Research
In a "news and views" piece in Nature Climate Change, INSTAAR Sharon Stammerjohn and CIRES researcher Ted Scambos spell out the evidence and consequences of rapid warming at the South Pole and call for action to 鈥渇latten the curve鈥 of global carbon emissions.
A historic heat wave is occurring in the Arctic, already the fastest-warming place on Earth due to the increasing accumulation of greenhouse gases. Dr. Merritt Turetsky has studied the Arctic for decades. She joins William Brangham on PBS NewsHour to discuss causes and consequences of the Arctic's rising temperatures.
A new sampling method uses carbon-14 to single out which carbon dioxide molecules in the atmosphere derive from fossil fuels. The method could help track emissions goals for climate mitigation.
Arctic infrastructure is under threat from thawing permafrost, explains this story in Eos featuring Merritt Turetsky.
Researchers from NOAA and the University of Colorado have devised a breakthrough method for estimating national emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels using ambient air samples and a well-known isotope of carbon scientists have relied on for decades to date archaeological sites. In a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they report the first-ever national scale estimate of fossil-fuel derived carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions obtained by observing CO2 and its naturally occurring radioisotope, carbon-14, from air samples collected by NOAA鈥檚 Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network.
Shaily Rahman led a study using cosmogenic silicon to estimate the amount of biogenic silica stored in clays along continental margins. The team's findings may explain a longstanding, large discrepancy in the global marine silica budget. Understanding silicon is especially important because of its influence on primary production and the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.