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. (Phys.org) —If the sheet of ice covering Greenland were to melt in its entirety tomorrow, global sea levels would rise by 24 feet. http://phys.org/news284214314.html Space & Earth Wed, 03 Apr 2013 13:25:20 EST news284214314 Turning on new satellite instruments is like opening new eyes. This week, the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) released its first images of Earth, collected at 1:40 p.m. EDT on March 18. The first image shows the meeting of the Great Plains with the Front Ranges of the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming and Colorado. The natural-color image shows the green coniferous forest of the mountains coming down to the dormant brown plains. The cities of Cheyenne, Fort Collins, Loveland, Longmont, Boulder and Denver string out from north to south. Popcorn clouds dot the plains while more complete cloud cover obscures the mountains. http://phys.org/news283106724.html Space & Earth Thu, 21 Mar 2013 17:45:32 EST news283106724 (Phys.org) —The climate models that scientists use to understand and project climate change are improving constantly, with better representations of the oceans, ice, land surfaces and other factors in the atmosphere. While there is still some degree of uncertainty in all these components, the largest source of uncertainty in today's climate models are clouds. http://phys.org/news282471120.html Space & Earth Thu, 14 Mar 2013 09:12:13 EST news282471120 New research shows that cloud biases over the Southern Ocean are the primary contributor to the double-rain band problem that exists in most modern climate models. http://phys.org/news282239568.html Space & Earth Mon, 11 Mar 2013 16:53:15 EST news282239568 Thanks to sensors installed on trams that send data live to mobile phones, people can check air pollution levels around the city with just one click and in real time. This new app developed by EPFL researchers was recently tested in Zurich. http://phys.org/news282208684.html Technology Mon, 11 Mar 2013 08:40:01 EST news282208684 Japan launched two intelligence satellites into orbit on Sunday amid growing concerns that North Korea is planning to test more rockets of its own and possibly conduct a nuclear test. http://phys.org/news278502545.html Space & Earth Sun, 27 Jan 2013 09:49:11 EST news278502545 Japan is to launch a new spy satellite on Sunday to strengthen its monitoring capabilities amid concern that North Korea may carry out more missile and nuclear tests. http://phys.org/news278137511.html Space & Earth Wed, 23 Jan 2013 04:25:18 EST news278137511 On Dec. 14, 1962, NASA's Mariner 2 spacecraft sailed close to the shrouded planet Venus, marking the first time any spacecraft had ever successfully made a close-up study of another planet. It flew by Venus as planned at a range of 34,762 km (21,600 miles), scanning the planet's atmosphere and surface for 42 minutes. http://phys.org/news274954495.html Space & Earth Mon, 17 Dec 2012 08:15:03 EST news274954495 Satellite imagery from Nov. 2 showed that Sandy's remnant clouds continue to linger over Canada and the northeastern U.S. http://phys.org/news271091132.html Space & Earth Fri, 02 Nov 2012 16:05:38 EST news271091132 (Phys.org)—The heat-seeking capabilities of the international Cassini spacecraft and two ground-based telescopes have provided the first look at the aftermath of Saturn's 'Great Springtime Storm'. Concealed from the naked eye, a giant oval vortex is persisting long after the visible effects of the storm subsided. http://phys.org/news270383435.html Space & Earth Thu, 25 Oct 2012 11:40:01 EST news270383435 NASA's Aqua satellite provided two different infrared views of the two tropical storms swirling in the Atlantic Ocean. Oscar is battling wind shear that appears destined to tear it apart, while Nadine is merging with a cold front. http://phys.org/news268588538.html Space & Earth Thu, 04 Oct 2012 16:55:45 EST news268588538 Tropical Storm Tembin made landfall in the in southwestern South Korea and NASA's Aqua satellite captured the extent of the storm's elongated cloud cover, revealing the effect of wind shear on the storm. http://phys.org/news265567014.html Space & Earth Thu, 30 Aug 2012 17:37:00 EST news265567014 NASA satellites have been providing valuable data to forecasters at the National Hurricane Center watching the development and progression of powerful Tropical Storm Isaac as it heads for landfall. http://phys.org/news265376895.html Space & Earth Tue, 28 Aug 2012 12:48:40 EST news265376895 Arctic sea ice has been declining over the past several decades as global climate has warmed. In fact, sea ice has declined more quickly than many models predicted, indicating that climate models may not be correctly representing some processes controlling sea ice. http://phys.org/news252393239.html Space & Earth Sat, 31 Mar 2012 06:14:43 EST news252393239 Using ten years of data gathered at three unique measurement sites, scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory found that global climate models are not representing just how much clouds mask the sun's warming energy. And for the first time, scientists used data on the spatial coverage, height, and transparency of the clouds to inform climate models. They found the relative monthly and annual differences among three cloud fraction datasets at each site are small. However, comparing observations with a dozen global models shows that cloud coverage is significantly misrepresented in the models, by up to 150 percent at one site. http://phys.org/news250244490.html Space & Earth Tue, 06 Mar 2012 09:20:04 EST news250244490 (PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's solar-powered Juno spacecraft successfully refined its flight path Wednesday with the mission's first trajectory correction maneuver. The maneuver took place on Feb. 1. It is the first of a dozen planned rocket firings that, over the next five years, will keep Juno on course for its rendezvous with Jupiter. http://phys.org/news247478983.html Space & Earth Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:09:52 EST news247478983 The pattern of clouds on Earth is largely determined by the arrangement of the continents below. Now, astronomers are modeling the clouds at different periods in Earth's past to better understand what alien worlds might look like. http://phys.org/news246626261.html Space & Earth Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:17:50 EST news246626261 In Europe forests appear evergreen even in the cloudiest conditions, while the lush interiors of Asian jungles are typically overshadowed by a dense canopy. The ability of trees to adapt to light conditions, and even increase their intake of carbon for photosynthesis in poor light, has been explored by Czech researchers and published in the British Ecological Society's Functional Ecology. http://phys.org/news240574453.html Space & Earth Tue, 15 Nov 2011 10:14:19 EST news240574453 A new report by researchers from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama and Canada's McGill University identifies gaps in forest monitoring and ways to improve data collection. This will produce reliable estimates of greenhouse gas emission reductions from activities aimed at reducing deforestation. http://phys.org/news236952154.html Space & Earth Tue, 04 Oct 2011 13:02:53 EST news236952154 A new paper published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, explains weaknesses in our understanding of climate change and how we can fix them. These issues mean predictions vary wildly about how quickly temperatures will rise. This has serious implications for long term political and economic planning. The paper's lead author is Dr Nigel Fox of The National Physical Laboratory, The UK's National Measurement Institution. http://phys.org/news235647700.html Space & Earth Mon, 19 Sep 2011 10:42:00 EST news235647700 The longest lunar eclipse in more than a decade turned the moon blood red on Thursday, yielding a rare visual treat for stargazers across a large swathe of the planet from Australia to Europe. http://phys.org/news227416453.html Space & Earth Thu, 16 Jun 2011 04:14:43 EST news227416453 Swiss solar-powered aircraft Solar Impulse will attempt to reach Paris from Brussels on Tuesday after a previous flight was aborted due to technical problems, its team said. http://phys.org/news227195908.html Technology Mon, 13 Jun 2011 14:58:39 EST news227195908 Global climate models disagree widely in the magnitude of the warming we can expect with increasing carbon dioxide. This is mainly because the models represent clouds differently. A new modeling approach successfully simulates the observed cloud fields in a key region for climate. The study finds a greater tendency for clouds to thin with global warming than in any of the current climate models. This means the expected warming may be greater than currently anticipated. http://phys.org/news209668141.html Space & Earth Mon, 22 Nov 2010 17:09:39 EST news209668141 Tomas strengthened to hurricane status and is currently lashing Hispaniola and eastern Cuba today and the GOES-13 satellite provided a visible image of its extensive cloud cover. http://phys.org/news208179961.html Space & Earth Fri, 05 Nov 2010 13:00:01 EST news208179961 Melting sea ice has been shown to be a major cause of warming in the Arctic according to a University of Melbourne, Australia study. http://phys.org/news191665797.html Space & Earth Wed, 28 Apr 2010 13:00:50 EST news191665797 (PhysOrg.com) -- Using a novel theoretical approach, researchers from NASA and other institutions have identified the common thread that determines how aerosols from human activity, like the particles from burning of vegetation and forests, influence cloud cover and ultimately affect climate. The study improves researchers’ ability to predict whether aerosols will increase or decrease cloud cover. http://phys.org/news137945726.html Space & Earth Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:15:26 EST news137945726