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Atmospheric Science
Key: Meeting Journal Funder Dissertation
Public Release: 3-Feb-2012
Journal of Paleolimnology
Sediments from the Enol lake reveal more than 13,500 years of environmental history
A team of Spanish researchers have used different geological samples, extracted from the Enol lake in Asturias, to show that the Holocene, a period that started 11,600 years ago, did not have a climate as stable as was believed.

Contact: SINC
info@agenciasinc.es
34-914-251-820
FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology

Public Release: 2-Feb-2012
NASA satellites see wind shear battering Tropical Depression Iggy
NASA satellites have watched as wind shear has torn Cyclone Iggy apart over the last day. NASA infrared satellite imagery showed that Iggy's strongest thunderstorms have been pushed away from the storm's center and visible imagery shows the storm is being stretched out. Iggy is weakening and heading for a landfall between Geraldton and Perth.
NASA

Contact: Rob Gutro
Robert.j.gutro@nasa.gov
443-858-1779
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Public Release: 2-Feb-2012
'First light' taken by NASA's newest CERES instrument
The doors are open on NASA's Suomi NPP satellite and the newest version of the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) instrument is scanning Earth for the first time, helping to assure continued availability of measurements of the energy leaving the Earth-atmosphere system.
NASA

Contact: Michael Finneran
michael.p.finneran@nasa.gov
757-864-6110
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Public Release: 1-Feb-2012
NASA's GCPEx mission: What we don't know about snow
NASA's GCPEx science team is collecting as much data as they can to improve understanding of snow dynamics inside clouds, because they relate to how snow moves through Earth's water and climate cycles.
NASA

Contact: Elle Gray
ellen.t.gray@nasa.gov
301-614-6156
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Public Release: 1-Feb-2012
Journal of Integrated Pest Management
IPM decreased pesticide use in University of Florida housing
A new study recently published in the Journal of Integrated Pest Management shows that from 2003 to 2008, the use of insecticide active ingredients was reduced by about 90 percent in University of Florida housing buildings after an integrated pest management program was implemented.

Contact: Norman C. Leppla
ncleppla@ifas.ufl.edu
352-273-3951
Entomological Society of America

Public Release: 1-Feb-2012
BioScience
Are nuisance jellyfish really taking over the world's oceans?
Evidence is lacking that populations of jellyfish and similar gelatinous plankton are surging in numbers globally and will likely dominate the seas in coming decades. Rather, increasing scientific and media interest as well as the lack of good baseline data seem to explain the widespread perception of an increase.
National Science Foundation, University of California, State of California

Contact: Tim Beardsley
tbeardsley@aibs.org
703-674-2500 x326
American Institute of Biological Sciences

Public Release: 1-Feb-2012
BioScience
Yellow-cedar are dying in Alaska: Scientists now know why
Yellow-cedar, a culturally and economically valuable tree in southeastern Alaska and adjacent parts of British Columbia, has been dying off across large expanses of these areas for the past 100 years. But no one could say why -- until now.
USDA Forest Service

Contact: Sherri Richardson Dodge
srichardsondodge@fs.fed.us
503-808-2137
USDA Forest Service - Pacific Northwest Research Station

Public Release: 1-Feb-2012
Report identifies 16 highest priorities to guide NASA's Technology Development efforts for next 5 years
During the next five years, NASA technology development efforts should focus on 16 high-priority technologies and their associated top technical challenges, says a new report from the National Research Council.

Contact: Lorin Hancock
news@nas.edu
202-334-2138
National Academy of Sciences

Public Release: 1-Feb-2012
Applied Physics Letters
Wireless power could revolutionize highway transportation, Stanford researchers say
A Stanford University research team has designed a high-efficiency charging system that uses magnetic fields to wirelessly transmit large electric currents between metal coils placed several feet apart. The long-term goal of the research is to develop an all-electric highway that wirelessly charges cars and trucks as they cruise down the road.
Stanford University/Global Climate and Energy Project

Contact: Mark Shwartz
mshwartz@stanford.edu
650-723-9296
Stanford University

Public Release: 1-Feb-2012
Nature Climate Change
Tropical cyclones to cause greater damage
Tropical cyclones will cause $109 billion in damages by 2100, according to Yale and MIT researchers in a paper published in Nature Climate Change.

Contact: David DeFusco
david.defusco@yale.edu
203-436-4842
Yale University

Public Release: 1-Feb-2012
Tellus
New study shows correlation between summer Arctic sea ice cover and winter weather in Central Europe
Even if the current weather situation may seem to speak against it, the probability of cold winters with much snow in Central Europe rises when the Arctic is covered by less sea ice in summer.

Contact: Dr Folke Mehrtens
medien@awi.de
49-047-148-312-007
Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres

Public Release: 1-Feb-2012
Nature Geoscience
First plants caused ice ages
New research reveals how the arrival of the first plants 470 million years ago triggered a series of ice ages. The research reveals the effects that the first land plants had on the climate during the Ordovician Period, which ended 444 million years ago. During this period the climate gradually cooled, leading to a series of 'ice ages'. This global cooling was caused by a dramatic reduction in atmospheric carbon, which this research now suggests was triggered by the arrival of plants.

Contact: Sarah Hoyle
s.hoyle@exeter.ac.uk
44-013-927-22062
University of Exeter

Public Release: 1-Feb-2012
Warning of unrest, new study shows millions risk losing lands in Africa
New studies released in London today suggest that the frenzied sell-off of forests and other prime lands to buyers hungry for the developing world's natural resources risk sparking widespread civil unrest -- unless national leaders and investors recognize the customary rights of millions of poor people who have lived on and worked these lands for centuries.

Contact: Coimbra Sirica
csirica@burnesscommunications.com
301-943-3287
Burness Communications

Public Release: 31-Jan-2012
Sandia tool determines value of solar photovoltaic power systems
Consistent appraisals of real estate outfitted with photovoltaic installations are a challenge for the nation's real estate industry, but a new tool developed by Sandia National Laboratories and Solar Power Electric and licensed by Sandia addresses that issue.
US Department of Energy/Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Contact: Stephanie Hobby
shobby@sandia.gov
505-844-0948
DOE/Sandia National Laboratories

Public Release: 31-Jan-2012
From opening thunder to closing whimper
Thanks to lightning-fast software from Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate, calculating bomb blast shockwaves in urban canyons is now possible.
S&T

Contact: John Verrico
john.verrico@dhs.gov
202-254-2385
US Department of Homeland Security - Science and Technology

Public Release: 31-Jan-2012
NASA sees strong thunderstorms still surround Cyclone Iggy's center
NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Tropical Cyclone Iggy on Jan. 31 and the AIRS infrared instrument aboard showed that there is a large area of strong thunderstorms still surrounding Iggy's center of circulation.
NASA

Contact: Rob Gutro
Robert.j.gutro@nasa.gov
443-858-1779
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Public Release: 31-Jan-2012
AGU journal highlights -- Jan. 31, 2012
Featured in this release are research papers on the following topics: "Fine, jagged ash increased Eyjafjallajökull volcano's influence," "Geological evidence for past earthquakes in Tokyo region," "Much irrigation water comes from non-sustainable sources," "Greenland's pronounced glacier retreat not irreversible," "New record from stalagmites shows climate history in Central Asia," "Io's volcanism influences Jupiter's magnetosphere," and "Massive swarm of tunicates tilts ocean's chemical balance."

Contact: Kate Ramsayer
kramsayer@agu.org
202-777-7524
American Geophysical Union

Public Release: 30-Jan-2012
Astrophysical Journal
University of Hawaii at Manoa graduate finds 'cool' gas may form and strengthen sunspots
Hydrogen molecules may act as a kind of energy sink that strengthens the magnetic grip that causes sunspots, according to scientists from Hawaii and New Mexico using a new infrared instrument on an old telescope.

Contact: Louise Good
good@ifa.hawaii.edu
808-956-9403
University of Hawaii at Manoa

Public Release: 30-Jan-2012
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
Earth's energy budget remained out of balance despite unusually low solar activity
A new NASA study underscores the fact that greenhouse gases generated by human activity -- not changes in solar activity -- are the primary force driving global warming.
NASA

Contact: Adam Voiland
adam.p.voiland@nasa.gov
301-614-6949
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Public Release: 30-Jan-2012
Geophysical Research Letters
Study may answer longstanding questions about Little Ice Age
A new international study, with NCAR co-authors, suggests that the Little Ice Age was triggered by an unusual, 50-year episode of four massive volcanic eruptions. This led to an expansion of sea ice and a related weakening of Atlantic currents that caused the cool period to persist for centuries.
National Science Foundation, Icelandic Science Foundation

Contact: David Hosansky
hosansky@ucar.edu
303-497-8611
National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

Public Release: 30-Jan-2012
Geophysical Research Letters
New CU-Boulder-led study may answer questions about enigmatic Little Ice Age
According to new University of Colorado Boulder-led study, the Little Ice Age began abruptly between A.D. 1275 and 1300, triggered by repeated, explosive volcanism, and was sustained for centuries by a self- perpetuating sea ice-ocean feedback system in the North Atlantic Ocean.
National Science Foundation, Icelandic Science Foundation

Contact: Gifford Miller
gmiller@colorado.edu
303-492-6962
University of Colorado at Boulder

Public Release: 30-Jan-2012
Science
Biodiversity enhances ecosystems global drylands -- Ben-Gurion U researchers
Study indicates ability of ecosystems in drylands worldwide to maintain multiple functions, such as carbon storage and buildup of nutrient pools (multi-functionality) is enhanced by the number of perennial plant species, mainly shrubs and dwarf-shrubs, whereas increased average annual temperature reduces this ability. This study is the first in explicitly evaluating relationships among real ecosystems at a global scale.

Contact: Andrew Lavin
andrewlavin@alavin.com
516-353-2505
American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Public Release: 30-Jan-2012
Nature Climate Change
The Arctic is already suffering the effects of a dangerous climate change
Two decades after the United Nations established the Framework Convention on Climate Change in order to "prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system", the Arctic shows the first signs of a dangerous climate change. A team of researchers led by CSIC assures so in an article published in the latest issue of the Nature Climate Change magazine.

Contact: Alda Ólafsson
alda.olafsson@orgc.csic.es
0034-915-681-499
CSIC, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas

Public Release: 29-Jan-2012
Nature Climate Change
The good news about carbon storage in tropical vegetation
Tropical vegetation contains 21 percent more carbon than previously thought. Using a combination of remote sensing and field data, scientists were able to produce the first "wall-to-wall" map (with a spatial resolution of 500 m x 500 m) of carbon storage of forests, shrublands, and savannas in the tropics of Africa, Asia, and South America. Reliable estimates of carbon storage are important for the success of REDD+.

Contact: Ian Vorster
ivorster@whrc.org
508-444-1509
Woods Hole Research Center

Public Release: 29-Jan-2012
Nature Physics
UCLA astronomers solve mystery of vanishing electrons
UCLA researchers have explained the puzzling disappearing act of energetic electrons in Earth's outer radiation belt using data collected from a fleet of orbiting spacecraft.

Contact: Stuart Wolpert
swolpert@support.ucla.edu
310-206-0511
University of California - Los Angeles