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14 March 2013
AGU Video: Lightning strike jumps the rails
The famous “kite with key” experiment Ben Franklin conducted in 1752 is more than just a legend for lightning researchers around the world—it’s a procedure. Sure, the kite has been replaced by a rocket, and the string-with-key contraption by a spool of wire, but the intent is still the same—to better understand nature’s flashes of electricity. Recently, an unusual rocket-triggered lightning strike was caught on video by lightning researchers in Florida, and its curious course from cloud to ground is described in a new scientific paper.
27 September 2012
Scientists simulate growing role of Arctic climate culprit
Every summer in the Arctic, a vast system of ponds appears on the broad beds of floating sea ice, only to freeze again when the cold season returns. Researchers consider these transient bodies of water – called melt ponds — an important factor in climate change because they absorb sunlight and contribute to sea-ice loss. While warming has increased the fraction of Arctic sea ice where melt ponds form, global climate models have remained incapable of accurately predicting the influence of melt ponds, scientists say. A new model, which incorporates complex physics of the ponds, is generating predictions of sea-ice extent and thickness that match well with observations, the model’s developers report. The researchers are introducing this new capability just weeks after the extent of Arctic sea ice shrank to an unprecedented autumn low that climate models were unable to predict.
3 August 2012
Two Mars scientists prepare for Curiosity’s descent to the red planet
Two young AGU member-scientists balance nervousness with excitement over the imminent arrival of the Mars Science Laboratory, a.k.a. “Curiosity,” on the planet’s surface. For Ryan Anderson the journey beginning next week in Mars’ Gale Crater dates back several years when his graduate school advisor asked him, “Hey, you want to look at [Mars] landing sites? Here’s a cool one!” Building on other researchers’ previous studies, Anderson’s subsequent work at Cornell …
2 July 2012
Scientists gauge carbon dioxide impact of suburban greenery
Despite having more carbon-dioxide-absorbing vegetation than cities, suburbs contribute to rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. To find out how a suburb’s greenery influences its carbon dioxide emissions, two scientists have conducted continuous measurements of the uptake and release of carbon dioxide by the vegetation of a suburban landscape. They report that lawns and trees detectably reduce the carbon dioxide emissions of the area – in summer absorbing nearly all carbon dioxide released from fossil fuel use such as from traffic and natural gas consumption in homes.
28 June 2012
Fracking in the United States: Scientists’ research addresses multiple concerns
From 2000 to 2010, improvements to a gas-drilling technology known as hydraulic fracturing have helped produce more domestic natural gas than in any other decade in U.S. history. While “fracking” has helped reduce natural gas prices and U.S. dependence on foreign supplies, the procedure is surrounded with contention concerning human and environmental health. “There are adverse environmental changes that occur with hydraulic fracturing,” said Richard Hammack who is the Coordinator of Natural Systems Monitoring for the Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) – a collaborator of the U.S Geological Survey (USGS). “And part of our job is to find ways to mitigate those either through different management techniques or through development of new and better technology.”
21 June 2012
AGU interviews astronauts in space
AGU Video: On 19 June, AGU had the unique opportunity to interview three astronauts aboard the International Space Station about what it’s like to live in orbit and study the Earth from space. Astronauts Joe Acaba (NASA), André Kuipers (ESA) and Don Pettit (NASA) answered questions about their everyday lives in orbit, the hazards of life in space and how their experiences in microgravity have affected their thoughts about our home planet. Watch the video interview here!
20 April 2012
Sadness, frustration, and ultimately admiration surround space shuttle Discovery’s welcome to Smithsonian
On Thursday, I went to the Udvar-Hazy Center to witness Discovery being rolled into the center’s space hangar. There, former U.S. Senator John Glenn, who became the oldest person in space when he launched aboard Discovery in 1998, gave a five-minute speech about the legacy of the space program, praising the ship behind him.
“Space shuttle Discovery is the star with the most extensive record of all the shuttle fleet,” he said, before expressing sadness that the shuttle program had ended, perhaps before its time. As he turned to sit, a man behind me in the audience said quietly, “Godspeed, John Glenn.”
GeoSpace is a blog on Earth and space science, managed by AGU’s Public Information staff. The blog features posts by AGU writers and guest contributors on all sorts of relevant science topics, but with a focus on new research and geo and space sciences-related stories that are currently in the news.