http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/ News from the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory Tue, 02 Feb 2010 23:39:33 GMT http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/news/2010/stratospheric_water_vapor_impacts_global_warming.html A 10 percent drop in water vapor ten miles above Earth’s surface has had a big impact on global warming, say researchers in a study published online January 28 in the journal Science. The findings might help explain why global surface temperatures have not risen as fast in the last ten years as they did in the 1980s and 1990s. Tue, 02 Feb 2010 23:39:33 GMT http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/news/2010/stratospheric_water_vapor_impacts_global_warming.html http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/news/quarterly/winter2009/tracking_algae_with_lidar.html ESRL’s Jim Churnside (Chemical Sciences Division) has used lidar instruments on airplanes to find schools of fish and squid. He’s used lidar—which bounces laser light off distant objects and captures the information-rich return signals—to find abandoned “ghost nets,” which can ensnare and kill ocean dwellers. Now, Churnside is using airborne lidar to find layers of phytoplankton—tiny plant-like creatures that are the foundation of most oceanic food chains. Tue, 26 Jan 10 23:35:33 GMT http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/news/quarterly/winter2009/tracking_algae_with_lidar.html http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/news/quarterly/winter2009/glopac_global_hawk_pacific.html In February, scientists will begin recieving the first data from unmanned 30 hour flights over the Pacific Ocean to measure water vapor, ozone, nitrous oxide, sulfur hexafluoride, hydrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide as part of GloPac, the Global Hawk Pacific mission. Tue, 26 Jan 10 23:35:33 GMT http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/news/quarterly/winter2009/glopac_global_hawk_pacific.html http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/news/quarterly/winter2009/teen_tests_new_instrument.html Hunter Solheim is both a Boulder middle school student and the inventor of an instrument to measure the temperature of the bottoms of clouds. Combined with radar data, the instrument would let researchers and forecasters monitor more accurately the tropospheric environment hidden from satellites where weather occurs. Tue, 26 Jan 10 23:35:33 GMT http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/news/quarterly/winter2009/teen_tests_new_instrument.html