strongest point - a Category 5 typhoon on the Saffir-Simpson scale, with sustained winds of 161 mph. Warnings are up for the Philippines as Bopha approaches.
Terra captured a visible image of Bopha showing the extent of the storm and revealing the eye of the storm…
Global carbon dioxide emission reductions that would be needed to limit global warming to 2°C aren't happening, according to new figures produced by the Global Carbon Project (GCP).
Global CO2 emissions have increased by 58% since 1990, they estimate, rising 3% in 2011, and 2.6% in 2012. The most recent figure is estimated from a 3.3% growth in global gross domestic product and a 0.7% improvement in the carbon intensity of the economy. They say the latest carbon dioxide emission estimates are at the high end of a range of emission scenarios, expanding the gap between current trends and the…
Kerosene is the the primary source of light for more than a billion people in developing nations and it is churning out black carbon previously overlooked in greenhouse gas estimates, says a new study.
Results from field and lab tests found that 7 to 9 percent of the kerosene in wick lamps — used for light in 250-300 million households without electricity — is converted to black carbon when burned. In comparison, only half of 1 percent of the emissions from burning wood is converted to black carbon.
Factoring in the new study results leads to a 20X increase in estimates of black carbon…
University of Pittsburgh professor Eric Beckman and colleague Bob Enick have been intent on solving a decades-old mystery - how to increase the viscosity of liquid CO2 so it can better extract oil from its hiding spots inside the pores of underground sandstone. Thanks to a $1.3 million grant from the National Energy Technology Laboratory, the researchers are pursuing a promising lead.
In the U.S., each gallon of crude oil we produce requires, on average, anywhere from two to 5.5 gallons of water according to a study from Argonne National Library (pdf). It is a much more water-intensive…
Hurricane Sandy, 2012:
Massive and dangerous Hurricane Sandy has grown to record size as it barrels northeastwards along the North Carolina coast... -Jeff Masters, Weather Underground, Oct. 28 2012.
Science paper, 2010:
Fewer but fiercer and more-destructive hurricanes will sweep the Atlantic Basin in the 21st century as climate change continues, a new modeling study by U.S. government researchers suggests. -commentary by Richard Kerr on Bender, M.A. et al., 2010. Science, 327(5964), pp.454–458.
Hurricane Sandy, 2012
If ‘Frankenstorm’ pans out to be as powerful and odd as the models…
Tropical Storm Maria is moving away from Japan and strong wind shear is pushing its rainfall east of the storm's center, with no areas of heavy rain remaining in the tropical cyclone. The low-level center of the storm is now exposed and a wind shear greater than 30 knots (34.5 mph) continues to further weaken the storm.
Wind shear is a critical factor in hurricane formation and destruction, primarily in the vertical direction from the surface to the top of the troposphere, the region of the atmosphere that our active weather is confined to, about 40,000 feet altitude. Tropical…