Topic: Carbon Dioxide

NASA answers the question, “Is There an Atmosphere on the Moon?”

April 15, 2013 |

Written by Brian Day
NASA’s Ames Research Center

Moffett Field, CA – Until recently, most everyone accepted the conventional wisdom that the moon has virtually no atmosphere.

Just as the discovery of water on the moon transformed our textbook knowledge of Earth’s nearest celestial neighbor, recent studies confirm that our moon does indeed have an atmosphere consisting of some unusual gases, including sodium and potassium, which are not found in the atmospheres of Earth, Mars or Venus.

It’s an infinitesimal amount of air when compared to Earth’s atmosphere.

The Lunar Atmospheric Composition Experiment (LACE) deployment during the Apollo 17 mission. (Image credit: NASA)

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NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter sees blanket of Dry Ice on Mars

January 26, 2013 |

Written by Guy Webster
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – Researchers using NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter see seasonal changes on far-northern Martian sand dunes caused by warming of a winter blanket of frozen carbon dioxide.

Earth has no naturally frozen carbon dioxide, though pieces of manufactured carbon-dioxide ice, called “dry ice,” sublime directly from solid to gas on Earth, just as the vast blankets of dry ice do on Mars.

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped this series of pictures of sand dunes in the north polar region of Mars. The area covered in each of the five panels is about 0.8 mile (1.3 kilometers) wide. (Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona)

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NASA Study reveals degradation of Amazon Forest due to Climate Change

January 22, 2013 |

Written by Alan Buis
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – An area of the Amazon rainforest twice the size of California continues to suffer from the effects of a megadrought that began in 2005, finds a new NASA-led study.

These results, together with observed recurrences of droughts every few years and associated damage to the forests in southern and western Amazonia in the past decade, suggest these rainforests may be showing the first signs of potential large-scale degradation due to climate change.

The megadrought in the Amazon rainforest during the summer of 2005 caused widespread damage and die-offs to trees, as depicted in this photo taken in Western Amazonia in Brazil. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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NASA scientists report on long term Global Warming Trend

January 16, 2013 |

Written by Dr. Tony Phillips
Science at NASA

Washington, D.C. – NASA scientists say 2012 was the ninth warmest of any year since 1880, continuing a long-term trend of rising global temperatures. With the exception of 1998, the nine warmest years in the 132-year record all have occurred since 2000, with 2010 and 2005 ranking as the hottest years on record.

NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York, which monitors global surface temperatures on an ongoing basis, released an updated analysis Tuesday that compares temperatures around the globe in 2012 to the average global temperature from the mid-20th century. The comparison shows how Earth continues to experience warmer temperatures than several decades ago.

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NASA’s Cassini spacecraft to take first images of Saturn’s Transit of Venus from deep space

December 21, 2012 |

Written by Dr. Tony Phillips
Science at NASA

Washington, D.C. – Last June, astronomers urged sky watchers to observe the transit of Venus. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity, they said. The black disk of the second planet wouldn’t crawl across the face of the sun again for more than 100 years.

In fact, it’s happening again this week–not on Earth, but Saturn.

“On Friday, December 21st, there will be a transit of Venus visible from Saturn, and we will be watching it using  the Cassini spacecraft,” says Phil Nicholson, a Cassini science team member from Cornell University. “This will be the first time a transit of Venus has been observed from deep space.”

A transit of Venus seen from Earth on June 6th, 2012. (Photo credit: Bum-Suk Yeom of Daejeon, South Korea)

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Tennessee Department of Agriculture reports Summer Drought did not decimate Tennessee’s Christmas Tree Crop

November 23, 2012 |

Nashville, TN – Most customers who visit local Christmas tree farms in the coming weeks won’t notice, but growers without irrigation this summer saw significant losses in seedlings planted over the 2011-12 fall and winter.

According to Kyle Holmberg, marketing specialist with the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, some growers reported new seedling losses up to 80 percent. Losses of mature trees ran between 10 and 20 percent in areas subjected to significant drought combined with excessive heat.

Ripshin Tree Farm in East Tennessee.

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NASA study shows Climate change likely hotter than current Projections

November 12, 2012 |

Written by Alan Buis
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – A new NASA-funded study by the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, finds climate model projections that show a greater rise in global temperature are likely to prove more accurate than those showing a lesser rise.

The findings, published today in the journal Science, could provide a breakthrough in the longstanding quest to narrow the range of global warming expected in coming decades and beyond.

Scientists used observations from two NASA satellite instruments, including relative humidity data similar to these, from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA’s Aqua spacecraft, to analyze how well leading global climate models reproduce observed relative humidity in Earth’s tropics and subtropics. The AIRS surface relative humidity data shown here are representative only and are not from the study. Areas shown in reds and yellows are the driest; blue areas the moistest. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover analysis reveals clues to Mar’s loss of Atmosphere

November 3, 2012 |

Written by Guy Webster
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – NASA’s car-sized rover, Curiosity, has taken significant steps toward understanding how Mars may have lost much of its original atmosphere.

Learning what happened to the Martian atmosphere will help scientists assess whether the planet ever was habitable. The present atmosphere of Mars is 100 times thinner than Earth’s.

A set of instruments aboard the rover has ingested and analyzed samples of the atmosphere collected near the “Rocknest” site in Gale Crater where the rover is stopped for research.

This picture shows a lab demonstration of the measurement chamber inside the Tunable Laser Spectrometer, an instrument that is part of the Sample Analysis at Mars investigation on NASA’s Curiosity rover. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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NASA Study shows Ancient Antarctica Warmer and Wetter than Expected

June 18, 2012 |

Written by Alan Buis
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – A new university-led study with NASA participation finds ancient Antarctica was much warmer and wetter than previously suspected. The climate was suitable to support substantial vegetation — including stunted trees — along the edges of the frozen continent.

The team of scientists involved in the study, published online June 17th in Nature Geoscience, was led by Sarah J. Feakins of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and included researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, and Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.

Antarctic Postcard From the Past – This artist’s rendition created from a photograph of Antarctica shows what Antarctica possibly looked like during the middle Miocene epoch, based on pollen fossil data. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Dr. Philip Bart, LSU)

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NASA Confirms Launch Date for Five Rocket Mission to Study the Jet Stream

March 26, 2012 |

Wallops Island, VA – NASA managers have given a “go” for a countdown leading to the launch of five suborbital sounding rockets early in the morning March 27th on a science mission that will briefly create a milky white cloud that may be visible along a large portion of the U.S. east coast.

The launch window for the mission will be between 2:00am and 5:00am, Tuesday, March 27th. The countdown will begin at 9:00pm, Monday, March 26th. Clear skies are predicted for the Tuesday launch.  However, ground level winds may exceed allowable limits for the flights to occur.

The red dots over the water show where ATREX will deploy chemical tracers to watch how super fast winds move some 60 miles up in the atmosphere. While there are only five rockets, two will deploy two sets of tracers, resulting in seven clouds. Only six dots appear in this image, since two will be deployed at the left-most red/green dot, which represents Wallops. Three cameras will track the cloud tracers – one at Wallops and two located at the green dots. (Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center)

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