Arctic Warming a Small Factor in Middle-Latitude Trends

Scientists long have known that sea ice is shrinking in a fast-warming Arctic. But what remains somewhat mysterious is what this means for other climatic factors. Now a new analysis by NOAA scientists is offering some greater clarity and challenging past assumptions. The prevailing hypothesis is the loss of Arctic sea ice is leading to…

Designing Better Wind Power Based on Greater Knowledge of Wind-Speed Variations

Wind power is a fast-growing energy source. To get the most breeze for our buck from wind farms, we need to know where and how fast the winds blow each season, and how El Niño alters those winds. To help answer these questions, researcher Benjamin Hamlington of Old Dominion University and his colleagues studied 35…

Featured Researcher: Dave Hill, “Mr. Estuary”

Growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, Dave Hill was fascinated with flight. He parlayed this fascination into an undergraduate degree in aeronautical engineering. But in 1993, shortly after graduating, Hill had to face the facts. The aerospace industry was at a low point. So he switched gears. “I thought long and hard about what…

Toward a Regional Earth System Model

Numerical models of the climate system continue to evolve and improve, incorporating more and more elements that influence climate. Two important directions of improvement are finer spatial resolution (being able to drill down to smaller and smaller areas), and representations of that most unpredictable aspect of climate: human behavior. These models are called “earth system…

Connecting Scientists, Stakeholders and Policymakers

Adapting to climate change is an involved process that requires hand-in-hand collaboration among climate researchers, policymakers and stakeholders (citizens, businesses, organizations and tribes, to name a few). How’s this going in practice? Not so well, according to a study published in the American Meteorological Society. A team of researchers whose goal is helping stakeholders prepare for…

Trout Need Cold, Wide, Connected Waters

As the world warms, many species are migrating, seeking habitat within a temperature range they can tolerate. This movement has involved organisms as different as birds and trees. But not all species are so mobile. This is especially true for freshwater fish, including several species of landlocked trout in the Western United States. The problem:…