Latest Atmospheric sciences Stories
Alan McStravick for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online In recent years, we have seen a severe uptick in the frequency and strength of tornadoes that strike from the south through the Midwest of the United States. In April of 2011, a month that regularly records an average of 161 tornadoes, a record 758 tornadoes were documented. A new study out of the University of Iowa wanted to explore how residents, caught in the direct path of a previous tornado, viewed their chances of possible...
[ Watch the Video: Talking Tornadoes with Tim Samaras ] Alan McStravick for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online On December 26, 2004, we learned of the importance that early warning systems can play in preventing loss of life when the great Indonesian tsunami caught locals and vacationers alike by surprise. In contrast, on March 11, 2011, the early warning system, while unable to prevent tens of thousands of human casualties, was effectively responsible for preventing a greater loss of...
NASA researchers have begun a series of flights using the agency's DC-8 flying laboratory to study the effects of alternate biofuel on engine performance, emissions and aircraft-generated contrails at altitude. The Alternative Fuel Effects on Contrails and Cruise Emissions (ACCESS) research involves flying the DC-8 as high as 40,000 feet while an instrumented NASA Falcon HU-25 aircraft trails behind at distances ranging from 300 feet to more than 10 miles. "We believe this study will...
[ Watch the Video: What is Global Warming ] redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online Global warming was slowed between 2000 and 2010 because of sulfur dioxide spewed forth by volcanoes, researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder (CU-Boulder) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) claim in a new study. Some experts had blamed China and India for the phenomenon, as both countries increased their industrial sulfur dioxide emissions by an...
redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online Researchers from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have demonstrated for the first time that dust and other aerosols from one part of the world can influence rainfall in regions thousands of miles away. The study is part of the CalWater field campaign – an initiative funded by the California Energy Commission and designed to help states in the western US...
WASHINGTON, March 1, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Climate change in the far north is occurring far more rapidly than elsewhere around the planet, but common-sense efforts to mitigate key emissions and protect the fragile Arctic environment could slow this trend and benefit communities, the environment, and companies. This was the central message delivered in Washington, D.C. during the workshop, "Tackling Climate Change in the Arctic: An International Emergency," one of the pre-conference...
Daily weather forecast and wrap-up provided by redOrbit meteorologist Joshua Kelly. redOrbit Meteorologist Joshua Kelly Big Story Weather from February 28: The Northeast saw snow showers and very strong winds around the Maine area, while the majority of the country saw partly cloudy skies and colder conditions, and the Northwest saw some showers yesterday. Weather Outlook for March 1: An upper level trough will move through the Tennessee River Valley bringing with it some light...
WASHINGTON, Feb. 28, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Van Allen Probes mission has discovered a previously unknown third radiation belt around Earth, revealing the existence of unexpected structures and processes within these hazardous regions of space. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) Previous observations of Earth's Van Allen belts have long documented two distinct regions of trapped radiation surrounding our planet. Particle detection instruments...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online NASA announced that its Van Allen Probes have led to a revision of a 50-year-old theory about the Earth's radiation belts. The Van Allen radiation belts surrounding Earth were thought to be just two giant swaths of radiation, first discovered in 1958. More than a half-century later, NASA launched twin probes (August 30, 2012) to create a detailed map of the region and catalogue a variety of energies and particles in these radiation...
Daily weather forecast and wrap-up provided by redOrbit meteorologist Joshua Kelly. redOrbit Meteorologist Joshua Kelly Big Story Weather from February 27: The snow started to finally wind down in the Northeast as the low began to push outwards towards sea. High pressure sliding into the country has started its cool down effects with some places running 10-15 degrees below normal. Weather Outlook for February 28: Low pressure pushing out to sea over the Northeast will bring a few...
Latest Atmospheric sciences Reference Libraries
An urban heat island (UHI) is a metropolitan area that is drastically warmer than its surrounding rural areas because of human activities. The phenomenon was first looked into and described by Luke Howard during the 1810s, although he wasn’t the one to name the phenomenon. The difference in temperature is normally bigger at night as opposed to during the day, and it most obvious when winds are weak. Seasonally, UHI is seen during the summer and the winter. The key cause of the urban heat...
Desertification is a form of land degradation in which a comparatively dry land area becomes more and more arid, normally losing its bodies of water along with its wildlife and vegetation. This is a result of a variety of factors, such as climate change and human activities. Desertification is an important global, ecological, and environmental issue. There is substantial controversy over the proper definition of the term “desertification”. The most broadly accepted of these is that of...
Climate change is a substantial and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods of time ranging from decades to millions of years. It might be a change in the average weather conditions, or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions. Climate change is a result of factors that include oceanic processes, biotic processes, variations in solar radiation received buy Earth, volcanic eruptions, and plate tectonics, and human induced alterations...
Surface Dew-points can play a huge role in weather forecasting. The first such role is that it helps determine the amount of moisture in the atmosphere for a given point. If we look at the current dew-point map above from January 28, 2013 we can note several things of interest. First, if we look at where the black circle is around the number 70, we can make note that this air right off the coast of Texas is at a dew point of 70F. The temperature outside must be above 70F, because the...
Air mass thunderstorms are found in marine time tropical air. In short they are also known as MT Thunderstorms. Air mass thunderstorms represent what is known as the common three stage thunderstorm development. This means that an air mass thunderstorm goes through the stages of Cumulus which is represented by the updrafts only being present; secondly it moves into the mature stage where it has both updrafts and downdrafts; finally it goes into the dissipating stage where you see only the...
