• Scientists agree that changes in land use such as deforestation, and not just greenhouse gas emissions, can play a significant role altering the world’s climate systems. Now, a new study by researchers at MIT and Dartmouth College reveals how another type of  land use, intensive agriculture, can impact regional climate.

  • Tropical Storm Sanba, formerly known as 02W has triggered many warnings in the Philippines as it approaches from the east. NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite provided forecasters with a visible image of the storm.

  • A research team led by CIRES’ Steve Nerem detects an acceleration in the 25-year satellite sea level record. Global sea level rise is not cruising along at a steady 3 mm per year, it’s accelerating a little every year, like a driver merging onto a highway, according to a powerful new assessment led by CIRES Fellow Steve Nerem. He and his colleagues harnessed 25 years of satellite data to calculate that the rate is increasing by about 0.08 mm/year every year—which could mean an annual rate of sea level rise of 10 mm/year, or even more, by 2100.

  • Breeding temperature-resilient crops is an “achievable dream” in one of the most important species of commercially-cultivated plants, according to a new study.

  • Lightning may strike less often in future across the globe as the planet warms, a scientific study suggests.

  • Hurricane Gita strengthened into a powerful Category 4 hurricane on Feb 12 and triggered warnings in Tonga and Fiji. NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement Mission or GPM core satellite analyzed Tropical Cyclone Gita and found heavy rainfall occurring within the system. On Feb. 12, Gita was bringing that heavy rain to Tonga and Fiji where warnings were posted. NASA's Terra satellite also provided a visible image of the storm, which had developed an eye.

  • Days after fatal debris flows devastated Southern California’s Montecito community,  a team of U.S. Geological Survey geologists joined county, state, and federal partners to survey and  evaluate the aftermath. Commonly known as mudslides or mudflows,  debris flows are slurries  of water, rock, soil, vegetation, and boulders with the consistency of wet concrete that can move rapidly  downhill and down channel.

  • The world’s largest rivers begin in glaciated mountain regions. However, climate change may cause many glaciers to disappear. Will water become scarce?

  • Removing fossil fuel subsidies would have only a small effect on CO2 emissions and renewable energy use, new research has shown. The largest emissions savings would be in oil and gas exporting countries, where fewer poor people would be affected, and subsidy removal can be aided by currently low oil prices.

  • Pine trees become temporarily sterile when exposed to ultraviolet radiation as intense as some scientists believe the Earth experienced 252 million years ago during the planet’s largest mass extinction, lending support to the theory that ozone depletion contributed to the crisis.