December 17, 2013
Hack the planet? Geoengineering research, ethics, governance explored
A special interdisciplinary issue of the journal Climatic Change includes the most detailed description yet of the proposed Oxford Principles to govern geoengineering research, and surveys the technical hurdles, ethics and regulatory issues related to deliberately manipulating the planet’s climate.
December 10, 2013
What climate change means for federally protected marine species
As the Endangered Species Act nears its 40th birthday at the end of December, conservation biologists are coming to terms with a danger not foreseen in the 1970s: global climate change.
November 18, 2013
Post-shutdown, UW Arctic research flights resume
UW researchers this month are on missions to fly above the Arctic Ocean to measure glacier melt, polar storms and Arctic sea ice.
November 4, 2013
More wildfires, earlier snowmelt, coastal threats top Northwest climate risks
A new comprehensive report co-authored by the UW’s Climate Impacts Group looks at what climate change will mean for Washington, Oregon and Idaho.
UW Bothell prof, students present crowd-funded study of coal train emissions
Atmospheric scientist Dan Jaffe tonight will present the first results of a crowd-funded study of train emissions, conducted with four undergraduates from the Seattle and Bothell campuses and funded by public donations.
October 29, 2013
Redwood trees reveal history of West Coast rain, fog, ocean conditions
Scientists found a way to use coastal redwood trees as a window into historic climate, using oxygen and carbon atoms in the wood to detect fog and rainfall in previous seasons.
October 20, 2013
Global ocean currents explain why Northern Hemisphere is the soggier one
A new study in Nature Geoscience explains a major feature of global precipitation, and shows how a current originating from the poles influences tropical rainfall in Africa and southern India.
October 8, 2013
UW, local company building innovative deep-sea manned submarine
The UW, Boeing and an Everett company are building a carbon-fiber submersible that will carry five passengers almost 2 miles deep.
September 30, 2013
UW researchers helped draft international assessment of climate change
UW faculty members were among international researchers who compiled the fifth climate-change assessment report. The UW will host a seminar Tuesday, Oct. 1 with some of the Seattle-area authors.
September 18, 2013
Cables, instruments installed in the deep sea off Pacific Northwest coast
In a seven-week cruise this past summer, oceanographers and students laid 14 miles of extension cable and installed about a dozen instruments for a historic deep-sea observatory.
September 17, 2013
Stronger winds explain puzzling growth of sea ice in Antarctica
Despite warming temperatures, Antarctic sea ice is on track to hit a record high. A new study suggests stronger polar winds can explain the recent increase in Southern Hemisphere sea ice.
September 9, 2013
Breaking deep-sea waves reveal mechanism for global ocean mixing
Oceanographers for the first time recorded an enormous wave breaking miles below the surface in a key bottleneck for global ocean circulation.
August 30, 2013
New ocean forecast could help predict fish habitat six months in advance
UW researchers and federal scientists have developed the first long-term seasonal forecast of conditions for the Northwest ocean ecosystem.
August 1, 2013
Scientists review the ecological effects of sea ice loss
A UW atmospheric scientist is co-author of a review paper, published this week in the journal Science, looking at the ecological consequences of sea ice decline.
July 30, 2013
Santa’s workshop not flooded – but lots of melting in the Arctic
Widespread media reports of a lake at the North Pole don’t hold water — but scientists who deployed the monitoring buoys are watching closely as Arctic sea ice approaches its yearly minimum.
July 19, 2013
Nighttime heat waves quadruple in Pacific Northwest
Nighttime heat waves — events where the nighttime low is unusually hot for at least three days in a row — are becoming more common in western Washington and Oregon.
July 9, 2013
Hazy days of summer: Southeast U.S. field work measures mercury, smog
Dozens of atmospheric scientists, including three University of Washington faculty members, are taking part in what’s being described as one of the largest atmospheric field campaigns in decades.
July 1, 2013
Work this summer extends reach of cabled deep-ocean observatory
A UW research vessel leaves July 2 for six weeks at sea, during which oceanographers will install miles of cable for a new type of deep-sea observatory.
June 25, 2013
Clearing up confusion on future of Colorado River flows
Leading experts on water issues in the Western U.S. have come together to establish what is known about the future of Colorado River water, and to understand the wide range of estimates for future flows.
June 6, 2013
Pollution in Northern Hemisphere helped cause 1980s African drought
Air pollution in the Northern Hemisphere in the mid-20th century cooled the upper half of the planet and pushed rain bands south, contributing to the prolonged and worsening drought in Africa’s Sahel region. Clean air legislation in the 1980s reversed the trend and the drought lessened.
May 22, 2013
New documentary on cabled ocean observatory airs on UWTV
A new half-hour documentary about a UW research expedition to Axial Seamount, an underwater volcano off the Washington coast, airs tonight at 9:30 p.m. on UWTV.
May 20, 2013
Amazon River exhales virtually all carbon taken up by rain forest
A study published this week in Nature Geoscience shows that woody plant matter is almost completely digested by bacteria living in the Amazon River, and that this tough stuff plays a major part in fueling the river’s breath.
May 13, 2013
Using earthquake sensors to track endangered whales
Oceanographers are using a growing number of seafloor seismometers, devices that record seafloor vibrations, to carry out inexpensive and non-invasive studies of endangered whales.
May 6, 2013
UW research vessel Clifford A. Barnes marks its 1,000th cruise
This week marks the 1000th cruise for the UW’s Clifford A. Barnes research vessel, a converted tugboat that has spent decades exploring Puget Sound and Pacific Northwest waters and is now reaching the end of its UW career.
April 25, 2013
Keeping beverages cool in summer: It’s not just the heat, it’s the humidity
Drops forming on the outside of your drink don’t just make the can slippery. Experiments show that in hot, humid weather, condensation heats a drink more than the surrounding air.
April 15, 2013
Preparing to install the world’s largest underwater observatory
Engineers at the UW’s Applied Physics Laboratory are under pressure to build and test parts for installation this summer in the world’s largest deep-ocean observatory off the Washington and Oregon coasts.
April 12, 2013
Tsunami debris could be found in Washington’s annual beach cleanup
The annual beach cleanup may turn up new items from the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan more than two years ago and sent objects to the Washington coast.
April 11, 2013
Space-age domes offer a window on ocean acidification
At Friday Harbor Labs, students are conducting a three-week study on the effects of ocean acidification using a strategy that’s midway between a controlled lab test and an open-ocean experiment.
April 3, 2013
UW group part of national report, meeting on adaptation to climate change
The UW’s Climate Impacts Group is part of a national report and first-ever national meeting on adapting to the effects of a changing climate.
March 28, 2013
Volunteers use historic U.S. ship logbooks to uncover Arctic climate data
A volunteer project enlists citizen scientists to transcribe climate observations buried in historic logbooks of U.S. ships that spent time in the Arctic.
March 11, 2013
Remote clouds responsible for climate models’ glitch in tropical rainfall
One of the most persistent biases in global climate models is due to poor simulation of cloud cover thousands of miles to the south.
March 7, 2013
Tracking sediments’ fate in largest-ever dam removal
Any day now, the world’s largest dam-removal project will release a century’s worth of sediment . For geologists, it’s a unique opportunity to study natural and engineered river systems.
February 27, 2013
Bundle up for Polar Science Weekend at Pacific Science Center
The annual Polar Science Weekend, featuring many UW students and faculty, takes place tomorrow through Sunday at Pacific Science Center.
February 25, 2013
UW undergraduates embark on three-week research cruise off Japan
Eleven UW undergraduates leave today on an unusually ambitious research and teaching expedition to study the Kuroshio Current off Japan.
February 13, 2013
European satellite confirms UW numbers: Arctic Ocean is on thin ice
New satellite observations confirm a University of Washington analysis that for the past three years found accelerated declines in the volume of Arctic sea ice.
February 6, 2013
Smartphones, tablets help UW researchers improve storm forecasts
Atmospheric scientists are using pressure readings from some new smartphones and tablet computers to improve short-term thunderstorm forecasts. A weather station in every pocket would offer an unprecedented wealth of data.
January 31, 2013
Cyclone did not cause 2012 record low for Arctic sea ice
A huge Arctic cyclone in August was not responsible for the historic minimum seen soon after in Arctic sea-ice extent.
January 24, 2013
Organic ferroelectric molecule shows promise for memory chips, sensors
A paper in Science describes an organic crystal that shows promise as a cheap, flexible, nontoxic material for the working parts of memory chips, sensors and energy-harvesting devices.
January 15, 2013
International study: Where there’s smoke or smog, there’s climate change
A new international assessment found that soot, or black carbon, is a major contributor to global warming — second only to carbon dioxide.
January 9, 2013
UW, Pacific NW National Lab join forces on computing research
The University of Washington and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have formed the Northwest Institute for Advanced Computing, a joint institute based at the UW that will foster collaborative computing research.
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