EarthScape

Shrinking ice and snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere is reflecting ever less sunshine back into space in a previously underestimated mechanism that could add to global warming, a study showed. Satellite data indicated that Arctic sea ice, glaciers, winter snow and Greenland’s ice were bouncing less energy back to space from 1979 to 2008.…

Dozens of flood survivors desperate for news of missing relatives lined up outside a morgue in the town of Teresopolis on Saturday as criticism grew of authorities’ response to one of Brazil’s worst natural disasters which has killed nearly 600 people. Nearly four days after rains sparked floods and massive landslides, officials in this scenic…

The European Union has decided to block Icelandic fishing vessels carrying mackerel from landing at its ports in an escalation of a dispute over fishing quotas. The European Commission, the executive of the 27-member EU, formally notified the European Economic Area of plans for the ban, the final step before enforcing it. “We have informed…

In the ancient past temperatures on Earth appeared to have been much warmer than today. It is possible that temperatures may rise as high as then based on current climate change projections. The new study, by National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) scientist Jeffrey Kiehl, will appear as a Perspectives piece in this week’s issue…

Forecasting the weather can be a tricky business, especially in winter. When a winter storm approaches, forecasts can range widely across the board from light flurries to a blizzard. As many know, the jet stream over the North American continent moves west to east. That is why the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is…

The latest food scare – the contamination of British eggs with the cancer causing chemical dioxin – can be linked to our reliance on complex food chains and industrial production methods, report Joanna Blythman and Tom Levitt.

Think small variations in temperature and precipitation levels don’t have much of an impact? Guess again. A prolonged period of wet weather spurred the spread of the Bubonic plague in medieval times, according to a new study. And a 300-year spell of unpredictable weather coincided with the decline of the Roman Empire.

Last year tied with 2005 as the warmest on record, according to U.S. agencies, but is likely to be overtaken soon by the next year with a strong El Nino weather event, experts said on Thursday. A gradual build-up of greenhouse gases from human activities is heating the planet but natural events such as El…

Hanny’s Voorwerp which is Dutch for Hanny’s object, is an astronomical object of unknown nature. It was discovered in 2007 by Dutch school teacher Hanny van Arkel, while she was participating as an amateur volunteer in the Galaxy Zoo project. Photographically, it appears as a bright blob close to spiral galaxy IC 2497 in the…

High speed rail is considered the holy grail of mass transit planning, and touted as a necessity for advanced economies. America is often derided for not having any high speed rail networks, while other advanced nations in Europe and Asia have them well established. A new report from the group America 2050 outlines the areas…