Visiting NASA expert: Satellite imaging to reduce climate change uncertainty

Visiting NASA expert: Satellite imaging to reduce climate change uncertainty
(Jerusalem Post) January 25, 2010, By Ehud Zion Waldoks
Photos from space have already helped reduce the differences between climate change models and will play a significant role ahead of the next assessment, Dr. Diane Evans, director for earth science and technology at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said Monday. Dr. Diane Evans, director for earth and science technology at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, lectures on the role of satellites in tracking climate change at Ben-University, Monday. Evans lectured at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in the morning and spoke to The Jerusalem Post by phone after her presentation.

NCAR Researching Climate Change

Forecast for NCAR: The atmospheric research center, 50 years old, will continue to grow

(Denver Post) January 25, 2010

As the 1960s began, meteorology was poised to explode as the first weather satellites were set to be launched and more powerful computers were being built. Researchers thought they needed a well-equipped science center if they were going to change weather to a sophisticated theoretical science. So in 1960, 14 universities — with the backing of the National Science Foundation — formed the National Center for Atmospheric Research and chose Boulder for its home. Fifty years later, NCAR has grown from five full-time scientists to about 220 Ph.D. researchers. The 14 founding universities that made up the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research — the umbrella organization that governs NCAR — have been joined by more than 60 other schools, including the University of Colorado.

NCAR's research focus has also expanded from accurate weather forecasts a few days out to the creation of intricate climate models that try to predict how rising greenhouse gas concentrations might change the planet in the next century. NCAR scientists also study sun and space weather, air chemistry and pollution, and how land use and wildfires impact climate.

This Satellite Could Help Save Humanity

This Satellite Could Help Save Humanity

(British Columbia Tyee) By Mitchell Anderson

The media missed the real story about the so-called "climategate" scandal. After thousands of emails were mysteriously stolen from the University of East Anglia and distributed just before the climate conference in Copenhagen, many news outlets seemed content to report the story as it was presented to them rather than bothering to read the emails in the context they were written. A closer look at these candid messages reveals a very different problem than the supposed scientific conspiracy theory that's been in high rotation in the media. This previously unreported story also shows why launching the long-mothballed Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) is more urgent now than ever.

Trio of NASA craft will boost climate data

Trio of NASA craft will boost climate data

(Los Angeles Times) January 9, 2009, By Mark K. Matthews

NASA heads into 2010 with the bittersweet assignment of retiring the space shuttle after nearly three decades. But the agency also plans to launch three new satellites aimed at better understanding the sun and Earth's climate and oceans. Two satellites will examine Earth -- specifically, the concentration of salt in the world's oceans and the presence of aerosols, or minute particles, such as dust or ash, in the atmosphere. A third satellite mission will study the sun and its effect on space weather, including solar flares that can disrupt communication on Earth.

NASA Science Budget Lags Behind Expectations

NASA Budget for Earth Science Lags Behind Rising Expectations
(Space News) December 31, 2009, By Debra Werner
Over the past decade, NASA has convinced the White House, Congress and the public of the importance of investigating the Earth’s atmosphere, oceans and land from space. That success has led to increasing pressure to extend NASA’s Earth monitoring program by launching new spacecraft and instruments, but not to the funding needed to carry out the new missions, said Michael Freilich, director of NASA’s Earth Science Division at the agency’s Washington headquarters. “There is relentless pressure to expand the scope of our contributions,” Freilich said Dec. 17, during a meeting here of the American Geophysical Union.