Latest Water vapor Stories

WASHINGTON, Nov. 18, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The EPOXI mission's recent encounter with comet Hartley 2 provided the first images clear enough for scientists to link jets of dust and gas with specific surface features. NASA and other scientists have begun to analyze the images. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The EPOXI spacecraft revealed a cometary snow storm created by carbon dioxide...

Water vapor and clouds are the major contributors to Earth's greenhouse effect, but a new atmosphere-ocean climate modeling study shows that the planet's temperature ultimately depends on the atmospheric level of carbon dioxide.The study, conducted by Andrew Lacis and colleagues at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York, examined the nature of Earth's greenhouse effect and clarified the role that greenhouse gases and clouds play in absorbing outgoing infrared radiation....

CHICAGO, Oct. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Many homeowners are concerned about condensation on their windows and consider window replacement as a solution to their problem. This can be a good option; however, there are steps people should take before making this decision. Condensation is caused by high humidity in a house and the difference in the temperature inside and outside of the home. This can generally be reduced or eliminated by taking a few simple steps. Homeowners can reduce condensation by...

UCI-led team cites global warming, accelerated cycle of evaporation, precipitationFreshwater is flowing into Earth's oceans in greater amounts every year, a team of researchers has found, thanks to more frequent and extreme storms linked to global warming. All told, 18 percent more water fed into the world's oceans from rivers and melting polar ice sheets in 2006 than in 1994, with an average annual rise of 1.5 percent."That might not sound like much "“ 1.5 percent a year "“ but...

Imagine devices that capture electricity from the air "” much like solar cells capture sunlight "” and using them to light a house or recharge an electric car. Imagine using similar panels on the rooftops of buildings to prevent lightning before it forms. Strange as it may sound, scientists already are in the early stages of developing such devices, according to a report at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society."Our research could pave the way for turning...

CW Leonis, a star some 500 light-years from Earth, has become a recent hot topic for scientists, who have long known it to be surrounded by a shroud of water. The star, twice as massive as our Sun, has been looked on by Europe's Herschel space telescope as an old giant star wallowing in a "˜steam bath'. Herschel's superb ability to track the water molecules in space means it can show that the water lies close in to the star and reaches nearly 1300 degrees F. "Herschel really is the most...

Imagine devices that capture electricity from the air "• much like solar cells capture sunlight "• and using them to light a house or recharge an electric car. Imagine using similar panels on the rooftops of buildings to prevent lightning before it forms. Strange as it may sound, scientists already are in the early stages of developing such devices, according to a report presented August 25th at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS)."Our research could...

An unusual substance known as "dry water," which resembles powdered sugar, could provide a new way to absorb and store carbon dioxide, the major greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming, scientists reported August 25th at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society.The powder shows bright promise for a number of other uses, they said. It may, for instance, be a greener, more energy-efficient way of jumpstarting the chemical reactions used to make hundreds of...

Researchers demonstrate how honeycomb clouds exhibit self-organizationLike shifting sand dunes, some clouds disappear in one place and reappear in another. New work this week in Nature  shows why: Rain causes air to move vertically, which breaks down and builds up cloud walls. The air movement forms patterns in low clouds that remain cohesive structures even while appearing to shift about the sky, due to a principle called self-organization.These clouds, called open-cell clouds that look...

Gaze up at a cloud-filled sky, and you may spot the white, fluffy shape of a dragon, fish or elephant. Looking at the same sky, Graeme Stephens sees a different vision -- a possible future for Earth's climate.Stephens, a professor at Colorado State University in Ft. Collins, is principal investigator of NASA's CloudSat mission, launched in 2006 to improve our understanding of the role clouds play in our complicated climate system. Stephens says that as Earth's global temperature continues to...