Oct 1 2000
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(New page: New NASA research published in the 1 October issue of the American Meteorological Society's Journal of Climate warned that clouds might not help counteract climate-warming trends. Anthony ...)
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New NASA research published in the 1 October issue of the American Meteorological Society's Journal of Climate warned that clouds might not help counteract climate-warming trends. Anthony D. Del Genio, of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City, had analyzed observations of low clouds over land, collected between 1994 and 1997 as part of the U.S. Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement program. Del Genio had found that clouds are thinner when temperatures were higher, a phenomenon occurring in any weather condition or season and at any time of day. Some climate theories had predicted that high temperatures would cause thicker clouds because of an increase in water vapor, but Del Genio explained that during warmer temperatures, the bottoms of clouds rise and become thinner. This occurs because clouds that form over a warm, dry air mass must rise higher before becoming sufficiently saturated with water to form a cloud base. Thinner clouds are less capable of reflecting sunlight back into space and are, therefore, unable to act as a "natural sun shield." Del Genio's findings corroborated long-term, worldwide satellite observations, published using the NASA-funded International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) database. The ISCCP, a global composite of cloud observations from international weather satellites, began showing a link between cloud thinning and temperature in 1992.
International Launch Services (ILS), a joint venture of Lockheed Martin, Khrunichev State Research, and S. P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia, launched a Russian Proton rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Proton launch, the fourth in the year for ILS, successfully placed into orbit a United States-built GE-IA communications satellite serving customers in parts of Asia, including China, the Philippines, and India.
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