Latest Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences Stories

NOAA-led study shows less hail, more rain in region's future, with possible increase in flood risk Summertime hail could all but disappear from the eastern flank of Colorado's Rocky Mountains by 2070, according to a new modeling study by scientists from NOAA and several other institutions. Less hail damage could be good news for gardeners and farmers, said Kelly Mahoney, Ph.D., lead author of the study and a postdoctoral scientist at NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder,...

The HIAPER Pole-to-Pole Observation (HIPPO) project generated an extraordinarily detailed mapping of the global distribution of greenhouse gases, black carbon and related chemical species in the atmosphere Once international agreements demand it, effective, enforceable greenhouse gas reduction will require in-depth information on the fluxes and transports of these and other atmospheric constituents. Researchers know that concentrations of aerosols like black carbon and gases like carbon...

New NSF grants seek to improve predictions of climate change and how it will affect Earth's future What will Earth's climate be like in a decade--or sooner? And what will it be like where you live and around the globe? National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded scientists are working to find answers. NSF and other federal agencies recently awarded more than $38 million to study the consequences of climate variability and change. The awards, made through the interagency Decadal and...

  During the 2010 BP/Deepwater Horizon Gulf oil spill, an estimated one of every 20 barrels of spilled oil was deliberately burned off to reduce the size of surface oil slicks and minimize impacts of oil on sensitive shoreline ecosystems and marine life. In response to the spill, NOAA quickly redirected its WP-3D research aircraft to survey the atmosphere above the spill site in June. During a flight through one of the black plumes, scientists used sophisticated instrumentation on board,...

Bacteria from fecal material -- in particular, dog fecal material -- may constitute the dominant source of airborne bacteria in Cleveland's and Detroit's wintertime air, says a new University of Colorado Boulder study.The CU-Boulder study showed that of the four Midwestern cities in the experiment, two cities had significant quantities of fecal bacteria in the atmosphere -- with dog feces being the most likely source."We found unexpectedly high bacterial diversity in all of our samples,...

Volcanic ash from small-scale eruptions and soot resulting from the burning of fossil fuels may be responsible by slowing the rate of global warming up by to 20-percent, according to the results of a new National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) study released Thursday.Particles such as these, commonly referred to as "aerosols", can reflect sunlight back into space once they reach the stratosphere, which according to an NOAA press release, "leads to a cooling...

Cigarette smoking, forest fires and woodburning can release a chemical that may be at least partly responsible for human health problems related to smoke exposure, according to a new study by NOAA researchers and their colleagues.Using a custom mass spectrometer designed by the researchers, the NOAA-led team was able get the first look at levels of the chemical, isocyanic acid, in the atmosphere. Isocyanic acid has been difficult to detect with conventional measurement techniques."We...

Researchers from six countries are in the Arctic studying the potential role that soot, or black carbon, has on the rapidly changing Arctic climate. Although the Arctic is typically viewed as a vast white wasteland, scientists believe a thin layer of soot is causing it to absorb more heat. They want to find out if that is the main reason for the recent rapid warming of the Arctic, which could have an impact on the world's climate for years to come. Black carbon is produced by vehicle engines,...

Scientists from the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science worked with National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) researchers to find two plumes of oil-based pollutants downwind of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. In a study published in the journal Science this week, the team of researchers discovered a new mechanism by which the crude oil traveled from the sea surface to the atmosphere. Although the mechanism was predicted four years ago,...

The deadly heat wave that crippled Russia last summer was due to a natural atmospheric phenomenon often associated with weather extremes and not directly caused by global warming, according to a new study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA). And while the scientists could not attribute the intensity of the Russian heat wave to climate change, they did find that extreme heat waves are likely to become more frequent in the region in the coming decades. The researchers...