A strong winter storm hit France and parts of Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Germany and England with winds gusting over 100 miles per hour. Many people drowned when they were surprised by a storm surge combined with high tide.
Many people are using the term “snow hurricane” for the strong storm that is bringing heavy snow, freezing rain and strong winds onto the Atlantic coastline. The storm is dumping heavy snow on parts of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia and New England.
University of Missouri researchers are now studying whether increasing planet temperatures and carbon dioxide levels could lead to more frequent occurrences of atmospheric blocking – which might cause powerful weather fronts to remain stationary. These stationary fronts could cause heat waves or storms to persist at that location.
Solar-radiation management, or SRM, is an idea in which large amounts of aerosol or sea salt are pumped into the atmosphere, where they would reflect the sun’s rays and reduce global temperatures. This article discusses the possibility of using SRM as a tool to engineer the atmosphere.
Air pollution from Asia is being carried by winds and reaching the western United States. Ozone levels in China have been increasing for the past decade.
A recent computer model by NOAA-funded researchers indicates that the 1918-1919 El Niño was one of the strongest of the 20th Century. It has been linked to extreme weather events and the influenza pandemic of 1918 that killed over 25 million people. (NOAA technical report.)
The Environmental Protection Agency has plans to strengthen ground level ozone emission limits but those plans are being questioned by some members of the oil and gas industry.
NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day shows a colored lunar fog bow over a crater on Haleakala Volcano, Hawaii. A fog bow is similar to a rainbow, but is created by the moon’s light shining through fog; they are usually white. The photo was taken on a night with Mars near opposition, so the planet shines bright orange in the sky.
The SeaKeeper 1000 is a device that gathers data on weather conditions, water pH, oxygen levels, and more, from the hulls of superyachts around the world. Each machine can take over 14,000 readings daily, which are relayed to the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and WMO (World Meteorological Organization).
The most tenacious cold spell since the 1980s has been accompanied by heavy snowfall in the United Kingdom. This article includes two false-color satellite images of the UK covered in snow, and discusses how satellites are useful for studying local weather systems.
This page links to six research papers recently published by AGU, on the following subjects:
*First study to show that seismic imaging detects ocean’s internal tides
*Ice is “rotten” in the Beaufort Sea
*Global warming increases flood risk in mountain areas
*Worldwide nitrogen deficit constrains carbon dioxide uptake by plants
*Upper atmosphere influences weather near Earth’s surface
*New finding on key element of Earth’s lower mantle
The abstracts can be viewed online, and copies of the papers can be ordered or downloaded from the website.
Billions of people rely on the South Asian monsoon season to provide water for agriculture and human consumption. It appears that the Himalayan Mountains affect the monsoon by acting as a barrier between the warm, humid air near the coast and the more frigid air at higher latitudes.
In this CNN video, meteorologist Jacqui Jeras, explains how the Arctic oscillation and a weak polar jet are contributing to the cold weather being experienced across the entire Northern Hemisphere.
U.S. News and World Report has a short list of “best careers” on their website. Among the top ten are: hydrologist, environmental science technician, environmental engineering technician, civil engineer and meteorologist.
Shari Gearheard explains how indigenous knowledge can be a valuable contribution to recognizing and documenting climate change in the Arctic. The video accompanies an article on the National Geographic website that describes how native hunters have recognized long term changes in sea ice conditions, wind direction and weather that are of a much finer scale than most scientific observations.
What would happen if two auroras came in contact with one another? Monitoring equipment in the Arctic has captured some surprising footage of aurora collisions and substorms.
“NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this view of the Chesapeake Bay region as the clouds were clearing on December 20.
The Mid-Atlantic states were completely white in the wake of a record-breaking snow storm. The storm deposited between 12 and 30 inches of snow in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. on December 19. Snowfall totals broke records in many locations.” Quoted from Earth Observatory.
Images from NASA’s Earth Observatory show the ocean areas where El Nino is intensifying. These anomalous conditions are expected to become more pronounced in the coming months.
A blustering storm is moving across the U.S., causing school closings, flight cancellations, and dangerous driving conditions. Over 20 inches of snow has fallen at Flagstaff, Arizona – more than quadruple the previous record.
“A spring heat wave scorched southeastern Australia in mid-November 2009, pushing the fire danger to the “catastrophic” category in parts of South Australia and New South Wales and to “extreme” in other surrounding areas. Many cities, including Melbourne and Adelaide experienced record-breaking temperatures that continued for many days.” Quoted from the Earth Observatory image release.
Snowflakes form differently depending upon temperature and humidity. Travis Knepp of Purdue University creates snow crystals in a controlled environment. These experiments aid in research on Arctic ozone depletion, and help answer the question, “Why are no two snowflakes alike?”
To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the internet’s beginnings, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) created a contest: 10 red weather balloons were distributed across the country, and a $40,000 prize would be awarded to the first team that submitted the coordinates of all ten. The balloon hunt was won by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in less than nine hours.
A large piece of rime ice fell onto a Colorado home, breaking through the roof, through the kitchen ceiling and scattering debris throughout the kitchen. Rime ice is ice that builds up on the outside of a plane’s cold fuselage as it flies through moist air. Rime ice often drops from planes during flight but it rarely travels all the way to the ground in a mass large enough to cause damage.
Welcome! Every day you can find links to several earth science news topics right here.
Bookmark this page and visit often. You can also receive them for free by RSS feed or in a daily email message.
Hobart King
Advertising
Popular From Geology.com
The East Africa Rift System: Learn some basics about the East Africa Rift System from this article by James Wood and Alex Guth of Michigan Technological University.
What are Meteorites? Join meteorite hunter, Geoffrey Notkin, as he begins a series of monthly articles on the topic of meteorites.
Marcellus Shale: The most overlooked resource in the eastern United States!
Mineral Rights / Oil & Gas: Who owns the minerals under your land? Have they been sold? Can someone mine without your permission?
