ESSL in the News: Past 100 Links 
For UCAR-wide Research News, see UCAR Communication's News Center
Congratulations to Joanie Kleypas, one of the new Leopold Leadership Fellows. More...
Carbon Dioxide Emissions (SOS 14 April 2008 - Keith Lindsey): One in a new generation of computer climate models that include the effects of Earth's carbon cycle indicates there are limits to the planet's ability to absorb increased emissions of carbon dioxide. More...
NASA Wants to Help Eliminate Smog (Bill Smith from KTLA): see the video in the 'news video' section. More...
NASA Launches Airborne Study of Arctic Atmosphere, Air Pollution (ARCTAS): The recent decline of Arctic sea ice is one indication that this region is undergoing significant environmental changes related to climate warming. More...
DC-8 Airborne Laboratory pictures from ARCTAS More...
Climate Change Threatens Native Livelihoods: KUNC 91.5 Public News Room by Kirk Siegler interview with Beth Holland (25 March 2008) More...
Dr. David Parsons: the new Chief of the World Weather Research Programme - THORPEX More...
Dr. Richard 'Rit' Carbone: the newest member of the AMS Executive Committee. More...
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: An in depth Q&A with Nobel Laureates SUSAN SOLOMON, BETH HOLLAND, BETTE OTTO-BLIESNER, LINDA MEARNS, PATY ROMERO-LANKAO and KATHLEEN MILLER. More...
Natural Ocean Thermostat Helps Protect Pacific Ocean Coral Reefs: Natural processes may prevent oceans from warming beyond a certain threshold, thereby helping to protect some of the world's largest coral reefs from the impacts of climate change, new research finds. More...
Study shows bacteria are common in snow. Charles Knight, a cloud physics expert at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., wasn't surprised by the finding, however. ... More...
Field Guide to: Climate's Impact on Coral & Reef Systems (NCAR Field Guides): Joanie Kleypas
Coral Reefs are home to a diverse variety of plant and animal species they are the rainforests of the sea. More...
Study looks at transportation's effects on global warming: "This is a comprehensive study," Elisabath Holland says, "that takes a careful look at how all the emissions from the transport sector are handled." More...
Connecting Earth's water cycle to climate change, Aiguo Dai More...
Mercury Emissions from U.S. Forest Fire
Christine Wiedinmyer, Hans Friedli & Jason Neff (CU). More...
Spanish perspectives: THORPEX: The main theme at this year's EMS meeting was high impact weather. This includes extreme weather and the predictability of these...A large number of presentations were devoted to the THORPEX-project, studying predictability. More...
Grand Valley water outlook, Kevin Trenberth, David Yates More...
Math on Fire: Janice Coen, a meteorologist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. and one of the model's developers, says that the model is helping to show why that fire became so intense so suddenly. More...
Wildfire smoke a culprit in mercury's toxic spread
Forest fires stir up as much mercury as power plants, scattering the toxic metal after it was originally deposited by industrial smokestacks, according to a study released Wednesday. Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder found that small concentrations of mercury that had landed in soil and been absorbed by vegetation were redistributed by wildfire smoke plumes.
This may be an important pathway for the metal to end up in waterways, the researchers said. "This is our first step to understand whether these emissions are big or small. Our first estimates are they are pretty big," said Christine Wiedinmyer, an NCAR scientist who authored the study with colleague Hans Friedli More...
IPCC Shares Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore
Congratulations to the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Al Gore on their Nobel Peace Prize award. Since 1990, the IPCC has issued four reports highlighting the growing understanding of the climate change issue. Scientists both at NCAR and within our wider research community contributed significantly to these reports.
Published this year, the IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report leverages computer modeling that depicts global climate with unprecedented detail. Through support of the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation's supercomputing centers, and partnership with Japan's Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry, the NCAR-based Parallel Climate Model and Community Climate System Model provided a wealth of scientific data to the IPCC report.
Related: Article by the Associated Press, Thousands of Scientists Share Nobel.
More...
Britton Stephens has been popping up in the press. Three of the most recent articles include:
Study: All forests not created equal
United Press International (upi) (25 June 2007) - Study is reported in Science Magazine
Jungles drink up greenhouse gases
denverpost.com (22 June 2007) by Katy Human
Mysteries of carbon uptake unravel: Less northern forest absorption, more in tropics
Daily Camera - Your Daily Camera Online - Science & Environment (22 June 2007) by Laura Snider
Additional news stories on and by people jointly working in TIIMES may be found on the TIIMES In the News page. More...
Terrestrial version of NCAR's best climate model coming to CU
Daily Camera - Your Daily Camera Online (3 May 2007) by Todd Neff with a quote by Samuel Levis (CGD)
The University of Colorado has landed a major National Science Foundation contract to lead a U.S. effort to model the diverse processes that shape the face of the planet. The effort, called the Community Surface Dynamic Modeling System, will involved hundreds of scientists from dozens of federal labs and universities around the country. CU will receive $4.2 million over five years to spearhead the effort... More...
100 Biggest Weather Moments
Weather Channel Series (April 2007)
The Weather Channel has produced a new series featuring the top 100 Biggest Weather Moments. Elisabeth Holland (ACD-TIIMES) appears in the following clips. More...
On thin ice - It's unequivocal, it's already here
Invited editorial for the San Diego Union-Tribune by Kevin Trenberth, senior scientist and head of CGD's Climate Analysis Section
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has spoken: “Warming of the climate system is unequivocal” and it is “very likely” due to human activities. . . . [T]he inertia of the climate system and the long life of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere mean that we are already committed to a significant level of climate change. . . . Global warming is apt to be disruptive in many ways. Hence, it is also vital to plan to cope with the changes, such as enhanced droughts, heat waves and wild fires, stronger downpours and risk of flooding. Managing water resources will be a major challenge in the future. More...
Richard H. Johnson from Colorado State University gave a rousing joint TIIMES & CGD seminar titled "Fifty Years of Progress in Tropical Meteorology: A Personal View". Click on the link to view the presentation. More...
NCAR Scientists Discuss New IPCC Report on Climate Change BOULDERThe Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its new assessment report in Paris on February 2, 2007. Several scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) were major contributors to the report by serving as coordinating lead authors or lead authors or by reviewing drafts of the document. NCAR scientists making major contributions to the Working Group I report included: Kevin Trenberth, senior scientist and head of CGD's Climate Analysis Section; Guy Brasseur, NCAR Associate Director in charge of the Earth and Sun Systems Laboratory; Gerald Meehl, senior scientist in CGD; Bette Otto-Bliesner, scientist III in CGD; Elisabeth Holland, senior scientist in ACD; William Collins, scientist III in CGD and former chair of Community Climate System Model; Reto Knutti, visiting scientist in CGD; Linda Mearns, senior scientist and director of the Institute for the Study of Society and Environment; Jerry Mahlman, Senior Research Associate in NCAR's Institute for the Study of Society and Environment. In addition, click here for background information and graphics illustrating climate change. More...
Humans, warming tied - Chilling appraisal from Boulder scientists in study. . . On Feb. 2 in Paris, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will summarize the key findings from its latest assessment of global climate change. . . . All 23 models agree that the planet will continue to warm as levels of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping "greenhouse" gases rise in the coming decades, said William Collins of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder. "This report will provide the most compelling evidence to date that climate is changing and that mankind is responsible for that change," said Collins, a lead author of the report's climate projections chapter. More...
ABC News Obtains Draft of Landmark U.N. Climate Study - Report Is Expected to Confirm Increasing Evidence of Role People Play in Global Warming . . . "Certainly, it will say that global warming is happening, and secondly, that it is due to humans," said Kevin Trenberth, a climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and one of the lead authors of the report. "The whole weight of the evidence has simply increased to show that stuff is already happening." More...
'Smoking gun' report to say global warming here
Human-caused global warming is here — visible in the air, water and melting ice — and is destined to get much worse in the future, an authoritative global scientific report will warn next week. "The smoking gun is definitely lying on the table as we speak," said top U.S. climate scientist Jerry Mahlman, who reviewed all 1,600 pages of the first segment of a giant four-part report. "The evidence ... is compelling." . . . Look for an "iconic statement" — a simple but strong and unequivocal summary — on how global warming is now occurring, said one of the authors, Kevin Trenberth, director of climate analysis at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, also in Boulder. More...
Peter Thornton:
Connecting Ecosystems to the atmosphere
Check out the new People Spotlight article about Dr. Thornton and his research. More...
MILAGRO Video Trailer
A new video trailer about the MILAGRO campaign! NCAR MIRAGE/MILAGRO site. More...
Hurricane Forecasting -
David Parsons
If you missed Dave on the news Tuesday, watch the video clip & read the story on Channel 4 CBS online. More...
Geoengineering, the manipulation of the global environment to counter climatic change, is a concept which the world will doubtless be hearing more about, as a once-obscure strand of science takes centre stage in the debate about the future of the planet. Low-level flat clouds over the oceans already deflect sunlight back into space. John Latham is one of a group of scientists who propose spraying tiny droplets of sea water at cloud level to make them better mirrors for the Sun’s rays. More...
A new NSF science and technology center based at Colorado State University is devoted to improving the way clouds are portrayed in global models, an issue that's bedeviled climate scientists for decades. The Center for Multiscale Modeling of Atmospheric Processes (CMMAP) was launched in July. Chin-Hoh Moeng, will serve as deputy director of CMMAP, and many ESSL scientists are involved in the research effort. More...
Expert: Sulphur to stall global warming To stall global warming for 20 years, one climate scientist proposed lobbing sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere, which would work in concert with cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. Tom Wigley of the National Center for Atmospheric Research used computer models to determine that injecting sulphate particles at intervals from one to four years would have about the same cooling power as the 1991 eruption on Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines. More...
The high-resolution weather research and forecasting model, or WRF, is the first model to serve as both the backbone of the nation's public weather forecasts and as a tool for cutting-edge weather research. Because this model fulfills both functions, it is easier for research findings to be translated into improved operational models leading to better forecasts. More...
Solar Brightness Changes Not Strong Enough to Explain Global Warming. Changes in the Sun's brightness over the past millennium have had only a small effect on Earth's climate, according to a review of existing results and new calculations performed by researchers in the United States (NCAR), Switzerland, and Germany. The review, led by Peter Foukal (Heliophysics, Inc.), appears in the September 14 issue of Nature. Among the coauthors is Tom Wigley of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. More...
First Global Connection Between Earth And Space Weather Found. Weather on Earth has a surprising connection to space weather occurring high in the electrically-charged upper atmosphere, known as the ionosphere. The Global Scale Wave Model was used, along with NASA satellites, in this study. More...
Humans causing stronger hurricanes. Potential causes of increased hurricane intensity are narrowed down to humanity's greenhouse gas emissions, according to new analysis conducted by Tom Wigley, Kevin Trenberth, and other researchers. According to the study, “there is an 84% chance that external forcing [human activities] explain at least 67% of the observed SST increases" in the Pacific and Atlantic zones where hurricanes form. More...
With the completion of a new Atmospheric Chemistry Division laboratory, studying the atmosphere in Boulder just got hotter. This state-of-the-art facility houses scientific groups conducting experimental, laboratory and computational research of the Earth's atmosphere. More...
Katrina and the Waves: The Row over Hurricanes. The debate is part of a broader discussion about the extent and implications of climate change and whether storms are getting stronger as a result of man-made global warming. Kevin Trenberth has argued in a paper that "trends in human-influenced environment changes are now evident in hurricane regions". Greg Holland, and colleague Peter Webster, find that category 4 and 5 hurricanes have nearly doubled over the past 35 years. More...
The next 11-year sunspot cycle will be 30 - 50% stronger than the last cycle," according to a model developed by Mausumi Dikpati. Such storms can disrupt the Earth's upper atmosphere, causing numerous communications and navigation problems. More...
Greg Holland's unmanned research aircraft, the Aerosonde, will be hunting hurricanes in September. More...
Chin-Hoh Moeng is a Co-Principle Investigator in the new NSF Science and Technology Center for Multi-Scale Modeling of Atmospheric Processes which will be based at Colorado State University. The new Science and Technology Center will advance the complicated science of climate forecasting. More...
John Michalakes is working with Microsoft's Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003, the version of Windows aimed at the high performance computing (HPC) segment of the market, to allow the WRF model to run in the Windows environment. More...
Burning wetlands unleash sequestered mercury in wake of climate change. Hans Friedli co-authored a paper concerning the release of industrial-age mercury from wetlands as the earth warms. More...
...find contact info & webpages (where available) for researchers cited...