The 2007-2008 International Polar Year (IPY) provides an international framework for improving our understanding of high-latitude climate change and enhancing our skill in predicting world-wide impacts.
With the 2007-9 International Polar Year (IPY) well underway, we take a look at what contributions are being made from young polar scientists in the UK.
In the last decade, the value of Earth Observation (EO) to society has significantly grown among both the public at large and policy makers worldwide. As presented in a recent article on Earthzine (Scanning the Globe) the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) is coordinating efforts to build a Global Earth Observation System of Systems, or GEOSS.
Three interlocking international science years – International Polar Year, International Heliospherical Year, and the Electronic Geophysical Year – are inspiring intense global collaboration and coordinated investment. Earthzine takes a close look at one of its core programs, Heliosphere Impact on Geospace, thatÌÄå_s spinning out a blizzard of new data on Earth’s geomagnetic phenomena.
According to Wayne Esais’ honeybees, big changes are underway in Maryland forests. The most important event in the life of flowering plants and their pollinators, flowering itself, is happening much earlier in the year than it used to.
The next state of equilibrium during which humans will live in balance with the Earth’s ecosystems depends on the choices we make today. In turn, those choices are influenced by the way we view Earth. Daily, we each make decisions that impact our environment; collectively our actions affect the health and well being of Earth. Individually and collectively, we have the power to influence our environment and therein resides our hope for future generations.
It has become clear in recent years that human beings need to be much more careful in how we develop the Earth’s resources if that development is to be sustainable for future generations. To support sustainable development, in turn, we need to know the present state of the Earth and the impact of our activities. Measuring that impact and sharing the results with decision makers around the world is the goal of a major international scientific effort, the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS).
An expert on the behavior of the upper atmosphere, Mahlman led the development of one of the first global climate models, for which he received the American Geophysical Union’s Carl-Gustav Rossby Medal, its highest honor. Mahlman chaired the Earth System Science and Applications Advisory Committee for NASA’s Mission to Planet Earth program in the 1990s and was involved in the founding of the IPCC; He created the so-called betting odds scheme used by IPCC to evaluate uncertainty and was a reviewer of the Working Group I report for IPCC’s 2007 assessment.
Volcanoes can have extremely wide ranging effects. Even a single eruption can cause disastrous climate changes at great distance from the source. Thus, it is important to have a system to monitor even the most remote volcanoes. The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on the Terra spacecraft and other satellite sensors provide imagery that is critical to the global volcano monitoring solution.
No single solution or technology will solve climate change. The problem looms so large that we should think not twice, but three or four times, before we take any solutions off the table. Yet this is exactly what Daniel Ziskin seems to advocate in his essay, Carbon Capture & Sequestration: How Hopeful Should We Be?
