News by Subject Atmospheric Science

Andrea becomes the first subtropical storm for the 2019 season although we are two weeks short of the official start date of June 1, 2019. This storm was first spotted on Monday, May 20, 2019 forming over the western Atlantic.

The warming of the Earth by the human-caused greenhouse effect is progressing. But predictions for the next decades still show relatively large uncertainties. A German-Australian research team headed by GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel identified the large natural variations in the tropical Pacific region as the key reason. As a conclusion of their study, published in the renowned scientific journal Nature Communications, the scientists call for more climate data from this region.

Governments seeking to help their most vulnerable residents prepare for hurricanes and other disasters should create community-based information campaigns ahead of time, according to a Rutgers study of economically disadvantaged New Jerseyans in the areas hardest hit by Superstorm Sandy.

Anthropologists discovered a tool made out of high-quality translucent jadeite with an intact rosewood handle at a site where the ancient Maya processed salt in Belize. The discovery of these high-quality materials -- jadeite and rosewood -- used as utilitarian tools, demonstrates that salt workers played an important role in the Classic Maya marketplace economy more than 1,000 years ago.

NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite passed over the Southern Pacific Ocean and captured a visible image of the remnants of Tropical Cyclone Ann moving over Queensland's Cape York Peninsula. Despite the storm weakening below tropical cyclone status, warnings remain active for strong winds and flooding potential.

An enormous volcanic eruption on Iceland in 1783-84 did not cause an extreme summer heat wave in Europe. But, as Benjamin Franklin speculated, the eruption triggered an unusually cold winter, according to a Rutgers-led study. The study, in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, will help improve predictions of how the climate will respond to future high-latitude volcanic eruptions.

Dr Moriaki Yasuhara, Dr Hisayo Okahashi, and Dr Huai-Hsuan May Huang from School of Biological Sciences and Swire Institute of Marine Science of the University of Hong Kong (HKU), in collaboration with scientists in Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Duke University, and US Geological Survey have recently reported their discovery on a key driver of past and perhaps future abrupt climate change that is deep-water dynamics in the North Atlantic Ocean in the journal Geology.

While extreme cold and snow often make headlines in the Northeast, by 2060, there will be far more record heat. Imagine the most sweltering day of the year. By 2060, you will experience that type of hot day for approximately three weeks of the year, assuming we don't substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions. According to a Dartmouth study, of the rural Northeast counties represented, those in the bottom two lowest income quartiles will be hit hardest.

Australia's world-famous Great Barrier Reef is located in the Coral Sea, east of Queensland and on May 14, 2019 Tropical Cyclone Ann was moving over it. From their orbit in space, NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites passed over the Southern Pacific Ocean obtained visible and infrared imagery of the storm as it moved toward the Queensland coast.