Latest National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Stories
A Senate subcommittee has approved a bill that would see four satellites being moved from the responsibility of the National Oceanic Atmosphere Administration (NOAA) to NASA. Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), the subcommittee chairwoman, said in a prepared statement that these satellites are critical for weather forecasting, but the cost overruns and schedule delays in NOAA's satellite programs requires a change in management. "It doesn’t matter what agency buys the satellites,"...
[ Watch the Video ] Satellite data gives forecasters a leg up on severe weather. NASA has just released an animation of visible and infrared satellite data showing the development and movement of the Great Plains tornado outbreak, using data from NOAA's GOES-13 satellite. There were more than 135 reports of tornadoes and 124 different warnings over April 14-15, 2012. Local weather observations, soundings, and computer models, and data from satellites like GOES-13 give forecasters...
Researchers at Oregon State University have definitively linked an increase in ocean acidification to the collapse of oyster seed production at a commercial oyster hatchery in Oregon, where larval growth had declined to a level considered by the owners to be “non-economically viable.” A study by the researchers found that elevated seawater carbon dioxide (CO2) levels, resulting in more corrosive ocean water, inhibited the larval oysters from developing their shells and growing at a...
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported today that temperatures in the lower 48 states in the U.S. were 8.6 degrees above average for March. NOAA said that the record-breaking highs did not just stop in March, but added that the temperatures for the 48 states were 6 degrees higher than average for the first three months of the year. Meteorologist say an unusual confluence of several weather patterns, including La Nina, was the cause of the warm start to 2012....
Piloting a ship and trying to avoid colliding with a group of endangered whales? There's an app for that. According to Reuters reporter Ros Krasny, the iOS app is known as "Whale Alert" and is available as a free download to all iPhone 3 and iPad users. It was created by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), along with the National Park Service (NPS), the Coast Guard, and other government organizations, educational institutions, and conservation groups. Designed in...
[ Watch the Video ] A powerful weather system moved through eastern Texas and dropped at least 15 tornadoes in the Dallas suburbs. NASA created an animation of data from NOAA's GOES-13 satellite that shows the frontal system moving through the region yesterday. NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, GOES-13, captures visible and infrared images of weather over the eastern U.S. every 15 minutes, and captured the movement of the weather system that generated the Texas...
NOAA marine mammal biologists are reporting signs of poor health in bottlenose dolphins in the Gulf Coast. The dolphins, located in Barataria Bay, may be experiencing poor health due to exposure from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010. NOAA biologists took comprehensive physicals of 32 live dolphins from Barataria Bay in the summer of 2011 and found many troubling health concerns, such as anemia, low blood sugar, and low weight. The biologists also found more than half of the...
NEW GRETNA, N.J., March 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- With just three days to go until the Keep Fishermen Fishing Rally near the U.S. Capitol on March 21, organizers expect thousands of recreational and commercial fishermen - and their families - to be in Washington this week in support of coastal fishing-related jobs. Coastal fishermen last assembled in organized protest in February of 2010 to show their dissatisfaction with federal fisheries management, though organizers say that...
The most comprehensive dataset of surface water carbon dioxide (CO2) measurements for the world's oceans and coastal seas is launched today by an international team of scientists led by the University of East Anglia (UEA). The Surface Ocean CO2 Atlas (SOCAT) comprises 6.3 million global observations made from research vessels, commercial ships and moorings around the world since 1968. The dataset documents the changes in ocean carbon similar to the Mauna Loa record – or 'Keeling curve' -...
