Topic: NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory
All Content
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In Pacific Northwest, a welcome break from a very wet week
Flood watches continue in the Pacific Northwest, but the latest storm to blow in via the 'Pineapple Express' has moved inland. Some areas have seen as much as 15-20 inches of rain since Nov. 27.
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Antarctic Ozone Hole 2nd Smallest in 20 Years
On the Earth's surface, ozone is a pollutant, but in the stratosphere, it reflects ultraviolet radiation back into space, protecting us from skin cancer-causing UV rays.
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Focus Weather? Climate change? Why the drought is persisting and growing.
Several factors, including La Niña events, have contributed to the expanded drought, meteorologists say. Conditions in the West may be setting up for a 'megadrought' by century's end, researchers warn.
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Why Earth still absorbing our carbon dioxide?
Our planets ocean's and plants are soaking up unexpected levels of manmade carbon dioxide, but scientists say we cannot count on nature to do so indefinitely.
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Death Valley heat in Kansas? How the end of June got so hot.
Norton Dam, Kan., hit 118 F. on Thursday, and 32 communities from Colorado to Indiana just posted their highest temperatures ever. Forecasters say back-to-back La Niñas are partly to blame.
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Climate change: Arctic passes 400 parts per million milestone
Arctic monitoring stations show carbon dioxide levels are now above 400 parts per million. Carbon dioxide is the chief climate-change gas and stays in the atmosphere for 100 years. Before the Industrial Age, carbon dioxide levels were 275 ppm.
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Hey, what happened to winter? What its wimpiness portends for spring.
Despite a few powerful snowstorms, the winter of 2011-12, with record-breaking temperatures and less precipitation than normal, has been the fourth warmest on record in the US. What gives?
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Raging wildfires: Climate changes to blame for record season?
Many scientists suggest that climate changes could be causing certain kinds of wildfires for which the West's forests are not well adapted. This year could help researchers better understand and fight the trend.
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The new water wars? Study shows broad decline in Rockies snowpack.
Many studies have documented the West's declining snowpack. But a new one, published Friday in the journal Science, covers the length of the Rockies over an 800-year period.
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Why has global warming paused? Water vapor may be in the answer.
A decline in stratospheric water vapor between 2000 and 2009 followed an apparent increase between 1980 and 2000, a team of scientists has found. That finding may have implications for global warming.
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The next major threat to the ozone layer: nitrous oxide
Each molecule remains in the atmosphere for about 100 years, meaning the gas can deplete the ozone layer as much others covered by the 1987 Montreal Protocol.
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Climate change could be 'irreversible' for 1,000 years? Gulp!
Rather than a call to throw up one's hands in discouragement, the results show the importance of acting quickly to reduce emissions and so limit the very long-lived effects
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What’s black and dirty and messing with the climate?
Soot, derived from many sources, needs to be looked at more closely by atmospheric researchers.
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U.S. scientists to study Arctic smog
Key question: Is air pollution from lower latitudes causing the region's recent warming?
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