Ocean Sciences In The News

Read about recent climate, oceanography and glaciology stories reported in the popular press. Follow story links and/or talk with the listed contact at ESR to find out more about that topic. For more news, check out the following online magazines: New Scientist (UK), Scientific American, and Science Weekly.

	3/2/06 - NASA's GRACE Satellite Data Documents Rising Global Sea Levels Scientists, Isabella Velicogna and John Wahr from the University of Colorado, use spaceborne gravity measurements to document Antarctic ice volume decreases. In an article published in March 2, 2006, journal "Science", the ice volume has shrunk by about 150 cubic kilometers per year Read more ...
	08/11/05 - Errors in Global Warming Data Three new scientific papers published in the August 11, 2005 Journal Science ( http://www.sciencemag.org) examine anomalies in Earth's climate, surface temperatures and atmospheric temperatures which may be related to data errors. Read more ...
	07/07/05 - – NASA Satellites Measure and Monitor Sea Level NASA’s fleet of earth-observing satellites are now providing sufficiently accurate data to allow scientists to directly monitor the rate of sea level rise and melt rates of grounded ice from Antarctica to Greenland. Read more ...
	01/06/04 - Salinity from Space NASA approves a new satellite to measure ocean surface salinity from space. ESR's Gary Lagerloef will be the project's managing scientist. Read more ...

To read some of our earlier articles, please go to our ARCHIVES.

03/2/06 - NASA's GRACE Satellite Data Documents Rising Global Sea Levels

Scientists, Isabella Velicogna and John Wahr from the University of Colorado, use spaceborne gravity measurements to document Antarctic ice volume decreases. In an article published in March 2, 2006, journal "Science", the ice volume has shrunk by about 150 cubic kilometers per year according to their analysis of NASA Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite data from 2002-2005 (http://www.scienceexpress.org). The corresponding global sea level rise is about 0.4 mm per year, or about 14% of the total 2.9 mm per year global sea level change, documented by satellite altimeter missions Topex/Poseidon and Jason

(http://sealevel.colorado.edu/). The GRACE mission, launched in 2002, was born out of a 1997 study report "Satellite Gravity and the Geosphere" by the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Earth Gravity from Space, on which ESR President, Dr. Gary Lagerloef, served as a member.

Read more in "Loss of Antarctic Ice Increases", New York Times, March 3, 2006

08/11/05 - Errors in Global Warming Data

Three new scientific papers published in the August 11, 2005 Journal Science (http://www.sciencemag.org) examine anomalies in Earth's climate, surface temperatures and atmospheric temperatures which may be related to data errors. They reveal errors in previous studies that had indicated little or no warming in the troposphere (the lowest layer of the atmosphere) in contradiction with climate models and surface temperature trends. The corrected data now show that troposphere warming trends are much more significant over the past two decades. The separate studies were conducted by Steven Sherwood of Yale University (weather balloon data), Ben Santer of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (climate models), and Carl Mears and Frank Wentz of Remote Sensing Systems of Santa Rosa, CA (satellite data). Frank Wentz also works on the Aquarius Mission science team. The climate articles are reported in various news media:

"Scientists Find Errors in Global Warming Data" - USA Today

"Studies Find Atmosphere Is Warmer" - The New York Times

"Heat and Light" -The Economist

07/07/05 - NASA Satellites Measure and Monitor Sea Level

NASA's fleet of earth-observing satellites includes satellites which use active radars and lasers to precisely determine the elevation of the ocean surface and ice. These measurements are now sufficiently accurate to allow a direct measurement of sea level rise - about 3 mm (1/8") per year over the last 12 years, about twice as fast as the sea level rise over the last 50 years. The new data sets not only allow scientists to monitor the changes, but also to understand the processes which cause these

changes. For example, scientists can now tell that about half of sea level rise is due to expansion as the ocean warms. The remainder is associated with melting of land ice, which is particularly rapid in west Antarctica, Greenland, and temperate mountain regions.

Laurie Padman of Earth & Space Research works with altimeter data from NASA's TOPEX/Poseidon and Jason radar satellites and the Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat), and radar altimetry from the European Space Agency's European Remote Sensing (ERS) and EnviSat satellites. Much of his work involves improving models of tides around Antarctica and in the Arctic, since the tidal contribution to the elevation of the ocean surface and floating ice shelves is a major source of noise when trying to use these data to detect long-term trends. Combining data from different satellites also allows us to measure the rate at which the floating ice shelves around Antarctica are melting. This information can then be used to model how ice melt rates might vary as ocean temperatures change in a future climate. While melting ice shelves do not contribute directly to sea level change (think of an ice block melting in a glass of water), recent studies indicate that ice shelves do slow down the speed at which the glaciers and ice streams drain ice off the continents. As the ice on the continents thins, sea level rises.

To learn more about NASA's Satellites, read the original NASA press release. Or, dive right into NASA’s Science Update page, “Breakthrough Discoveries in Sea Level Change Research”.

To learn more about Climate Change - see ESR's Climate Change and the Oceans website.

01/06/04 - Salinity from Space

Dr. Gary Lagerloef of Earth & Space Research is the principal investigator for a new NASA satellite called "Aquarius". Aquarius is targeted for launch in September 2008 with a planned 3-year service life, and is the first satellite mission specifically designed to provide monthly global maps of how salt concentration varies on the ocean surface. Satellites already routinely produce accurate maps of sea surface temperature, but salinity is a much more difficult measurement to make. Scientists wish to better

understand how salinity variations modify the interaction between ocean circulation and the global water cycle, which, in turn, affects the oceans' capacity to store and transport heat and regulate Earth's climate. The mission seeks to determine how the ocean responds to the combined effects of evaporation, precipitation, ice melt and river runoff on seasonal and interannual time scales, and their impact on the global distribution and availability of fresh water.

A large, international team of scientists is involved in the Aquarius project, including Argentina's Comision Nacional de Actividades Espaciales. Argentina is providing the SAC-D spacecraft, mission operations and additional science instruments, while NASA is providing the Aquarius salinity sensor and the rocket launch. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, is managing the Aquarius mission development for NASA's Earth Science Enterprise based in Washington, D.C., and NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is managing the mission after launch.

To learn more about ESR and the Aquarius satellite mission, see the ESR Press Release. To learn more about NASA's Earth System Science Pathfinder small-satellite missions including Aquarius, see the NASA Press Release.

	NASA's fleet of earth-observing satellites includes satellites which use active radars and lasers to precisely determine the elevation of the ocean surface and ice. These measurements are now sufficiently accurate to allow a direct measurement of sea level rise - about 3 mm (1/8") per year over the last 12 years, about twice as fast as the sea level rise over the last 50 years. The new data sets not only allow scientists to monitor the changes, but also to understand the processes which cause these
changes. For example, scientists can now tell that about half of sea level rise is due to expansion as the ocean warms. The remainder is associated with melting of land ice, which is particularly rapid in west Antarctica, Greenland, and temperate mountain regions. Laurie Padman of Earth & Space Research works with altimeter data from NASA's TOPEX/Poseidon and Jason radar satellites and the Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat), and radar altimetry from the European Space Agency's European Remote Sensing (ERS) and EnviSat satellites. Much of his work involves improving models of tides around Antarctica and in the Arctic, since the tidal contribution to the elevation of the ocean surface and floating ice shelves is a major source of noise when trying to use these data to detect long-term trends. Combining data from different satellites also allows us to measure the rate at which the floating ice shelves around Antarctica are melting. This information can then be used to model how ice melt rates might vary as ocean temperatures change in a future climate. While melting ice shelves do not contribute directly to sea level change (think of an ice block melting in a glass of water), recent studies indicate that ice shelves do slow down the speed at which the glaciers and ice streams drain ice off the continents. As the ice on the continents thins, sea level rises.
To learn more about NASA's Satellites, read the original NASA press release. Or, dive right into NASA’s Science Update page, “Breakthrough Discoveries in Sea Level Change Research”.
To learn more about Climate Change - see ESR's Climate Change and the Oceans website.

	Dr. Gary Lagerloef of Earth & Space Research is the principal investigator for a new NASA satellite called "Aquarius". Aquarius is targeted for launch in September 2008 with a planned 3-year service life, and is the first satellite mission specifically designed to provide monthly global maps of how salt concentration varies on the ocean surface. Satellites already routinely produce accurate maps of sea surface temperature, but salinity is a much more difficult measurement to make. Scientists wish to better
understand how salinity variations modify the interaction between ocean circulation and the global water cycle, which, in turn, affects the oceans' capacity to store and transport heat and regulate Earth's climate. The mission seeks to determine how the ocean responds to the combined effects of evaporation, precipitation, ice melt and river runoff on seasonal and interannual time scales, and their impact on the global distribution and availability of fresh water.
A large, international team of scientists is involved in the Aquarius project, including Argentina's Comision Nacional de Actividades Espaciales. Argentina is providing the SAC-D spacecraft, mission operations and additional science instruments, while NASA is providing the Aquarius salinity sensor and the rocket launch. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, is managing the Aquarius mission development for NASA's Earth Science Enterprise based in Washington, D.C., and NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is managing the mission after launch.
To learn more about ESR and the Aquarius satellite mission, see the ESR Press Release. To learn more about NASA's Earth System Science Pathfinder small-satellite missions including Aquarius, see the NASA Press Release.