Oceanic Storms Create Oases in the Watery Desert

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Data from satellite altimeters which measure sea surface heights show depressions (blue) and bumps (red) that mark cold- and warm-water eddies in the ocean on June 17 2005. Researchers tracked the southwestward motion of eddy A4 by ship from June 24 ...
Data from satellite altimeters, which measure sea surface heights, show depressions (blue) and bumps (red) that mark cold- and warm-water eddies in the ocean on June 17, 2005. Researchers tracked the southwestward motion of eddy A4 by ship from June 24 to Sept. 12. (Courtesy of Dennis McGillicuddy, WHOI, and the Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research)

For two decades, scientists have puzzled over why vast blooms of microscopic plant life grow in the middle of otherwise barren mid-ocean regions. Now a research team led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has shown that episodic, swirling current systems known as eddies act to pump nutrients up from the deep ocean to fuel such blooms.


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NOAA chief urges creating National Climate Service

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(AP) -- With concerns about global warming rising along with the planet's temperature, the head of the federal agency in change of weather research and forecasting is proposing creation of a new National Climate Service.

CU-Boulder team to build $34 million instrument package for environmental satellite

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A $34 million solar instrument package to be built by the University of Colorado at Boulder, considered a crucial tool to help monitor global climate change, has been restored to a U.S. government satellite ...

New Analysis Shows Important Slowdown in Lake Tahoe Clarity Loss

4 hours ago | User rating: not rated yet
For the first time since researchers began continuously measuring Lake Tahoe's famed water clarity 40 years ago, UC Davis scientists reported today that the historical rate of decline in the lake's clarity has slowed considerably ...

NASA Phoenix Mission Ready For Mars Landing

5 hours ago | User rating: not rated yet
NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander is preparing to end its long journey and begin a three-month mission to taste and sniff fistfuls of Martian soil and buried ice. The lander is scheduled to touch down on the Red ...

Satellite communications by laser

7 hours ago | User rating: not rated yet
Satellites currently use radio waves to exchange data. Now the data rate has been increased a hundredfold by using lasers instead of radio signals. Two test satellites each carried a diode laser pump module developed with ...
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