* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: Climate change

Blobrana · L

The Earth's temperature may stay roughly the same for a decade, as natural climate cycles enter a cooling phase, scientists have predicted.
A new computer model developed by German researchers, reported in the journal Nature, suggests the cooling will counter greenhouse warming.
However, temperatures will again be rising quickly by about 2020.
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Blobrana · L

Research has thrown further doubt on the notion that cosmic rays are a major influence on the Earth's climate.
The idea that modern global warming is due to changes in cloudiness caused by solar influences on cosmic rays is popular with "climate sceptics".
But scientists found changes in cosmic ray flux do not affect cloud formation - the second such report in a month.

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Blobrana · L

BBC Climate Change website

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Blobrana · L

Each year, long-distance winds drop up to 900 million tons of dust from deserts and other parts of the land into the oceans. Scientists suspect this phenomenon connects to global climatebut exactly how, remains a question. Now a big piece of the puzzle has fallen into place, with a study showing that the amount of dust entering the equatorial Pacific peaks sharply during repeated ice ages, then declines when climate warms. The researchers, most of them based at Columbia Universitys Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, say it cements the theory that atmospheric moisture, and thus dust, move in close step with temperature on a global scale; the finding may in turn help inform current ideas to seed oceans with iron-rich dust in order to mitigate global warming. The study appears in the Feb. 28 edition of Science Express, the advance online edition of the leading journal Science.

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Blobrana · L

The level of the Mediterranean is rising rapidly and could increase by another half metre in the next 50 years unless climate change is reversed, producing "catastrophic consequences", a Spanish study said Friday.
The Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported last year that sea levels rose by between 10-20 centimetres (four to eight inches) from 1900 to 2006. It forecast a rise of at least 18 centimetres (17.2 inches) by 2100, mainly as a result of thermal expansion, for water expands when it warms.

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Blobrana · L

Climate change is having a major impact on Britain's coast, the seas around the coast, and the life in those seas, a government-sponsored report concludes.
The Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership (MCCIP) says seas are becoming more violent, causing coastal erosion and a higher risk of flooding.
Higher CO2 levels in the atmosphere are making oceans warmer and more acidic, affecting plankton, fish and birds.

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Blobrana · L

If you're planning to ice skate on a local lake or river this winter, you may need to think twice, according to scientists John Magnuson, Olaf Jensen and Barbara Benson of the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Their research is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).
From sources as diverse as newspaper archives, transportation ledgers and religious observances, the researchers have amassed 150 years of lake and river ice records spanning the Northern Hemisphere. All show a steady trend of fewer days of ice cover.
If the pattern continues, only in Currier and Ives prints will ice skaters twirl across frozen rivers.

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Blobrana · L

Climate change and life in the Southern Ocean - Research vessel Polarstern sets out for Antarctic research season
A ten-week expedition to the Lazarev Sea and the eastern part of the Weddell Sea opens this years Antarctic research season of the German research vessel Polarstern. On the evening of November 28, just some two hours after an official ceremony at the Berlin Museum of Natural History honouring Polarsterns 25th anniversary of service, the research vessel will begin its 24th scientific voyage to the Southern Ocean from Cape Town. The 53 scientists from eight nations aboard Polarstern will focus much of their work on climate-related research as part of the International Polar Year. In addition, Polarstern will also supply the German Neumayer Station during the first leg of the trip, and accompany the freighter Naja Arctica which will deliver construction materials for the new research station Neumayer III to the Antarctic. On February 4, 2008, Polarstern is expected to return to Cape Town.

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Blobrana · L

Climate change may bring "abrupt and irreversible" impacts, the UN's climate advisory panel is set to announce.
Delegates to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) agreed a summary of its landmark report during overnight negotiations here.
Discussions were said to have been robust, with the US and other delegations keen to moderate language.
The summary will be officially launched by UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon on Saturday.

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