The West Coast continental shelf is known to host methane bubble streams, formerly thought to be rare. Now, a new discovery sheds light on the extent and distribution of seafloor methane seeps.
NOAA scientists can get a lot done in a year. That’s one big takeaway from the 2020 NOAA Science Report, which outlines our agency’s key scientific accomplishments from 2020.
NOAA’s recently-patented lionfish trap could be a solution that offers both ecological and commercial benefits.
Scientists hope images from the research drones will improve our understanding of tornadoes and lead to better forecasts.
From warmer ocean temperatures to longer and more intense droughts and heat waves, climate change is affecting our entire planet. Scientists at NOAA have long worked to track, understand and predict how climate change is progressing and impacting ecosystems, communities and economies.
NOAA and NIST have installed a Doppler lidar instrument to an existing weather station on top of the Department of Commerce’s Herbert Clark Hoover Building in Washington, D.C. to measure wind flow and turbulence in the lowest part of the atmosphere for a research project studying greenhouse gas emissions in the Capitol area.
Massive high-altitude clouds of smoke warmed the Southern Hemisphere's stratospshere by about 1 degree Celsius for six months, and likely contributed to the large and persistent ozone hole that formed over Antarctica during the austral spring.
Launching uncrewed systems to monitor climate and ecosystem changes in the U.S. Arctic, sequencing the genome for endangered marine species, and improving weather forecasts with advances in regional models — these are just a few of NOAA’s scientific achievements in 2020. The newly released 2020 NOAA Science Report highlights the ways these accomplishments — and many more — provide the foundation for vital services that Americans use every day.
The global average carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere surged at the fifth-highest rate in NOAA's 63-year record during 2020. Preliminary estimates of the increase in methane levels indicate it may have been the largest annual jump on record.