News Archive
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globalchange.gov Update for 17 December 2001
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Data collected during Intensive Operation Periods (IOPs) since 1992 available from a single location
The U.S. Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM)
Program has made available data collected during Intensive Operation
Periods (IOPs) conducted at ARM sites. These data--previously available
from multiple sources--are now available from a single location on the
ARM Archive's IOP Data Server. Individual data files are kept on-line
in a hierarchical structure and may be downloaded immediately via a new
web-based interface called the ARM IOP Data Browser. Alternatively,
requests may be submitted for custom-selected packages of data which
may be downloaded as a single zip file or a bzip2 or gzip tar file.
Descriptions and meta-data, available for each IOP campaign and
instrument, are displayed while browsing the hierarchy of data files.
Additional data from future and historical IOPs will be continously added
to the IOP Archive over time.
Access to the ARM IOP Data Browser requires an ARM Archive username
which may be created on the IOP Data Server prior to accessing the data.
This account merely allows Archive staff to contact data users regarding
special requests and updates to data, documentation, or quality reports.
When using an ARM Archive username to log into the IOP Data Browser,
it should be entered as all lower case. The password entered should be
the same as the username.
U.S. Department of Energy, Atmospheric
Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program. Intensive Operation
Period (IOP) Data Browser is available here.
Most climate-change research has focused on gradual changes, such as the
processes by which emissions of greenhouse gases lead to warming of the
planet. But new evidence shows that periods of gradual change in Earth's
past were punctuated by episodes of abrupt change, including temperature
changes of about 10 degrees Celsius, or 18 degrees Fahrenheit, in only
a decade in some places. Severe floods and droughts also marked periods
of abrupt change.
A new report from the National Academies' National Research Council
says greenhouse warming and other human alterations of the climate system
may increase the possibility of large, abrupt, and unwelcome regional
or global climatic events. Researchers do not know enough about such
events to accurately predict them, so surprises are inevitable.
The National Academies, National Research
Council. The National Academies' publication announcement is
available here
and the full report, Abrupt Climate Change:
Inevitable Surprises, is available here.
How much carbon is being "absorbed" by forests in the Northern Hemisphere?
NASA-funded Earth Science researchers, using high-resolution maps
of carbon storage derived from NASA-developed satellite data sets,
suggest that forests in the United States, Europe and Russia have been
storing nearly 700 million metric tons of carbon a year during the
1980s and 1990s. Scientists hope to understand to what extent carbon
is stored in the Earth's forests because of the need to account for the
fate of the carbon released into the Earth's atmosphere in the form of
carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel combustion. NASA's research will further
understanding of the role that such "sinks" play in sequestering carbon
and the impact climate change has on agriculture, rangelands and forests.
The results of a NASA-funded study on carbon sinks will be published in
the 18 December issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences (PNAS). An electronic version of this article appears
in an early edition of PNAS posted on 11 December.
NASA Goddard Space
Flight Center. The NASA press release is available here
and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)
early edition is available on the PNAS website here.
publications
Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) National Report Available
The National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has published
a new report as a part of the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS)
Program entitled The United States Detailed National Report on
Systematic Observations for Climate which was submitted to the
Conference of the Parties to the United National Framework convention
on Climate Change. The report describes the objectives and goals of the
GCOS program and encourages international participation and cooperation
in the collection and sharing of climate data and information.
National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Global Climate
Observing System (GCOS). Report summary available here.
Full report available here.
data policies
OMB Releases Final Guidlines for Section 515
Guidelines include request for comments
The Office of Management and Budget has released its final guidelines
for implementation of section 515 of the Treasury and General Government
Appropriations Act of Fiscal Year 2001 (Public Law 106-554). Titled
Guidelines for Ensuring and Maximizing the Quality, Objectivity,
Utility, and Integrity of Information Disseminated by Federal
Agencies, these guidelines are designed to "provide policy and
procedural guidance to Federal agencies for ensuring and maximizing the
quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of information (including
statistical information) disseminated by Federal agencies" as directed
by section 515. OMB is also requesting additional comments for 30 days
on the "capable of being substantially reproduced" standard.
Office of Management and Budget. Guidelines
for Ensuring and Maximizing the Quality, Objectivity, Utility, and
Integrity of Information Disseminated by Federal Agencies available
here.
global change research
Methane Explosion Warmed the Prehistoric Earth, Possible Again
A tremendous release of methane gas frozen beneath the sea floor heated
the Earth by up to 13 degrees Fahrenheit (7 degrees Celsius) 55 million
years ago, a new NASA study confirms. NASA scientists used data from a
computer simulation of the paleo-climate to better understand the role
of methane in climate change. While most greenhouse gas studies focus on
carbon dioxide, methane is 20 times more potent as a heat-trapping gas
in the atmosphere. In the last 200 years, atmospheric methane has more
than doubled due to decomposing organic materials in wetlands and swamps
and human aided emissions from gas pipelines, coal mining, increases
in irrigation and livestock flatulence. "We understand that other
greenhouse gases apart from carbon dioxide are important for climate
change today," said Gavin Schmidt, the lead author of the study and a
researcher at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York,
NY and Columbia University's Center for Climate Systems Research. "This
work should help quantify how important they have been in the past,
and help estimate their effects in the future."
NASA Goddard Space Flight
Center. Press release available here.
publications
National Environmental Change Information System (NECIS)
Case Study Final Report Published
The Global Hydrology and Climate Center and NASA's Marshall Space Flight
Center in Huntsville, Alabama conducted a fact-finding case study for
the Data Management Working Group (DMWG), now referred to as the Data
and Information Working Group (DIWG), of the U.S. Global Change Research
Program (USGCRP) to determine the feasibility of an interagency National
Environmental Change Information System (NECIS). The key objectives of
the case study were to identify specific data and information needs of key
stakeholders in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) river basins
of Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, determine what capabilities are needed
to provide the most practical response to these user requests, and to
identify any limitations in the use of federal data and information.
U.S. Global Change Research Program, Data
and Information Working Group (DIWG). Publication available here.
global change news
U.S. Climate Action Report Available for Comment
EPA posts draft report for public comment
The U.S. Environment Protection Agency has posted draft chapters of the
2001 edition of the U.S. Climate Action Report on its website.
The report represents the United States' third communication under the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Public comment on
the draft chapters was requested in the Federal Register on 15 November.
Comments should be submitted by 17 December.
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA). Draft report available here.
global change news
U.S. Department of Defense Provides Access to Unclassified Technical Reports
Scientific and Technical Information Network (STINET) open to the public
The Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) is now making available
to the public via the Web their unclassified technical reports
published since late December 1974. (The reports after September
1998 are full text.) The scope of these technical reports is far
ranging but relative to global change they include biology, chemistry,
energy, environmental sciences, oceanography, sociology, logistics,
human factors, and computer engineering. Also included are other
Federal resources such as country studies and collections on energy,
geoscience, health and medicine, and the environment. This searchable
information resource is available through their Scientific and
Technical Information Network (STINET).
U.S. Department of Defense,
Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC).
Scientific and Technical Information Network available here.
New research based upon NASA satellite data and a multi-national field
experiment shows that black carbon aerosol pollution produced by humans
can impact global climate as well as seasonal cycles of rainfall.
Because aerosols that contain black carbon both absorb and reflect
incoming sunlight, these particles can exert a regional cooling influence
on Earth's surface that is about 3 times greater than the warming effect
of greenhouse gases. But even as these aerosols reduce by as much as
10 percent the amount of sunlight reaching the surface, they increase
the solar energy absorbed in the atmosphere by 50 percent, thus making
it possible to both cool the surface and warm the atmosphere. Scientists
are concerned that this heating may perturb atmospheric circulation and
rainfall patterns.
NASA Goddard Space
Flight Center. Press release available here.
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