Independence Day is right around the corner, and Michigan's Lake St. Clair residents and tourists are gearing up for a holiday weekend filled with fishing, swimming and boating activities. Beach managers can now view NOAA water quality predictions in real-time, instead of waiting 24 hours as before, to make timely decisions to safeguard public health and avoid unnecessary beach closures.
The Colorado River provides water for more than 30 million people. Increasing demand for that water combined with reduced flow and the looming threat of climate change have prompted concern about how to manage the basin’s water in coming decades. NOAA-funded researchers at the University of Washington and co-authors at eight institutions across the West aim to explain this wide range, and provide policymakers and the public with a framework for comparison.
Scientists this summer are taking one of the most detailed looks ever at the natural and manmade emissions that affect air quality in the Southeast, and their movement and chemical transformations within the atmosphere. The mission should help scientists determine the origin of the fine particles and how they contribute to the haziness in the region and affect regional air quality and temperature trends.
The cleanup of California’s tailpipe emissions over the last few decades has not only reduced ozone pollution in the Los Angeles area, it has also altered the pollution chemistry in the atmosphere, making the eye-stinging “organic nitrate” component of air pollution plummet, according to a new study.
A new study, led by NOAA and its Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder, used a novel approach to trace methane in the Los Angeles basin back to its sources, and found that "extra" methane is likely coming from sources related to fossil fuels.
Scientists have found that wispy cirrus clouds have cores of dust and metallic particles, answering questions about how these clouds form and giving insight into their climatic implications in the future.