NOAA Research News

The United States could slash greenhouse gas emissions from power production by up to 78 percent below 1990 levels within 15 years while meeting increased demand, according to a new study by NOAA and University of Colorado Boulder researchers.

The study used a sophisticated mathematical model to evaluate future cost, demand, generation and transmission scenarios. It found that with improvements in transmission infrastructure, weather-driven renewable resources could supply most of the nation’s electricity at costs similar to today’s.

Citizen scientists around the world, not just those in the United States, can now submit weather observations and view reports on the go using the newly upgraded mPING smart phone application. Developers from NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory and the University of Oklahoma’s Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies announced the app’s expanded reach and utility Monday during the American Meteorological Society’s annual meeting in New Orleans.

The 2015 Antarctic ozone hole area was larger and formed later than in recent years, according to scientists from NOAA and NASA.

On Oct. 2, 2015, the ozone hole expanded to its peak of 28.2 million square kilometers (10.9 million square miles), an area larger than the continent of North America. Throughout October, the hole remained large and set many area daily records.

NOAA’s Climate Program Office (CPO) today announced it has awarded $48 million for 53 new projects. Research will be conducted by NOAA laboratories and operational centers, universities, and other agency and research partners to advance the understanding, modeling, and prediction of Earth’s climate system and to improve decision making. 

Spring came early this year, breaking several records at the top of the world in Barrow, Alaska, according to a new report that combines observations from NOAA, the North Slope Borough and a scientist who has tracked an Arctic bird for the last four decades.