The National Center for Atmospheric Research has sent researchers, instruments, and a C-130 research aircraft to the $25-million Indian Ocean Experiment to study aerosols and climate change.
A new Web site from the National Center for Atmospheric Research provides data on the cost of damages from hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes in the United States and its territories. The Extreme Weather Sourcebook reports decades of information in constant 1997 dollars, simplifying comparisons among impacts and among states.
Through early February, a team of scientists is sending probes into the jet stream over the Pacific Ocean to learn more about clear air turbulence. Research aircraft are dropping instruments over portions of the ocean to improve forecasts of weather systems and provide insight into the sudden, invisible gusts that pose a hazard to aircraft.
El Nino may have been less of a factor in Northern Hemisphere climate around 4000 B.C. than it is now, and global warming may be working to accentuate El Nino's current and future impacts. National Center for Atmospheric Research scientists are uncovering implications for world climate.
The earth's mean surface temperature is expected to rise nearly .2 Kelvin (one-third degree Fahrenheit) per decade over the next four decades, according to a new modeling study using the climate system model developed at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
From 50% to 60% of sulfate-aerosol pollution over the Pacific Northwest is coming from industrialized Asia, according to a model developed by a team of researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. In contrast, sulfates in Europe are coming primarily from European sources.
In one of the first studies to trace lightning's chemical impact across thousands of miles, a team at the National Center for Atmospheric Research has connected elevated ozone levels in the eastern Indian Ocean with lightning produced in Africa. The results will be presented December 6 at the American Geophysical Union's fall conference.
In a major agenda-setting conference that will guide much of the world's climate research for the next decade, representatives from over 60 countries will gather in Paris December 2-4 to examine questions relating to natural climate variability, the human role in global climate change, and the predictability of global and regional climate.
A new analysis of 115 years of global temperature data, compared to output from two computer models, strengthens the argument that human- caused greenhouse-gas emissions are warming the earth's atmosphere. The new results by Tom Wigley (National Center for Atmospheric Research) and colleagues appear in the November 27 issue of Science.
Thanks to a scientist from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), students from around the world can join in the excitement of a six-week field study at the South Pole's new Clean Air Facility.
A weather research group at the National Center for Atmospheric Research has just upped its computing power ten times at no direct cost to NCAR through an innovative loan arrangement with Compaq Computer Corporation and iMSC Corporation, a computer consulting firm. The equipment, worth $8.7 million, arrived at NCAR on October 28.
Research aircraft from the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the U.S. Air Force will bring new scientific instruments and high-definition TV cameras to the west Pacific in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to observe the Leonids meteor shower in stereo at its rare peak on November 17.
The space shuttle Discovery, scheduled for takeoff Thursday, October 29, is carrying a white light coronograph, an instrument for studying the sun's corona, developed at the High Altitude Observatory of the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
Beginning September 1, scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder will fly a highly instrumented C-130 research aircraft around dangerous wildfires that may ignite this season within the U.S. Their goal is to understand wildfire behavior well enough to predict the course of a particular fire.
The National Center for Atmospheric Research will host the world's first summit devoted to the causes and consequences of El Nino's less-studied counterpart, La Nina. Sponsored by NCAR and the United Nations University, the July 15-17 summit in Boulder will include a number of the nation's top researchers on La Nina and El Nino.
Four African meteorologists spent the past nine months at UCAR building a multimedia CD-ROM demonstrating best use of satellite data for improving weather forecasts in the tropics. Better forecasts, including seasonal rainfall predictions, are critical to Africa, where millions depend on the current year's crops.
Over the past year, forecasters in Alabama and Florida--where tornadoes have killed more than 75 people--honed their storm-prediction skills with two training modules released by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research on CD-ROM. The modules help users to peg storm types in advance based on a blend of weather ingredients.
The 1997 storm season has gotten off to an early start, with deadly tornadoes already striking Florida, Minnesota, and the South. Here are some tips to help you cover severe local storms this spring, including a roundup of storm types described in forecast training tools from the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.
First Test Flights Are a Hit: A clear-air turbulence sensor tested by NASA aboard an Electra aircraft owned by the National Science Foundation and operated by the National Center for Atmospheric Research successfully detected turbulence in Colorado skies.
Researchers from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) are charting the high winds at Juneau Airport in Alaska this spring in a project funded by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Their goal is to develop a turbulence detection and warning system customized to the airport's challenging terrain.
Scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research and other colleagues will aim new detectors at the sun's corona during the February 26 solar eclipse, searching for structures they've never observed before. The total eclipse over the Caribbean promises to be one of the most heavily studied in recent history.
The sun's 11-year solar cycle may be the driving force behind periodic changes in temperatures and pressure heights of earth's lower stratosphere from pole to pole, according to new research by Harry van Loon of the National Center for Atmospheric Research and Karin Labitzke of the Free University of Berlin.
Scientist Peter Fox and colleagues at the National Center for Atmospheric Research are using observations, theoretical physics, and computer modeling to get the best representation so far of the total radiative output of the sun. The research will lead to a better understanding of the sun's influence on earth's climate.
Although El Nino events or volcanic eruptions can boost or depress global temperatures within months, their strongest impacts on the earth's biosphere may not occur until years later, according to a study published in the October 31 issue of Science and conducted at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
National Center for Atmospheric Research scientists are turning commercial aircraft into in-flight "sensing platforms" to measure and report turbulence. United Airlines will deploy the software on more than 200 aircraft over the next six months. The data will go into turbulence forecasts to help pilots steer clear of bumpy air.
El Nino is a warming of surface waters of the tropical Pacific Ocean with far- reaching climatic consequences. This Tip Sheet describes an upcoming scientific meeting on El Nino, the relation between El Nino and global warming, and a new El Nino book, and lists El Nino experts and Web sites.
A new study indicates that recent U.S. hurricane damages do not reflect any unusual increase in hurricane strength or frequency, but rather a continued flocking of Americans to vulnerable coastal locations. The shift could spell trouble if more hurricanes make landfall in coming years, as they did before 1970.
Low-flying planes and an array of new surface gauges in the Walnut River watershed east of Wichita, Kansas, are gathering data from the lowest few thousand feet of the atmosphere to improve weather forecasting. Scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the University of Colorado coordinate the experiment.
The Climate System Model created by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado, has been selected as one of six finalists in the Environment, Energy, and Agriculture category for the 1997 Computerworld Smithsonian Awards. The CSM also becomes part of the Smithsonian's Permanent Research Collection.
The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) has contracted to purchase an HP Exemplar X-Class system from Hewlett-Packard. The National Center for Atmospheric Research and HP expect to develop the use of distributed shared- memory systems, such as the Exemplar, for numerical computer models employed in climate and weather prediction.
Since December, the nation has been inundated by a series of floods unusual in their scope and severity, with more on the way. Here is a list of experts, related Web sites, and background information on U.S. flood risk from a new report by NCAR political scientist Roger Pielke, Jr.
The FAA and NCAR explore a new detection and warning system for Juneau, Alaska, and tackle remote sensing and forecasting problems. Meanwhile the U.S. Navy seeks NCAR's help with choppy winds on high- speed vessels
An article in Nature (13 March) by two NCAR scientists provides new findings on a controversy involving the reliability of global temperature trends available via satellite, which conflict with surface readings. In the same issue is an overview of how computer models of global climate are used and misused.
Powerful winter storms that strike the U.S. West Coast often occur in series, like the ones that recently raked Washington, Oregon, and California. These storms have their counterparts in the North Atlantic, and scientists are hot on their trail. A major field program involving NCAR, UCAR and researchers from 11 countries is straddling the Atlantic from Newfoundland to Ireland to study fierce oceanic winter storms.
Beginning early January, a new FAA/NCAR system being demonstrated at LaGuardia and O'Hare airports will provide snowfall "nowcasts" up to 30 minutes in advance for participating airlines to help reduce takeoff delays, increase safety, and save money on deicing procedures. United, USAir, and Delta are testing the new system.