Colorado mountain hail may disappear in a warmer future
Lead author, Kelly Mahoney, came to NOAA as PACE Postdoctoral
Research Fellow in '09 A handful of hail after a July 2011 hailstorm in Boulder, Colorado.
Photo credit: Kelly Mahoney, NOAA

Summertime hail could all but disappear from the eastern flank of Colorado's Rocky Mountains by 2070, according to a new modeling study by scientists from NOAA and several other institutions.

Less hail damage could be good news for gardeners and farmers, said Kelly Mahoney, Ph.D., lead author of the study and a postdoctoral scientist at NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) in Boulder, Colo. But a shift from hail to rain can also mean more runoff, which could raise the risk of flash floods, she said.

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Dr. Lubchenco and Colleagues Emphasize International
Collaboration on Climate Services in Coastal and Oceanic Sectors NOAA diver surveys a bleached coral colony in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands in October 2005. Photo credit: NOAA

In November 2011, NOAA Administrator Dr. Jane Lubchenco traveled to Japan to accept the prestigious Blue Planet Prize and meet with officials from Japanese science agencies. Shortly thereafter, Professor Toshio Yamagata, Dean of the University of Tokyo School of Science, invited Lubchenco to contribute to Japan's prestigious and influential Ocean Policy Research Foundation's Ship & Ocean Newsletter. The resulting article, titled "Enhancing the Resilience of Coasts and Oceans through Climate Services," was published on January 5, 2012.

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CPO Supports Workshop Focused on Vulnerability and
Adaptation to Extreme Events in California Southern California Wildfires, 27 October 2007. Photo credit: NASA/MODIS Rapid Response

Last month, the Climate Program Office co-sponsored a successful workshop led and hosted by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, on December 13, 2011. The workshop, titled Vulnerability and Adaptation to Extreme Events in California in the Context of a Changing Climate: New Scientific Findings, convened a team of disciplinary and multi-disciplinary experts to discuss extreme weather-related events in different sectors of the economy such as energy, public health, agriculture, coastal resources, and ecosystems.

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Scientists recast phyotplankton's role in regulating climate change Sea Sweep instrument that samples particles to see what they are made of and how good they are at forming cloud droplets. Credit: NOAA

A study investigating phytoplankton's role in regulating climate change, conducted by NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory scientists Patricia Quinn and Timothy Bates, was published in the journal Nature on Nov. 30. For more than 25 years, many scientists subscribed to the idea that tiny marine plants played a starring role in regulating climate change.

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2011 Arctic Report Card: Arctic settles into new phase - warmer, greener, and less ice

An international team of scientists who monitor the rapid changes in the Earth's northern polar region say that the Arctic is entering a new state - one with warmer air and water temperatures, less summer sea ice and snow cover, and a changed ocean chemistry. This shift is also causing changes in the in the region's life, both on land and in the sea, including less habitat for polar bears and walruses but increased access to feeding areas for whales.

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CPO's David Herring Elected to the Rank of AAAS Fellow
Herring recognized for developing innovative ways of enhancing public enagement with science on the Web
David Herring, Director of Communications and Education at NOAA's Climate Program Office, was recently elected to the rank of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow, in recognition of his contributions "in developing and deploying new and innovative ways of enhancing public engagement with Earth and space science research using the World Wide Web." Beginning in 1874, the AAAS Council elects new members each year whose efforts on behalf of the advancement of science or its applications are scientifically or socially distinguished.

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NOAA Partners with Navy to Deploy Ocean Observatory
The KEO Ocean Observatory, funded by the NOAA Climate Program Office, gets an upgrade
An innovative partnership between NOAA and the US Navy brings research scientists one step closer to understanding the intricate relationship between the atmosphere and ocean that will help lead to improved predictability of weather, global climate, and changes in the ocean environment. On Nov 14th, scientists from NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL), on board the US Navy's Military Sealift Command ship USNS SAFEGUARD deployed an upgraded Ocean Climate Station Mooring on the southern edge of the Kuroshio Extension Current, 340 miles SE of Tokyo, Japan. The crew of the USNS SAFEGUARD successfully and safely deployed the 9 ft diameter surface buoy, which weighs 2900 lbs, and the 5 miles of wire and nylon line used to anchor the mooring in 18,700 feet of water.

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