A study released Tuesday by a team of scientists from Harvard University found that airborne radiation levels downwind of U.S. fracking sites are significantly elevated compared to background levels, providing further evidence that the drilling practice poses a threat to public health as well as the climate. Published in the journal Nature Communications, the study detected the largest […]
Photo: This is a 2009 phytoplankton bloom in the Bering Sea. Cloud seed bacteria may feed on phytoplankton. CREDIT: NASA, Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center WASHINGTON – New research finds Arctic Ocean currents and storms are moving bacteria from ocean algae blooms into the atmosphere where the particles help clouds […]
A volcano is like a stream. It might sound like a Zen proverb, but it’s a useful comparison for University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute graduate student Julia Gestrich. Scientists can use stream flow to understand volcano ash plumes, Gestrich explained while presenting her research at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in Washington, D.C., […]
Atmospheric scientists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks have launched an effort to better understand urban air quality problems in northern cities. During the next few years, Bill Simpson and Jingqiu Mao of UAF’s Geophysical Institute hope to join international researchers on a large-scale field study to understand the chemistry behind air pollutants in Arctic […]
Fairbanks’s air turns bitter every winter as we fill it with woodsmoke and other things, but just down the road Denali National Park has the clearest air measured among America’s monitored national parks. Scientists at Colorado State University have taken a close look at Denali air as captured near the park entrance. A monitor there […]
NASA’s newest orbiter at Mars, MAVEN, took precautions to avoid harm from a dust-spewing comet that flew near Mars today and is studying the flyby’s effects on the Red Planet’s atmosphere. The MAVEN spacecraft — full name Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution — reported back to Earth in good health after about three hours of […]
