NASA study finds snow melt causes large ocean plant blooms
A NASA funded study has found a decline in winter and spring snow cover over Southwest Asia and the Himalayan mountain range is creating conditions for more widespread blooms of ocean plants in the Arabian Sea. The decrease in snow cover has led to greater differences in both temperature and pressure systems between the Indian subcontinent and the Arabian Sea. The pressure differences gene...Study casts doubt on 'Snowball Earth' theory
Remains of photosynthesizing microbes in prehistoric rocks suggest Earth was not ice-bound The study appears in the Sept. 29 Science Express. The lead author is Alison Olcott, a Ph.D. student of earth...Scientist measures role of science's coolest player: The snow
What would the Earth be like if one fine day all the snow melted away? Obviously, it would be a much warmer place. But what's interesting is how much warmer, says Stephen Vavrus, an associate scientist at the Center for Climatic Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Working with computer-generated simulations, Vavrus found that in the absence of snow cover, global temperatures w...NASA snow data helps maintain nation's largest, oldest bison herd
Grainy photographs of America's Old West recall a time when large bison herds migrated across wide prairie lands, 30 million strong, with the changing seasons determining their path and destination. Now, NASA satellite data and computer modeling and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) information are helping track the remnants of this once mighty herd in Yellowstone National Park as they migrat...Dirty snow may warm Arctic as much as greenhouse gases
Snow becomes dirty when soot from tailpipes, smoke stacks and forest fires enters the atmosphere and falls to the ground. Soot-infused sn...Snowmobile accidents, on the rise in Canada
A study conducted by Margaret Keresteci said that young men who are under the influence of alcohol are at a very high risk of snowmobiling. Canadian Institute for Health Information said that the statistics reveal the truth that// most of the accidents happen in the month of February. The accidents due to snowmobiling are twice as those of snowboarding or skiing. In 2003-04 there were...Better Ice Creams And Artificial Snow, Courtesy Bacteria
Queen's University biologist Virginia Walker has discovered a method that makes better ice cream and artificial snow by using bacteria. The method can also help in water// purification techniques. Until now, scientists had to go to extreme environments, such as Antarctic lakes and glaciers, to find bacteria with properties that allow them to survive at very cold temperatures. Dr. Wal...Soot-infused Snow Responsible for Arctic Warming: Study
Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, believe that while the threat of greenhouse emissions exists, soot-infused or dirty snow also contributes to global warming. If Charlie Zender, an Associate Professor of Earth System Science at the UCI and co-author of the study, is to be believed, dirty snow contributes to a third or more of Arctic warming. Zender...Desert Droughts Shorten Mountain Snow Cover, Reveals Study
A new study by American geologists has indicated that wind blown dust from drought-stricken and disturbed lands in the Southwest can shorten the duration of mountain snow cover hundreds of miles away in the Colorado mountains by roughly a month. The study found that seasonal snow coverage in the sub-alpine and alpine areas of the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado disappea...