Editor's note: AGU released the following story by science writer Rachel Fritts on October 13, 2020 on NOAA-led research.
New research reveals temperatures in the deep sea fluctuate more than scientists previously thought and a warming trend is now detectable at the bottom of the ocean.
Understanding the biologic contribution of CO2 to megacities' overall carbon emissions will be important for designing and evaluating mitigation strategies.
While NOAA has had to cancel many of its planned research surveys in Alaska, it has been able to conduct a number of scaled-back research surveys in 2020. One such survey that will be finishing up this week is in the Arctic and was conducted on board NOAA Ship Oscar Dyson to collect critical data supporting a long time series involving many scientific partners.
The study evaluated all of the aviation industry’s contributing factors to climate change, including emissions of carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide, and the effect of contrails and contrail cirrus – short-lived clouds created in jet engine exhaust plumes at aircraft cruise altitudes that reflect sunlight during the day and trap heat trying to escape at night.
Improving Arctic sea ice forecasts is a high priority for NOAA, as indigenous communities, fisheries, ecotourism, oil and gas industries, shipping concerns, wildlife managers and scientists need better information in a region that is rapidly shifting from a reliable frozen ice cap to an open-water ocean. Check out an animation of this summer's Arctic snow and ice melt.
World View Enterprises has offered to carry a miniaturized NOAA instrument on its high-altitude balloon to capture measurements of atmospheric particles on a series of flights in 2021 that will last weeks and cover thousands of miles at altitudes above 55,000 feet.