Tags: Cobb House

glacier melting, with people
Tracking the Greenland meltwater

Very interesting work in the context of a significant increase in the melting of glacial land ice on the island of Greenland due to atmospheric warming: a team of researchers led by faculty at the University of Georgia has discovered the fate of much of the freshwater that pours into the surrounding oceans as the Greenland ice sheet melts every summer. They published their findings today in the journal Nature Geoscience. "Understanding…

freshwater wetland photo
Methane emissions

And speaking of the need to protect pristine areas, some that might not be thought of as necessarily pristine also deserve greater consideration of their important functions as natural areas. This new study emphasizes methane sinks that need to be better understood: Though they occupy a small fraction of the Earth's surface, freshwater wetlands are the largest natural source of methane going into the atmosphere. New research from the University…

diagram of carbon cycle
Science advances: the marine carbon cycle

The amount of dissolved carbon in the world's oceans is roughly equivalent, and likely greater, than atmospheric concentrations of CO2. Some of it gets semi-permanently sequestered, some gets released up into the atmospheric in a process that has been in place for millions of years. But with the global carbon picture changing, understanding the details of these processes has become more urgent: the slightest changes in ocean temperature or…


Shepherd at Senate Climate Hearing today

Professor and director of the UGA Atmospheric Sciences Program in the department of geography Marshall Shepherd will testify before a U.S. Senate Committee this morning. Per the AMS blog: The Senate Committee on Environment and Infrastructure, chaired by Senator Barbara Boxer, has already lined up a session on the “Latest Climate Science” for this morning, at 10 a.m. EST. The blue-ribbon panel of invited experts providing testimony includes AMS…


Shepherd and Yager challenge 'Zombie theories' on climate change

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration provides public-access data confirming “average temperature in the United States for 2012 was ... 3.2 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th-century average, and 1.0 degree above 1998, the previous warmest year” in the United States. It is also well-documented that over the last several decades, we have experienced far more record-high temperatures than record-low temperatures. Up to the early…


warming climate uneven, state by state

The NY Times Green blog has an interesting post on global warming trends, as illustrated by a nice interactive map produced by Climate Central. Alongside overall warming trends, the maps show how some states are lagging in warming trends compared to others. Tthe reporter quotes UGA professor and director of the Atmospheric Sciences program, Marshall Shepherd, president-elect of the American Metoerological Society, on the phenomena of '…


As Fast as a Glacier

I watched this NOVA presentation over the holidays, and while you might think that nothing could move as slow as a glacier, they are unfortunately not shifting all that slowly. The scientists on the program were able to measure movement that, while imperceptible to the naked eye, equaled about 130 feet per day. That is amazing. And alarming. Researchers at the American Geophysical Union annual meeting in San Francisco reported last month that…
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