The
year 2008 is on track to be one of the 10 warmest years on record for
the globe, based on the combined average of worldwide land and ocean
surface temperatures, according to a preliminary analysis by NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
in Asheville, N.C. For November alone, the month is fourth warmest
all-time globally, for the combined land and ocean surface temperature.
The early assessment is based on records dating back to 1880.
Continue reading "NOAA: Global Temperature for November Fourth Warmest on Record" »
NOAA
announced that scientists around the world now have access to valuable
data from a new international satellite, the Jason-2/Ocean Surface
Topography Mission. This information allows them to closely watch the
rate of global sea-level rise and monitor changing ocean features
around tropical cyclones.
Jason-2/OSTM, launched June 20,
2008, is a joint effort between NOAA, the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration, France’s Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales
(CNES) and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of
Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT). After five months of calibration
and validation activities an international team of scientists,
including representatives from NOAA, declared the near real-time
Jason-2 data were ready for public distribution.
Continue reading "NOAA: Jason-2 Satellite Data Now Available to Scientists " »
The combined global land and ocean surface average temperature for
October 2008 was the second warmest since records began in 1880,
according to a preliminary analysis by NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.
Continue reading "NOAA: Second Warmest October for Global Temperatures" »
Central
interior Alaskan residents, visitors, barge captains and railroad
operators now have access to weather information anytime, thanks to a
new NOAA Weather Radio All-Hazards transmitter recently installed on Toghotthele Hill in Nenana, the 1,000th of these transmitters installed by NOAA.
Continue reading "NOAA: Nenana, Alaska, Receives Nation’s 1,000th NOAA Weather Radio Transmitter" »
The period of
very rapid ice growth that characterized October and early November has
ended. The rise in ice extent over the past three weeks has been much
slower, and should continue to slow until the expected seasonal ice
extent maximum is reached sometime in March. Air temperatures over the
Arctic Ocean stayed well above average during November, partly because
of continued heat release from the ocean to the atmosphere and partly
because of a pattern of atmospheric circulation transporting warm air
into the region.
Figure 1. Arctic sea ice extent for November 2008 was 10.63 million square kilometers (4.10 million
square miles). The magenta line shows the 1979 to 2000 average extent
for November. The black cross indicates the geographic North Pole. Sea
Ice Index data. About the data.
—Credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center
High-resolution image
Continue reading "NSIDC: Ice growth slows, Arctic still warmer than usual" »
NOAA and NASA officials announced today Lockheed Martin Space Systems
Company, of Denver, Colo., has been selected to build two spacecraft
for NOAA’s next generation geostationary satellite series, GOES-R.
There are two options, each providing for one additional satellite.
Scheduled for launch in 2015, the new satellites will provide more data
in greater detail which is essential to creating accurate weather
forecasts.
Continue reading "NOAA: NOAA, NASA Select Contractor to Build GOES-R Series Spacecraft " »