Warmer Artic linked to weaker vegetation growth

To the vexation of school children and elation for their parents, residents living along the I-95 corridor of the northeastern United States know that El Niño in the Pacific will result in a dryer, warmer, and less snowy winter throughout the Appalachian, as certain as the adage ‘April showers bring May flowers.’ Such meteorological patterns where interannual variability in ocean temperatures affects climate have been long established in the field.

Stalagmites from Iranian Cave Foretell Grim Future for Middle East Climate

New study showed relief from current dry spell unlikely within next 10,000 years

NASA Found Heavy Rainfall in Hurricane Eugene

When Hurricane Eugene was nearing its peak, NASA analyzed the storm's heavy rainfall over the open waters of the Eastern Pacific Ocean. That rainfall has lessened as Eugene has weakened to a tropical storm on July 11.

Hurricane Eugene formed on July 7, 2017, in the eastern Pacific Ocean south of the Baja Peninsula. On July 8 at 10:36 p.m. EDT (July 9 at 0236 UTC) the Global Precipitation Measurement mission or GPM core satellite passed over the storm and measured rainfall intensity. 

Warm winter events in the arctic are becoming more frequent, lasting longer

Arctic winter warming events – winter days when temperatures peak above minus 10 degrees Celsius – are a normal part of the Arctic climate over the ice-covered Arctic Ocean, but new research finds they are becoming more frequent and lasting longer than they did three decades ago.

A new study analyzing winter air temperatures over the Arctic Ocean from 1893 to 2017 shows that since 1980, an additional six Arctic winter warming events are occurring each winter at the North Pole and these events are lasting about 12 hours longer, on average. In December 2015, scientists recorded a temperature of 2.2 degrees Celsius (36 degrees Fahrenheit) in the Central Arctic, the warmest temperature ever recorded in this region from December through March.

Prelude to global extinction: Stanford biologists say disappearance of species tells only part of the story of human impact on Earth's animals

No bells tolled when the last Catarina pupfish on Earth died. Newspapers didn’t carry the story when the Christmas Island pipistrelle vanished forever.

Type 1 diabetes risk linked to intestinal viruses

Doctors can’t predict who will develop Type 1 diabetes, a chronic autoimmune disease in which one’s own immune system destroys the cells needed to control blood-sugar levels, requiring daily insulin injections and continual monitoring.

Precipitation Extremes in the Dry Regions of China Found Closely Related to the Sea Surface Temperature

Precipitation extremes are of general interest due to their profound impacts on the society, economy, human safety, and the natural environment. Precipitation extremes exhibit high spatiotemporal variation in terms of both their frequency and intensity relative to the mean precipitation, so it is always difficult to detect extreme events and their underlying related mechanisms.

Researchers Identify Visual System Changes that May Signal Parkinson's Disease

Changes in the visual systems of newly diagnosed Parkinson’s disease patients may provide important biomarkers for the early detection and monitoring of the disease, according to a new study published online in the journal Radiology.

Microbe study highlights Greenland ice sheet toxicity

The Greenland ice sheet is often seen as a pristine environment, but new research has revealed that may not be the case.

A Danish-led study, published today in the journal Environmental Research Letters, examined how microbes from the ice sheet have the potential to resist and degrade globally-emitted contaminants such as mercury, lead, PAH and PCB.

Research looks into whether sea spray is losing its sparkle

Pioneering new research has given a fresh insight into the crucial role that sea spray plays in climate change.

Sea spray, which is produced in abundance across all the world’s oceans, is one of the greatest sources of atmospheric aerosols - tiny particles that not only scatter and absorb sunlight but also influence climate indirectly through their role in cloud formation.

Understanding how these particles take up water from the atmosphere, a process known as hygroscopicity, is important because it determines how much sunlight they reflect and how well they can form clouds.