May 20, 2008, 9:33 PM CT

Seeing clearly despite the clouds

Satellites taking atmospheric measurements might now be able to see blue skies as clearly as optimists do. Scientists have found a way to reduce cloud-induced glare when satellites measure blue skies on cloudy days, by as much as ten-fold in some cases. The result might lead to more accurate estimates of the amount of sunlight penetrating the atmosphere. Because clouds represent one of the largest areas of uncertainty, eventually this could lead to improved climate models.

Sunlight bouncing off clouds blinds satellites trying to determine how much the blue sky between is actually reflecting. Scientists at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have observed that using an indirect measurement of that reflected light can bring the measurements of cloud-bordered blue skies to within about 10 percent of what other instruments indicate, the scientists report March 28 in Geophysical Research Letters.

"When scientists try to apply satellite technology originally developed for clear skies to partly cloudy conditions, they find additional light reflected from clouds," says PNNL atmospheric scientist Evgueni Kassianov. "We can't use the same technology we use for clear skies for complex cloudy skies".

Blue skies might seem empty, but they are full of naked-to-the-eye particles called aerosols, which are made up of water and bits of matter. These aerosols reflect sunlight. The more aerosols, the more sunlight is reflected back to the satellite. But on cloudy days, clouds bounce sunlight all around and make nearby aerosols seem brighter than they really are. Prior research has shown that clouds can brighten aerosols even up to three kilometers (almost two miles) away......... Posted by: Tyler      Read more         Source

May 19, 2008, 7:51 PM CT

Greener offices make happier employees

According to the 2000 census, Americans office workers spend an average of 52 hours a week at their desks or work stations. Many recent studies on job satisfaction have shown that workers who spend longer hours in office environments, often under artificial light in windowless offices, report reduced job satisfaction and increased stress levels.

How can employers make office environments more conducive to productivity and employee happiness" Try adding some green to your office. Not greenbacksgreen plants! A research study published in the February 2008 issue of HortScience offers employers and corporations some valuable advice for upping levels of employee satisfaction by introducing simple and inexpensive environmental changes.

Dr.Tina Marie (Waliczek) Cade, Associate Professor of Horticulture in the Department of Agriculture at Texas State University, explained that the project was designed to investigate whether employees who worked in offices with windows and views of green spaces and workers who had green plants in their offices perceived greater job satisfaction than employees who did not have access to these environmental components.

Researchers posted a job satisfaction survey on the Internet and administered the survey to office workers in Texas and the Midwest. The survey included questions about job satisfaction, physical work environments, the presence or absence of live interior plants and windows, environmental preferences of the office workers, and demographic information......... Posted by: Tyler      Read more         Source

May 15, 2008, 8:18 PM CT

Atmosphere threatened by pollutants entering ocean

A large quantity of nitrogen compounds emitted into the atmosphere by humans through the burning of fossil fuels and the use of nitrogen fertilizers enters the oceans and may lead to the removal of some carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, concluded a team of international researchers led by Texas A&M University Distinguished Professor of Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences Robert Duce.

The team of 30 experts from institutions around the world presented its conclusions in the current issue of the journal Science.

Human-caused atmospheric nitrogen compounds are carried by wind and deposited into the ocean, where they act as a fertilizer and lead to increased production of marine plant life. The increase in plant life causes more carbon dioxide to be drawn from the atmosphere into the ocean. This process results in the removal of about 10 percent of the human-caused carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, thus potentially reducing the climate warming potential, as per the teams paper.

However, some of the nitrogen deposited in the ocean is re-processed to form another nitrogen compound called nitrous oxide, which is then released back into the atmosphere from the ocean. Nitrous oxide is a powerful greenhouse gas itself about 300 times more powerful per molecule than carbon dioxide thus cancelling out about two-thirds of the apparent gain from the carbon dioxide removal, Duce explained. But of course, the whole system is so complex that were still rather unsure about what some of the other impacts might be within the ocean, he said......... Posted by: Tyler      Read more         Source

May 15, 2008, 8:09 PM CT

El Nio may have been factor in Magellan's Pacific voyage

A new paper by North Carolina State University archaeologist Dr. Scott Fitzpatrick shows that Ferdinand Magellans historic circumnavigation of the globe was likely influenced in large part by unusual weather conditions including what we now know as El Nio which eased his passage across the Pacific Ocean, but ultimately led him over a thousand miles from his intended destination.

Magellan set out from Spain in 1519 with hopes of claiming the wealth of the Spice Islands, or Moluccas, for the Spanish. Two years later the explorer claimed the first European contact with a Pacific island culture when he landed on Guam 1,500 miles north of the Spice Islands. How did he make it that far" And how did he miss the Spice Islands by that much".

The paper, co-authored by Fitzpatrick and University of Calgary researcher Dr. Richard Callaghan, uses computer modeling and historical data to determine the role oceanographic conditions may have played in Magellans smooth voyage after rounding the notorious Cape Horn at the southernmost tip of South America and in his decision to sail far north of the Spice Islands which Magellan knew lay along the equator.

The paper, Magellans Crossing of the Pacific: Using Computer Simulations to Examine Oceanographic Effects on One of the Worlds Greatest Voyages, was highlighted in the Random Samples section of the May 16 issue of Science, and would be reported in the Journal of Pacific History in August......... Posted by: Tyler      Read more         Source

May 14, 2008, 9:04 PM CT

Scientists aim to unlock deep-sea 'secrets' of Earth's crust

Researchers from Durham University will use robots to explore the depths of the Atlantic Ocean to study the growth of underwater volcanoes that build the Earths crust.

The Durham experts will lead an international team of 12 researchers aboard Britains Royal Research Ship James Cook which will set sail from Ponta Delgada, San Miguel, in the Azores on Friday, May 23.

During the five-week expedition they will use explorer robots to map individual volcanoes on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge tectonic plate boundary which effectively runs down the centre of the Atlantic Ocean - almost two miles (3km) below the surface of the sea.

They will then use another robot, called ISIS, to collect rock samples from the volcanoes which will be dated using various techniques to shed more light on the timescales behind the growth of the Earths crust and the related tectonic plates.

As tectonic plates formations that make up the Earths shell - are pulled apart by forces in the Earth, rocks deep down in the mantle are pulled up to fill the gap left behind. As the rocks rise they start to melt and form thousands of volcanoes on the sea floor which eventually cluster into giant ridges.

The ridges along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge plate boundary are each about the size of the Malvern Hills and contain hundreds of individual volcanoes......... Posted by: Tyler      Read more         Source

May 14, 2008, 8:22 PM CT

Earth impacts to human-caused climate change

A new NASA-led study shows human-caused climate change has made an impact on a wide range of Earth's natural systems, including permafrost thawing, plants blooming earlier across Europe, and lakes declining in productivity in Africa.

Cynthia Rosenzweig of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Science in New York and researchers at 10 other institutions have linked physical and biological impacts since 1970 with rises in temperatures during that period. The study, would be published May 15 in the journal Nature, concludes human-caused warming is resulting in a broad range of impacts across the globe.

"This is the first study to link global temperature data sets, climate model results, and observed changes in a broad range of physical and biological systems to show the link between humans, climate, and impacts," said Rosenzweig, lead author of the study.

Rosenzweig and his colleagues also found the link between human-caused climate change and observed impacts on Earth holds true at the scale of individual continents, especially in North America, Europe, and Asia.

To arrive at the link, the authors built and analyzed a database of more than 29,000 data series pertaining to observed impacts on Earth's natural systems. The data were collected from about 80 studies, each with at least 20 years of records between 1970 and 2004......... Posted by: Tyler      Read more         Source

May 14, 2008, 7:37 PM CT

Accounting practices ultimately affect global economy

How much a particular hill of beans is worth may depend on whos counting the beans. When it comes to accounting standards in the business world, every bean counts, but the quality of financial reporting differs from country to country. In a recent study, a University of Missouri researcher observed that uniform and strict auditor enforcement may be more important than a countrys accounting standards, and the quality of reporting can affect the whole economy.

To improve the quality of accounting, which improves the flow of capital to the right places in the economy and facilitates economic growth, you must have an environment that includes scrutiny by corporate regulators and independent auditors, said Jere Francis, MU chair of accountancy in the Robert J. Trulaske, Sr. College of Business. The auditors job is to be the local policeman on the beat, making sure people arent crossing the line. We need those cops to help good people stay good.

As per Francis, there is a movement toward adopting International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The goal of implementing the IFRS is to establish a single set of globally accepted accounting standards. The concept is rapidly gaining support by key groups such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the World Bank. IFRS are now used for public reporting purposes in more than 100 countries. As per financial services firm Deloitte and Touche, by 2011, almost every country, including the United States, will be using IFRS......... Posted by: Tyler      Read more         Source

May 12, 2008, 8:20 PM CT

Hot climate could shut down plate tectonics

A new study of possible links between climate and geophysics on Earth and similar planets finds that prolonged heating of the atmosphere can shut down plate tectonics and cause a planet's crust to become locked in place.

"The heat mandatory goes far beyond anything we expect from human-induced climate change, but things like volcanic activity and changes in the sun's luminosity could lead to this level of heating," said lead author Adrian Lenardic, associate professor of Earth science at Rice University. "Our goal was to establish an upper limit of naturally generated climate variation beyond which the entire solid planet would respond".

Lenardic said the research team wanted to better understand the differences between the Earth and Venus and establish the potential range of conditions that could exist on Earth-like planets beyond the solar system. The team includes Lenardic and co-authors Mark Jellinek of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and Louis Moresi of Monash University in Clayton, Australia. The research is available online from the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

The findings may explain why Venus evolved differently from Earth. The two planets are close in size and geological makeup, but Venus' carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere is almost 100 times more dense than the Earth's and acts like a blanket. As a result, Venus' surface temperature is hotter than that of even Mercury, which is twice as close to the sun......... Posted by: Tyler      Read more         Source

May 12, 2008, 8:05 PM CT

Ancient Beachcombers May Have Travelled Slowly

New evidence, more questions. That's the thumbnail of the first new data reported in 10 years from Monte Verde, the earliest known human settlement in the Americas.

Evidence from the archaeological site in southern Chile confirms Monte Verde is the Americas earliest known settlement and is consistent with the idea that early human migration occurred along the Pacific Coast more than 14,000 years ago, but questions remain about just how rapidly that migration occurred.

"If all the early American groups were following a similar pattern of moving back and forth between inland and coastal areas, then the peopling of the Americas may not have been the blitzkrieg movement to the south that people have presumed, but a much slower and more deliberate process," says Tom Dillehay, professor of anthropology at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn., who led the study.

The journal Science publishes a report on the findings by Dillehay and team of international researchers in its May 9 issue.

"Monte Verde is an iconic site in New World archaeology and Americanist archaeologists recognize its importance," says John Yellen, program manager at the National Science Foundation, which funded the research. "They also agree that Tom Dillehay has conducted an outstanding program of research there"......... Posted by: William      Read more         Source

May 8, 2008, 8:53 PM CT

Chilean volcano captured blasting ash

Chile's Chaiten Volcano is shown spewing ash and smoke (centre left of image) into the air for hundreds of km over Argentina's Patagonia Plateau in this Envisat image acquired on 5 May 2008.

The 1000 m-high volcano had been dormant for thousands of years before erupting on 2 May, causing the evacuation of thousands. Chaiten Volcano is located in southern Chile 10 km northeast of the town of Chaiten on the Gulf of Corcovado.

Envisat's Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) instrument processed this image at a resolution of 1200 m.

Satellite data can be used to detect the slight signs of change that may foretell an eruption. Once an eruption begins, optical and radar instruments can capture the lava flows, mudslides, ground fissures and earthquakes.

Atmospheric sensors onboard satellites can also identify the gases and aerosols released by the eruption, as well as quantify their wider environmental impact.

To boost the use of Earth Observation (EO) data at volcanic observatories, ESA has started to monitor volcanoes worldwide within the Agency's Data User Element programme.

The Globvolcano project, started in early 2007, will define, implement and validate information services to support volcanological observatories in their daily work by integration of EO data, with emphasis on observation and early warning......... Posted by: Tyler      Read more         Source