Earth Sciences

Antarctic glaciers that had been blocked behind the Larsen B ice shelf have been flowing more rapidly into the Weddell Sea, following the break-up of that shelf. Studies based on imagery from two satellites reached similar conclusions, which will be published September 22 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. Researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado, and NASA’s Goddard Sp

In the future, global warming might not be as severe in the central United States as in other parts of the country, according to scientists at Saint Louis University and Iowa State University (ISU).

Using a detailed regional climate model, these researchers estimate summertime daily maximum temperatures will not climb as high in a Midwestern region — centered on the Missouri/Kansas border — as anywhere else in the United States. The hole stretches for hundreds of miles and inclu

Researchers at the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering of TU Delft have succeeded in modelling the rotational behaviour of two satellites with unprecedented accuracy. This makes it possible to model the orbit of the satellites much more accurately and this means that changes on earth observed by the satellite are also more accurate, for example, melting of the polar icecaps or the transport of water and atmospheric mass around the globe.

Satellites often have a rotational movement after

South Dakota’s geology hasn’t changed much during the past few thousand years, but our knowledge of it has grown so much since 1953 that a new geological map of the entire state became necessary.

“The map is multidimensional in its use,” Dr. James Martin said. Martin is the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology’s curator of vertebrate paleontology and a professor in the engineering and science university’s Department of Geology and Geological Engineering. Ma

Recent analyses of ESA’s Mars Express data reveal that concentrations of water vapour and methane in the atmosphere of Mars significantly overlap. This result, from data obtained by the Planetary Fourier Spectrometer (PFS), gives a boost to understanding of geological and atmospheric processes on Mars, and provides important new hints to evaluate the hypothesis of present life on the Red Planet.

PFS observed that, at 10-15 kilometres above the surface, water vapour is well mixed and

New research published in the September 17 issue of the journal Science sheds light on the evolution of Earth’s climate system by identifying changes in temperature, ocean circulation, and global carbon cycling associated with the rapid growth of Antarctic ice sheets approximately 14 million years ago.

By studying chemical changes in deep sea sediments, scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara discovered that high-latitude Southern Ocean cooling helped to trigg