Unprecedented wet conditions are reported in the 2014 summer (December–March) in South-western Amazon, with rainfall about 100% above normal. Discharge in the Madeira River (the main southern Amazon tributary) has been 74% higher than normal (58 000 m3 s−1) at Porto Velho and 380% (25 000 m3 s−1) at Rurrenabaque, at the exit of the Andes in summer, while levels of the Rio Negro at Manaus were 29.47 m in June 2014, corresponding to the fifth highest record during the 113 years record of the Rio Negro.
Analysis of an Antarctic ice core has revealed that warming in the frozen continent began about 22,000 years ago, a few thousand years earlier than suggested by earlier records.
London: Scientists have found that a gas released from the oceans on Earth may play a significant role in the destruction of ozone layer.
Researchers at the Universities of York and Leeds found that the principal source of iodine oxide can be explained by emissions of hypoiodous acid (HOI) — a gas not yet considered as being released from the ocean — along with a contribution from molecular iodine (I2). Since the 1970s when methyl iodide (CH3I) was discovered as ubiquitous in the ocean, the presence of iodine in the atmosphere has been understood to arise mainly from emissions of organic compounds from phytoplankton — microscopic marine plants.
South of Africa, the Agulhas ocean current system transports warm, salty water from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean. This study shows that the mesoscale variability of the Agulhas system has intensified over recent decades, apparently owing to enhanced trade winds over the tropical Indian Ocean.
A massive iceberg — twice the size of Manhattan — has broken off of a glacier in Greenland, according to NASA satellite imagery, in what could be the latest indication of global warming.
The images released on Wednesday show the massive chunk of ice breaking off of the Petermann Glacier on the north-western coast of Greenland. The glacier produced a similar ice island twice as large in 2010.
South of Africa, the Agulhas Current retroflects and a portion of its waters flows into the South Atlantic Ocean, typically in the form of Agulhas rings. This flux of warm and salty water from the Indian to the Atlantic Ocean (the Agulhas leakage) is now recognized as a key element in global climate. An Agulhas leakage shutdown has been associated with extreme glacial periods, whereas a vigorous increase has preceded shifts towards interglacials.
In January of this year, a comprehensive study of animals in the Southern Ocean was completed, showing that the region is under threat from climate change.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association today designated the Atlantic sturgeon an endangered species, providing it greater legal protections, following a petition the Natural Resources Def
More than twenty years ago, a biological regulation of climate was proposed whereby emissions of dimethyl sulphide
from oceanic phytoplankton resulted in the formation of aerosol particles that acted as cloud condensation nuclei in the
marine boundary layer. In this hypothesis—referred to as CLAW—the increase in cloud condensation nuclei led to an
increase in cloud albedo with the resulting changes in temperature and radiation initiating a climate feedback altering
New research from the University of Missouri indicates that Atlantic Ocean temperatures during the greenhouse climate of the Late Cretaceous Epoch were influenced by circulation in the deep ocean.
