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Walney offshore wind farm is world's biggest (for now)

(PhysOrg.com) -- The Walney wind farm on the Irish Sea--characterized by high tides, waves and windy weather--officially opened this week. The farm is treated in the press as a very big deal as the Walney ...

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created 1 hour ago | popularity 3 / 5 (3) | comments 2 | with audio podcast weblog

Streams need trees to withstand climate change

(PhysOrg.com) -- More than twenty years of biological monitoring have confirmed the importance of vegetation for protecting Australia's freshwater streams and rivers against the ravages of drought and climate ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Feb 10, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Probing a link from Sahara dust to climate change

Qilong Min, Ph.D., Senior Research Associate and Professor with the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center (ASRC) at the University at Albany is developing innovative ways to measure how dust in the Sahara Desert ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Feb 10, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Humans may have helped the decline of African rainforests 3000 years ago

(PhysOrg.com) -- Large areas of rainforests in Central Africa mysteriously disappeared over three thousand years ago, to be replaced by savannas. The prevailing theory has been that the cause was a change ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Feb 10, 2012 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (13) | comments 14 | with audio podcast report

New integrated building model may improve fish farming operations

Today's "locavore" movement with its emphasis on eating more locally-produced food is a natural fit for fruits and vegetables in nearly every region, but few entrepreneurs have dared to apply the concept to ...

Technology / Engineering

created Feb 09, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Ultraviolet protection molecule in plants yields its secrets

Lying around in the sun all day is hazardous not just for humans but also for plants, which have no means of escape. Ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun can damage proteins and DNA inside cells, leading ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Feb 09, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Ocean microbe communities changing, but long-term environmental impact is unclear

As oceans warm due to climate change, water layers will mix less and affect the microbes and plankton that pump carbon out of the atmosphere – but researchers say it's still unclear whether these processes ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Feb 09, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

2C warming goal now 'optimistic' - French scientists

French scientists unveiling new estimates for global warming said on Thursday the 2 C (3.6 F) goal enshrined by the United Nations was "the most optimistic" scenario left for greenhouse-gas emissions.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Feb 09, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (4) | comments 0

Ocean warming causes elephant seals to dive deeper

Global warming is having an effect on the dive behaviour and search for food of southern elephant seals. Researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association cooperating ...

Biology / Ecology

created Feb 09, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Infrared sounder on NASA's suomi NPP starts its mission

(PhysOrg.com) -- A powerful new infrared instrument, flying on NASA's newest polar-orbiting satellite, designed to give scientists more refined information about Earth's atmosphere and improve weather forecasts ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Feb 09, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Climate change to increase tropical disease range

According to climate modelling for 2050, northern sections of WA could present ideal conditions for dengue fever.

Medicine & Health / Diseases

created Feb 09, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

El Nino, La Nina to become more dominant in New Zealand with climate change

(PhysOrg.com) -- El Niño and La Niña weather patterns will become even more dominant in New Zealand with climate change, according to research from The University of Auckland published in Nature Climate Change.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Feb 08, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Washington Post offering buyout to news staff

The Washington Post announced a voluntary buyout for some newsroom staff on Wednesday, citing the difficult economic climate for the newspaper industry.

Technology / Business

created Feb 08, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Study shows global glaciers, ice caps, shedding billions of tons of mass annually

Earth's glaciers and ice caps outside of the regions of Greenland and Antarctica are shedding roughly 150 billion tons of ice annually, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado Boulder.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Feb 08, 2012 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (8) | comments 12 | with audio podcast

New insights: How soil production processes respond to erosion

In many ways, soil is fundamental to life. Flora and fauna depend on its presence for their survival as much as they depend on water and air. In order to sustain its soil content, an ecosystem needs to maintain ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Feb 08, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Climate

Climate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and numerous other meteorological elements in a given region over long periods of time. Climate can be contrasted to weather, which is the present condition of these same elements over periods up to two weeks.

The climate of a location is affected by its latitude, terrain, altitude, ice or snow cover, as well as nearby water bodies and their currents. Climates can be classified according to the average and typical ranges of different variables, most commonly temperature and rainfall. The most commonly used classification scheme is the one originally developed by Wladimir Köppen. The Thornthwaite system, in use since 1948, incorporates evapotranspiration in addition to temperature and precipitation information and is used in studying animal species diversity and potential impacts of climate changes. The Bergeron and Spatial Synoptic Classification systems focus on the origin of air masses defining the climate for certain areas.

Paleoclimatology is the study and description of ancient climates. Since direct observations of climate are not available before the 19th century, paleoclimates are inferred from proxy variables that include non-biotic evidence such as sediments found in lake beds and ice cores, and biotic evidence such as tree rings and coral. Climate models are mathematical models of past, present and future climates.

For more information about Climate, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.