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"Initially, we looked at these huge OH and HO 2 signals found in the clouds and asked, 'What is wrong with our instrument?,'" said William Brune, a meteorologist at Penn State. "We assumed there was noise in the instrument, so we removed the huge signals from the dataset and shelved them for later study." The data were collected from an instrument on a plane flown above Colorado and Oklahoma; the instrument analyzed chemical changes thunderstorms and lightning make in the atmosphere. The researchers determined the signals were really hydroxyl and hydroperoxyl and worked with colleagues to see...

Scientists use 22-year solar clock to find an elusive correlation During La Niña, sea surface temperatures in the eastern tropical Pacific drop below average. A new study shows a correlation between the end of solar cycles and a switch to La Niña conditions in the Pacific Ocean, suggesting that the sun’s variability can drive seasonal weather variability on Earth. The findings were published in the journal Earth and Space Science. If the connection holds up, it could significantly improve the ability to predict the largest La Niña events, which have seasonal climate...

How plants will fare as carbon dioxide levels continue to rise is a tricky question Rainforest on Panama’s Barro Colorado Island; researchers there study tropical ecosystems.  How plants will fare as carbon dioxide levels continue to rise is a tricky question and, researchers say, especially vexing in the tropics. Some aspects of plants’ survival may get easier, some parts will get harder, and there will be winners and losers. The resulting shifts in vegetation will help determine the future direction of climate change. To explore the question, a U.S. National Scie...

January 22, 2021 Jim Steenburgh isn’t your typical storm-chaser. The atmospheric scientist isn’t after Midwest tornadoes nor supercell thunderstorms.  Steenburgh chases snowstorms.  Peering inside a snowstorm Growing up in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York, he remembers always watching for snow. As a snow scientist at the University of Utah and an avid Alpine, Nordic, and backcountry skier, Steenburgh continues that quest today.  Steenburgh and other NSF-funded principal investigators led the Ontario Winter Lake-effect Systems project. Using ground-based and airborne in...

A grant from the National Science Foundation is funding a tenure-track faculty position in New Mexico State University’s astronomy department to integrate research and education in solar magnetic fields. The grant comes through the Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences. Juie Shetye, will join New Mexico State University’s astronomy department in spring 2021 as an assistant professor to integrate research and education in solar magnetic fields. Her position is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation through the Division of Atmospheric and Geospa...