Students, gardeners, retirees, and other volunteers taking part in a nationwide initiative, Project BudBurst, are finding hints that certain plants are blooming unusually early.
Clarence Mann, University of Michigan • Mann is crossing many boundaries on the way to a master's in environmental and land use planning. His research is creating new tools for urban planners and decision makers.
A new study led by NCAR scientist Peter Lawrence has found that impacts to Earth's hydrological cycle are the most important driving force in how land use changes affect climate.
Amid the strife of the Copenhagen climate summit, one area of acknowledged progress was in ways to help preserve tropical forests and their vast stores of carbon in developing countries.
A collaboration of scientists that includes UCAR's John Braun is pioneering a new technique for using GPS satellite signals to measure snow depth as well as soil and vegetation moisture.
The stretch of the subcontinent that runs from eastern Pakistan across northern India into Bangladesh is likely the world's most intensively irrigated region. A new NCAR study shows that between 2002 and 2008, the region depleted groundwater at a rate of around 13 cubic miles per year.
NCAR researchers are studying whether the eruption of Indonesia’s Mt. Toba supervolcano about 70,000–75,000 years ago may have cooled Earth enough to initiate an ice age and potentially alter the course of human evolution.
Using a highly efficient modeling technique, Pablo Ortiz (University of Granada) and Piotr Smolarkiewicz (ESSL/MMM) have simulated the role of winds in forming sand dunes and sandholes.
Volunteers across the country are welcoming spring by taking part in a nationwide initiative, known as Project BudBurst, to track climate change by recording the timing of flowers and foliage.
Lake Victoria's water levels reached a 40-year low in 2006 when East Africa was gripped by drought. A study by NCAR scientist Sean Swenson shows that drought was not the only cause of Lake Victoria's shrinkage—human management at the dam was also to blame.
NCAR scientists Bill Large and Steve Yeager have produced a new analysis of the exchanges of heat, momentum, and moisture between the oceans and atmosphere that should help climate modelers better assess variability on several time scales.
In a potential boon for agriculture, a NASA-funded effort that involves NCAR and the private firm DTN/Meteorlogix has produced one of the world’s most accurate systems for predicting soil temperature up to two days in advance.
Mountain pine beetles appear to be doing more than killing large swaths of forests in the Rocky Mountains. Scientists suspect they are also altering local weather patterns and air quality.
Julien Wang, Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research and Science (SOARS) • When it came time to choose a major, Wang was torn between the arts and her growing interest in the environment. Finally, she chose environmental engineering. One recent project: designing a green roof.
Waleska Rivera Rios, Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research and Science (SOARS) • In 2005, Rivera Rios was on her way to earning a doctorate in environmental science from the Universidad del Turabo in Puerto Rico.
Casey Thornbrugh, University of Arizona • Mention statistics to most middle schoolers and, unless you're talking about odds for poker hands, the response is likely to be an eye roll. When Thornbrugh was in middle school, though, his hobby was climate statistics.
Peter Thornton, biogeochemist • A career in science has always felt natural to Thornton, who realized as a child that he was drawn toward analytical tasks like programming his computer.
David Gochis, NCAR's Research Applications Laboratory • For Gochis, a day on the job as an NCAR scientist might mean driving around the rural backroads of northern Mexico, setting up dozens of gauges the size of cookie jars that record rainfall to the nearest millimeter.
Fei Chen, NCAR's Research Applications Laboratory • When the Cultural Revolution ended, people started standing in line to buy textbooks to help their children catch up on schooling. Overnight, there was huge pressure to study, as universities reopened and competition for admissions resumed.
Beth Holland, NCAR's Atmospheric Chemistry Division • Beth says that one of the most important things a scientist can do is communicate the results of his or her work. “I really believe in the science I’m doing and its ability to serve society.”
