Thinning Ice Is Turning Arctic into an Algae Hotspot
Shrinking, thinning Arctic sea ice appears to be accelerating the growth of algae in polar waters, a new study finds, a development that could alter the region’s ability to absorb carbon from the atmosphere. Scientists cruising central Arctic waters last summer aboard the research ship Polarstern were stunned to discover dense, shaggy deposits of… Read More
Exhibition Turns Climate Data into Artistic Experience
The Compton-Goethals Art Gallery at The City College of New York is ordinarily devoted to the kind of exhibitions you might expect — photography shows, or displays of painting, or sculpture, or even something more contemporary, like a video installation. But it’s clear from you moment you walk into the gallery that the show on display for the … Read More
Major Storm Accelerated Arctic Sea Ice Loss, Study Finds
The study found that while the extraordinarily powerful storm did in fact accelerate the melting of Arctic sea ice, the sea ice extent record would have occurred regardless of whether the storm had hit.… Read More
Risks of Hurricane Sandy-like Surge Events Rising
Timothy M. Hall, a climate scientist at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, and Adam Sobel, a researcher at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Observatory, set out to investigate how common Hurricane Sandy’s impact angle was under static climate conditions. Given that global average temperatures are rising, their findings supp… Read More
Greenland’s Ice Sheet More Stable Than Once Believed
The enormous sheets of ice that lie atop Greenland may not be as prone to catastrophic melting as many scientists thought, even if the planet continues to warm and temperatures remain high for hundreds of years. But while that may sound like good news, new evidence also suggests that parts of the even vaster ice sheets that lie atop Antarctica … Read More
Stratospheric Phenomenon Is Bringing Frigid Cold to U.S
Starting on Jan. 6, temperatures in the stratosphere, which is the thin layer of air above the troposphere where most weather takes place, increased sharply, a hallmark of a phenomenon known to meteorologists as a “sudden stratospheric warming event.”… Read More
Sea Level Rise May Eclipse 3 Feet By 2100, Study Finds
The study adds to a growing body of evidence showing that the globe’s ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, which were once thought to have a slow and delayed response to climate change, are melting more rapidly, and becoming more vulnerable to crossing tipping points beyond which they may not quickly recover.… Read More
Sandy Tops List of 2012 Extreme Weather & Climate Events
From unprecedented heat waves that shattered "Dust Bowl" era records from the 1930s, to Hurricane Sandy, which devastated coastal New Jersey and New York, 2012 was the year Mother Nature had it out for the U.S. No country on Earth rivaled the U.S. in 2012 in terms of extreme weather and climate events, as one rare episode after another rocked the c… Read More
