Seasonal winds might drive current variability in the northern Indian Ocean

September 23rd, 2009 Warming ocean melts Greenland glaciersSERMILIK FJORD, Greenland — With whale fins splashing in the distance, Ruth Curry hauls up her catch from the blustery deck of an icebreaker. An orange tube fixed to a metal frame breaks the surface as the motorized winch stops groaning.

September 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Reports indicate that sea levels rose as much as 2 feet (60 centimeters) higher than predicted this summer along the US East Coast, surprising scientists who forecast such periodic fluctuations. According to National Geographic News, though the immediate cause of the unexpected rise has now been solved, the underlying reason remains a mystery.

September 7th, 2009 CHENNAI - Some time between Sep 20 and 25, India will launch a specialised satellite to watch over the Indian Ocean, an official of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said Monday. Oceansat 2 will be launched by the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) into a sun-synchronous orbit 720 km above the earth, the official said on phone from ISRO's launch centre at Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh), 70 km from here.

August 31st, 2009 Wind, current combined to raise E Coast sea levelWASHINGTON — Folks living along the East Coast were in higher water early this summer thanks to a change in the wind and current flow. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Monday the higher than normal sea levels were caused by persistent winds from the northeast — pushing water toward shore — and a weakening of the Florida current that feeds water into the Gulf Stream.

August 15th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new research, scientists have found that the large-scale autumn bloom of microscopic marine algae known as phytoplankton in the southwest Indian Ocean was driven by diatoms in 2005, not by nitrogen-fixing blue-green algae. The observations were made by researchers based at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOCS), during a 2005 hydrographic survey south and east of Madagascar while aboard the royal research ship RRS Discovery.

August 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Climate models have confirmed that as a result of human-induced global warming, the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere is increasing. The research was done by scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists and a group of international researchers.

August 10th, 2009 USGS: huge earthquake hits in Indian OceanWASHINGTON —U.S. officials on Monday reported that a huge 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck in the Indian Ocean and issued a regional tsunami watch for India, Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand and Bangladesh that was lifted later.

August 9th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new research, scientists have determined that depletion in the ozone layer is reducing the atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) uptake of the Southern Ocean. Most current models predict that the strength of the Southern Ocean CO2 sink should increase as atmospheric CO2 rises, but observations show that this has not been the case.

July 18th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A high in solar activity impacts the earth in a way that resembles the devastating El Nio, releasing more energy than a million Hiroshima bombs, according to a new study. The study shows that as the sun reaches maximum activity, it heats cloud-free parts of the Pacific Ocean enough to increase evaporation, intensify tropical rainfall and the trade winds, and cool the eastern tropical Pacific.

July 17th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new research has determined that the ocean current shutdown may take place more slowly and gradually than previously suggested. The research, based on the longest experiment of its type ever run on a "general circulation model" that simulated the Earth's climate for 21,000 years back to the height of the last Ice Age, shows that major changes in these important ocean current systems can occur, but they may take place more slowly and gradually than had been suggested.

July 13th, 2009 Study: 1918 flu survivors seem immune to swine fluWASHINGTON — The way swine flu multiplies in the respiratory system is more severe than ordinary winter flu, a new study in animals finds. Tests in monkeys, mice and ferrets show that the swine flu thrives in greater numbers all over the respiratory system, including the lungs, and causes lesions, instead of staying in the nose and throat like seasonal flu.

May 25th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Shedding new light on how humans choose their partners, a Brazilian scientist has revealed that people have an inherent tendency to get attracted towards genetically opposite individuals. Professor Maria da Graca Bicalho, head of the Immunogenetics and Histocompatibility Laboratory at the University of Parana, has said that people with diverse major histocompatibility complexes (MHCs) were more likely to choose each other as mates than those whose MHCs were similar.

March 14th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Carbon dioxide released from the Antartic Ocean due to shifting wind patterns may drastically increase global warming, say scientists. Many scientists think that the end of the last ice age was triggered by a change in earth's orbit that caused the northern part of the planet to warm.

March 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - New data has emerged that provides evidence in support of the hypothesis that the Agulhas Current, in the southern hemisphere, may stabilise or destabilise climate in Europe. The data was presented by scientist Martinez-Mendez, in her PhD thesis titled "Surface and Deep Circulation off South Africa: Agulhas Leakage Influence on the Meridional Overturning Circulation During the Last 345 kyr".

January 22nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - Seasons are already arriving 48 hours ahead of schedule, even as the globe gets hotter, according to a new study by California Berkeley (UC-B) and Harvard Universities. Besides global warming, human activity may have also hastened the cycle of seasons, said Alexander R.