News Release Archives
2012
December 12, 2012
Ozone Pollution Leveling Off Worldwide
In what scientists are calling a success story for air-quality controls, levels of ozone pollution, which have been increasing since the beginning of the 19th century, appear to now be flattening out worldwide, according to a new study led by a researcher at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES). Read More ...
November 30, 2012
Media Advisory: Highlights of CIRES science at AGU
Scientists from the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) will present new research at next week’s American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting in San Francisco. Read More ...
November 26, 2012
Alaska’s iconic Columbia Glacier expected to stop retreating in 2020, says CU-Boulder study
The wild and dramatic cascade of ice into the ocean from Alaska’s Columbia Glacier, an iconic glacier featured in the documentary “Chasing Ice” and one of the fastest moving glaciers in the world, will cease around 2020, according to a study by the University of Colorado Boulder. Read More ...
November 13, 2012
Direct Evidence of Summer Climate Change
That summers “just aren’t what they used to be” no longer seems to be the wistful chant of the world weary looking back on their salad days: Analysis of 90 years of observational data has revealed that summer climates in regions across the globe are changing—mostly, but not always, warming—according to a new study led by a scientist from the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES). Read More ...
November 5, 2012
CIRES/NOAA models on track toward prediction of storms
While Sandy swept across the North East, CIRES Fellow Stan Benjamin and CIRES scientist Curtis Alexander compare and contrast the "Superstorm’s" path with the output of the Flow-following finite-volume Icosahedral Model (FIM). This is the same model that has been involved in the experimental forecasting for NOAA’s Hurricane Forecasting Improvement Project. Read More ...
October 9, 2012
Peeping at Polynyas
Polynyas—expanses of open water in the Antarctic Ocean surrounded by ice or land—might not spur the interest of polar bears, penguins or even most people but en masse they do have the capacity to impact atmospheric and climatic conditions in the southern polar region. Read More ...
October 8, 2012
CIRES scientists receive award for Gulf oil spill research
A team of scientists from CIRES and NOAA will receive the governor of Colorado's Award for High-Impact Research, for discoveries made during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill crisis. Read More ...
August 30, 2012
NOAA selects CU-Boulder to continue joint leadership of CIRES
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has selected the University of Colorado Boulder to continue a federal/academic partnership that extends NOAA’s ability to study climate change, improve weather models and better predict how solar storms can disrupt communication and navigation technologies. Read More ...
August 27, 2012
Wildfires: The Heat is On
When the Fourmile Canyon fire erupted west of Boulder, Colo. in 2010, smoke from the wildfire poured into parts of the city including the site of the David Skaggs Research Center, which houses scientists from the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and NOAA. Read More ...
August 13, 2012
Airborne Ethanol on the Rise
Ethanol, now used commonly in U.S. transportation fuels, is turning up in urban air at more than six times the levels measured a decade ago, according to a new study led by scientists at the Cooperative Institute of Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and NOAA. The research team found no discernible impact of increased ethanol on air quality. Read More ...
August 9, 2012
50-year decline in some Los Angeles vehicle-related pollutants
In California’s Los Angeles Basin, levels of some vehicle-related air pollutants have decreased by about 98 percent since the 1960s, even as area residents now burn three times as much gasoline and diesel fuel. Between 2002 and 2010 alone, the concentration of air pollutants called volatile organic compounds (VOCs) dropped by half, according to a new study led by CIRES scientists. Read More ...
August 2, 2012
Earth still absorbing carbon dioxide even as emissions rise
Despite sharp increases in carbon dioxide emissions by humans in recent decades that are warming the planet, Earth’s vegetation and oceans continue to soak up about half of them, according to a surprising a new study conducted by scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder, CIRES and NOAA. Read More ...
July 23, 2012
CIRES Scientists Earn Presidential Honor
The White House today named CIRES scientists David Noone and Rebecca Washenfelder as recipients of the 2011 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). The PECASE award is the highest honor given by the U.S. government to outstanding scientists and engineers in the early stages of their careers. Read More ...
June 21, 2012
Emperor penguins threatened by Antarctic sea ice loss
A decline in the population of emperor penguins appears likely this century as climate change reduces the extent of Antarctic sea ice, according to a detailed projection published this week. Read More ...
May 17, 2012
A sea change in the Artic atmosphere
Arctic warming has thinned the blanket of sea ice that stretches across the Arctic Ocean in springtime and a study led by a scientist from the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) shows that this change is altering the chemistry of the atmosphere at ground level in the region. Those atmospheric changes may, in turn, be increasing the amount of toxic mercury contaminating the region. Read More ...
May 9, 2012
New wave discovery
The uncovering of a new type of wave may have a ripple effect in the Earth and planetary sciences, says the scientist from the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) who discovered the wave. Read More ...
May 3, 2012
Near-term weather forecasts get powerful boost from new computer model
Starting today, a sophisticated new weather forecast computer model developed by scientists from the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and NOAA will help improve predictions of quickly developing severe weather events such as thunderstorms, winter storms and dangerous air turbulence. Read More ...
April 30, 2012
Smoking out an air pollutant's hot spots
A smoke-related chemical, isocyanic acid, may be a significant air pollutant in some parts of the world, especially where forest fires and other forms of biomass burning are common, according to new research by Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) scientists and colleagues. Read More ...
April 19, 2012
New monitoring system clarifies murky atmospheric questions
Scientists from CIRES and the University of Colorado Boulder have developed a new monitoring system to analyze and compare emissions from man-made fossil fuels and trace gases in the atmosphere, a technique that likely could be used to monitor the effectiveness of measures regulating greenhouse gases. Read More ...
April 16, 2012
Greenland Ice Sheet Flushing Itself Away?
Like snow sliding off a roof on a sunny day, the Greenland Ice Sheet may be sliding faster into the ocean due to massive releases of meltwater from surface lakes, according to a new study from the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and the University of Colorado Boulder (CU). Such lake drainages may affect sea-level rise, with implications for coastal communities. Read More ...
March 2, 2012
Gasoline worse than diesel when it comes to some types of air pollution
The exhaust fumes from gasoline vehicles contribute more to the production of a specific type of air pollution-secondary organic aerosols (SOA)-than those from diesel vehicles, according to a new study by scientists from the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) and other colleagues. Read More ...
March 1, 2012
Colorado oil and gas wells emit more pollutants than expected
When scientists from the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and NOAA began routinely monitoring the atmosphere's composition at a tower north of Denver a few years ago, their instruments immediately sniffed something strange: plumes of air rich with chemical pollutants, including the potent greenhouse gas methane. Read More ...
January 23, 2012
Ocean Onslaught
In the hunt to track down climate-altering gases it isn't enough just to stick to dry land. With oceans covering 70% of Earth getting wet feet is a necessity, says Rainer Volkamer, a CU assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry and fellow at the Cooperative Institute of Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES). Read More ...
January 17, 2012
CIRES Researchers Presenting at the 2012 AMS Meeting
The NCEP/EMC operational HWRF model is an important component of the numerical guidance used at the National Hurricane Center, making it critical that the HWRF model be continuously improved. The Developmental Testbed Center (DTC) has partnered with NOAA NCEP to work with the transfer of new technologies onto HWRF. Read More ...
January 11, 2012
Earthquake potential in Colorado and New Mexico
The Rio Grande Rift—the north-trending continental rift zone that extends from Colorado's central Rocky Mountains to Mexico—is not dead but geologically alive and active, according to a new study by scientists at the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Environmental Sciences (CIRES) in collaboration with the University of New Mexico, New Mexico Tech, Utah State University, and UNAVCO. Read More ...
January 10, 2012
Chemical measurements confirm official estimate of Gulf oil spill rate
By combining detailed chemical measurements in the deep ocean, in the oil slick, and in the air, scientists from the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), NOAA and other academic institutes have independently estimated how fast gases and oil were leaking during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Read More ...
January 9, 2012
Colorado mountain hail may disappear in a warmer future
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 the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), NOAA and several other institutions. Read More ...
