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Antarctic glacier thinned as rapidly in past
Posted by ClimateWire: Stephanie Paige Ogburn on February 22nd, 2014
ClimateWire: The Pine Island Glacier, which sits on part of west Antarctica, is the single largest contributor to global sea-level rise.
That is because the enormous glacier, which constitutes 10 percent of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, is thinning rapidly, allowing more and more of its land-based ice to reach the sea. How fast this rapid thinning goes on, and for how long, will determine how quickly sea levels rise in the future.
Now, a group of researchers from the British Antarctic Survey, working with...
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EPA underestimated methane emissions including those from gas leaks
Posted by ClimateWire: Stephanie Paige Ogburn on February 15th, 2014
ClimateWire: In recent years, as the natural gas boom has led to the fuel playing an increasing role in the U.S. energy mix, a debate has been raging over its climate benefits.
A number of studies measuring emissions of methane, a key component of natural gas with 30 times the warming potential of CO2, have measured significant leakages of the gas.
If such leaks are common, the climate benefits of burning natural gas rather than coal diminish.
Drilling for natural gas (methane) in coal country can be...
What’s in a name? Would ‘the pause’ by any other name help climate scientists communicate?
Posted by ClimateWire: Stephanie Paige Ogburn on November 2nd, 2013
ClimateWire: In a recent edition of NASA's "Ask a Climate Scientist" video series, scientist Joshua Willis stands in front of a black screen, makes a few goofy faces and gives a brief answer to what has become a common question about climate science.
"A lot of people ask me: 'Has there been a pause in global warming because, like, temperatures aren't increasing as fast as they were a decade ago?'" Willis says.
"And I always say, you know, paws are for kittens and puppies, because global warming is definitely...
Climate change played a role in half of 2012’s extreme weather events – study
Posted by ClimateWire: Stephanie Paige Ogburn on September 7th, 2013
ClimateWire: New research released yesterday links human-caused climate change to six of 12 extreme weather events from 2012, including summer heat waves in the United States and storm surges from Superstorm Sandy.
Teams of scientists from around the world examined the causes behind extreme weather events on five continents and in the Arctic. Their results were published as a special report in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.
One of the stronger linkages between global warming and severe...
Australia: A scientist explains the mystery behind the 2010-2011 sea-level drop
Posted by ClimateWire: Stephanie Paige Ogburn on August 21st, 2013
ClimateWire: For the past couple of decades, the oceans have been steadily rising. Each year, sea-level increases by about 3 millimeters, a constant and ominous creep responding to climate warming.
Scientists have been measuring this rise from satellites since 1993, using instruments called altimeters. But for an 18-month period that began in the middle of 2010, something surprising happened. Instead of rising, sea levels fell.
Lake Eyre, a huge catch basin for eastern Australia's rainfall, typically collects...
Himalayan researcher reverses earlier findings of looming water shortage
Posted by ClimateWire: Stephanie Paige Ogburn on August 6th, 2013
ClimateWire: One of the big unknowns of climate change predictions -- and one that has led to considerable contention -- lies in knowing the future of water runoff from the Himalayas. The snow- and ice-rich region supplies water for billions of people in Asia and is sometimes referred to as the Earth's "Third Pole." For years, scientists struggled to understand how precipitation will change in these mountains (ClimateWire, Oct. 24, 2011). They have also had difficulty determining how much glacier melt from the...
Satellites show shrinking US aquifers in drought-stricken areas
Posted by ClimateWire: Stephanie Paige Ogburn on June 19th, 2013
ClimateWire: Albuquerque District's Rio Grande coordinator, measures the water level in the Rio Grande with a calibrated survey rod. Image: Flickr/U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
In New Mexico, the Rio Grande is trickling through Albuquerque at only a quarter of its normal flow. The parched range and pastureland in the southwest part of the state are all rated in poor condition by the Department of Agriculture.
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor published Thursday, 45 percent of the state is suffering from...
Researchers unmask climate secrets of sea spray and clouds
Posted by ClimateWire: Stephanie Paige Ogburn on April 27th, 2013
ClimateWire: In the late 1990s, the Hydraulics Laboratory at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography nearly closed. The lab, founded in 1964, had lost its permanent funding.
Grant Deane, a physical oceanographer at the University of California, San Diego, stepped up to head the lab and rescue it from a possible shutdown. "I was a user of the facility at that time, but I had a broader vision for what could be done beyond my own work," Deane said.
Atmospheric chemist Kimberly Prather, who has just shed new...