http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. A study of sediment cores collected from the deep ocean supports a new explanation for how glacier melting at the end of the ice ages led to the release of carbon dioxide from the ocean. http://phys.org/news286619728.html Space & Earth Wed, 01 May 2013 09:35:36 EST news286619728 (Phys.org) —Climate researchers Pushker Kharecha and James Hansen (a NASA scientist and environmental activist) have published a paper in Environmental Science & Technology, in which they claim that using nuclear energy to create electricity instead of burning coal has resulted in preventing approximately 1.84 million deaths. Their numbers come from calculating how many people would have likely died due to air pollution over the years, but didn't, because electricity was created by non-air polluting nuclear power plants instead. http://phys.org/news284197108.html Technology Wed, 03 Apr 2013 08:38:49 EST news284197108 (Phys.org) —The Southern Ocean could absorb relatively less carbon dioxide in future if the global temperatures continue to rise as a result of human activities, as climate researchers from ETH Zurich demonstrate based on an analysis of two sediment drill cores from the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. The study has just been published in the journal Science. http://phys.org/news283674051.html Space & Earth Thu, 28 Mar 2013 07:21:00 EST news283674051 (Phys.org)—An international team of climate researchers has written and published an open letter in the journal Nature Climate Change, describing wind and wave pattern changes expected to come about due to global warming. In their letter, they suggest that much of the southern hemisphere will see increased winds along with higher waves, while the northern hemisphere will see the opposite. http://phys.org/news277370493.html Space & Earth Mon, 14 Jan 2013 07:40:02 EST news277370493 Tens of millions of people may be spared droughts and floods by 2050 if Earth-warming carbon emissions peak in 2016 rather than 2030, scientists said on Sunday. http://phys.org/news277310150.html Space & Earth Sun, 13 Jan 2013 14:35:57 EST news277310150 (Phys.org)—Scientists developed a modeling shortcut to dial in a clearer atmospheric particle signal. A research team from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, the University of Washington, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory fine-tuned the winds simulated in a global climate model to better represent the winds measured in the atmosphere. Their technique increased the signal's clarity by greatly reducing the signal noise. Their work produced shorter, more efficient simulations of the global aerosol particle effects on clouds and a better reception of the atmospheric particle signal. http://phys.org/news274692183.html Space & Earth Fri, 14 Dec 2012 07:23:22 EST news274692183 (Phys.org)—A new study by researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, suggests that the nature of California heatwaves is changing due to global warming. http://phys.org/news265476722.html Space & Earth Wed, 29 Aug 2012 16:32:11 EST news265476722 No life without water. Catastrophes like droughts or strong rains reflect our dependence on the water cycle and climate system. Hence, it is important to understand details of the water cycle among the atmosphere, oceans, and land. A study in the Journal of Hydrometeorology now outlines significant differences of global models and measurement data sets. As the network of measurement stations worldwide is shrinking dramatically, uncertainties are increased. http://phys.org/news258802010.html Space & Earth Wed, 13 Jun 2012 10:26:59 EST news258802010 Climate researchers said Thursday the planet could warm by more than 3.5 degrees Celsius (6.3 degrees Fahrenheit), boosting the risk of drought, flood and rising seas. http://phys.org/news257072461.html Space & Earth Thu, 24 May 2012 10:01:08 EST news257072461 The Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf fringing the Weddell Sea, Antarctica, may start to melt rapidly in this century and no longer act as a barrier for ice streams draining the Antarctic Ice Sheet. These predictions are made by climate researchers of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association in the coming issue of the journal Nature. They refute the widespread assumption that ice shelves in the Weddell Sea would not be affected by the direct influences of global warming due to the peripheral location of the Sea. http://phys.org/news255780408.html Space & Earth Wed, 09 May 2012 13:00:01 EST news255780408 Climate researchers are producing some of the fastest growing datasets in science. Five years ago, the amount of information generated for the Nobel Prize-winning United Nations International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report was 35 terabytes—equivalent to the amount of text in 35 million books, occupying a bookshelf 248 miles (399 km) long. By 2014, when the next IPCC report is published, experts predict that 2 petabytes of data will have been generated for it—that's a 580 percent increase in data production. http://phys.org/news255016844.html Technology Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:30:03 EST news255016844 (Phys.org) -- A diverse group of climate researchers has found after running computer simulations that the strait that separates North America and Russia might be serving as a global temperature stabilizer. This, they write in their paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is because when the strait is blocked, melting glacial freshwater in the Arctic Ocean can’t make its way to the Pacific, causing it to back up and eventually flow into the Atlantic, disturbing the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and eventually air temperatures. http://phys.org/news253266908.html Space & Earth Tue, 10 Apr 2012 09:00:01 EST news253266908 As American southwestern states struggle against ongoing drought, and the Northwest braces for a projected shift from a snow- to a rain-dominated hydrological system, climate researchers strive to provide precipitation projections that are fine grained enough to be of value to municipal water managers. Estimates derived from large general circulation models show that in a warming world, water availability in the western United States will be increasingly dictated by extreme events. http://phys.org/news252392584.html Space & Earth Sat, 31 Mar 2012 06:03:19 EST news252392584 Why did the atmosphere contain so little carbon dioxide (CO2) during the last Ice Age 20,000 years ago? Why did it rise when the Earth's climate became warmer? Processes in the ocean are responsible for this, says a new study based on newly developed isotope measurements. This study has now been published in the scientific journal Science by German scientists from the Universities of Bern and Grenoble and the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association. http://phys.org/news252248485.html Space & Earth Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:01:35 EST news252248485 Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) are sharing computational resources and expertise to improve the detail and performance of a scientific application code that is the product of one of the world's largest collaborations of climate researchers. The Community Earth System Model (CESM) is a mega-model that couples components of atmosphere, land, ocean, and ice to reflect their complex interactions. By continuing to improve science representations and numerical methods in simulations, and exploiting modern computer architectures, researchers expect to further improve the CESM's accuracy in predicting climate changes. Achieving that goal requires teamwork and coordination rarely seen outside a symphony orchestra. http://phys.org/news249650692.html Technology Tue, 28 Feb 2012 11:25:02 EST news249650692 Some climate cooling caused by past volcanic eruptions may not be evident in tree-ring reconstructions of temperature change because large enough temperature drops lead to greatly shortened or even absent growing seasons, according to climate researchers, who compared tree-ring temperature reconstructions with model simulations of past temperature changes. http://phys.org/news247668656.html Space & Earth Sun, 05 Feb 2012 13:00:03 EST news247668656 The US space agency is preparing to launch a satellite Friday that will send back data on climate and weather to better help forecasters predict major storms and other changes in the environment. http://phys.org/news238949083.html Space & Earth Thu, 27 Oct 2011 15:44:49 EST news238949083 NASA on Wednesday set October 28 for its planned launch of a satellite to help weather forecasters predict extreme storms and offer scientists a better view of climate change. http://phys.org/news238247084.html Space & Earth Wed, 19 Oct 2011 12:44:53 EST news238247084 North American forests appear to have a greater capacity to soak up heat-trapping carbon dioxide gas than researchers had previously anticipated. http://phys.org/news237740685.html Space & Earth Thu, 13 Oct 2011 16:04:54 EST news237740685 A satellite that aims to help weather forecasters predict extreme storms and offer scientists a better view of climate change is being readied for launch this month, NASA said Wednesday. http://phys.org/news237654835.html Space & Earth Wed, 12 Oct 2011 16:14:13 EST news237654835 On May 11, 1944, a warm and cloudless spring day, U.S. Army Air Force B-24 Liberators, B-17 Flying fortresses and their fighter escorts lifted off from airfields across southeast England. They climbed, circled, and then formed into one huge formation before heading out to bomb targets in Nazi-occupied Europe. http://phys.org/news229312726.html Space & Earth Fri, 08 Jul 2011 06:11:23 EST news229312726 Yarrow, it's called, this flowering plant also known as "little feather" for the shape of its leaves. Prized as a garden plant that repels unwanted insects while attracting beneficial ones, it also improves soil quality and is used in many herbal medicines. http://phys.org/news225017922.html Space & Earth Thu, 19 May 2011 09:59:05 EST news225017922 The small number of scientists who are unconvinced that human beings have contributed significantly to climate change have far less expertise and prominence in climate research compared with scientists who are convinced, according to a study led by Stanford researchers. http://phys.org/news196700474.html Space & Earth Fri, 25 Jun 2010 16:30:01 EST news196700474