September 27, 2001
For more information on these science news and feature
story tips, please contact the public information
officer at the end of each item at (703) 292-8070.
Editor: Bill Noxon
Contents of this News Tip:
One hundred scientists from the U.S. and other countries
are now aboard ships and planes to study how clouds,
rain, and the cool water temperatures of the eastern
Pacific Ocean affect climate in such far-away places
as the southwestern United States and parts of Central
and South America.
"The eastern Pacific region has a strong influence
on our weather and climate as well as that of our
neighbors to the south, yet our most sophisticated
climate models do not do well at simulating and predicting
conditions in this region," explains Anjuli Bamzai,
program director in the National Science Foundation's
(NSF) division of atmospheric sciences.
The study, called EPIC, the Eastern Pacific Investigation
of Climate Processes in the Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere
System, began in San Diego, California, on September
5th, and will end in Arica, Chile, on October 25th.
NSF and NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)
are co-funding the research. "EPIC will allow us to
learn more about the coupled ocean-atmosphere processes
that regulate weather and climate in the eastern Pacific
in order to improve predictions," Bamzai said.
NSF's C-130 research aircraft is being employed in
the study, as are NOAA's P-3 aircraft, and ships under
the aegis of NSF, NOAA, and the Universidad Nacional
Autonoma De Mexico. [Cheryl Dybas]
Top of Page
Scientist Hans Thewissen of the Northeastern Ohio Universities
College of Medicine has uncovered the bones of early
whale ancestors on a recent dig in Pakistan funded,
in part, by NSF's paleontology program.
Thewissen and his research team found, and were able
to piece together, the 50-million-year-old skeletons
of two different whale species: the fox-sized Ichthyolestes
pinfoldi and the wolf-sized Pakicetus attocki.
These are the oldest, most complete skeletons found
of early whales, Thewissen says. The skeletons show
that the earliest whales were small and had bodies
similar to those of today's wolves, with longer, muscular
tails, longer snouts, and small eyes set close together,
he explains.
These new findings suggest that whales are closely
related to artiodactyls--even-toed hoofed mammals
that include hippopotamuses, camels, pigs, deer, and
cattle. According to Rich Lane, program director at
NSF for paleontology, these new fossils may be as
important to our understanding of how whales evolved
as the ancestral Archaeopteryx has been to
the study of birds. [Cheryl Dybas]
Top of Page
NSF-supported researchers affiliated with Johns Hopkins
University in Baltimore have developed a technique
to simultaneously measure the magnetic and electrical
fields over large areas of the ionosphere above earth's
polar regions. The technique is providing the first
continuous monitoring of electric currents between
space and the upper atmosphere and generating the
first maps of electric power flowing into the polar
upper atmosphere.
These advances will allow greatly improved understanding
and forecasting of global space weather, the scientists
believe, and will help prevent disruption of communication
and power systems when electromagnetic storms strike.
"We're able for the first time to continuously map
the powerful currents flowing between space and the
earth's upper atmosphere," explains scientist Brian
Anderson of Johns Hopkins. "This is a major achievement
because monitoring this environment is extremely difficult."
The research makes use of the 66 satellites of the
IridiumSystem satellite constellation, which operates
as a global satellite communications network. [Cheryl
Dybas]
Top of Page
NSF is an independent federal agency which supports
fundamental research and education across all fields
of science and engineering, with an annual budget
of about $4.5 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states,
through grants to about 1,800 universities and institutions
nationwide. Each year, NSF receives about 30,000 competitive
requests for funding, and makes about 10,000 new funding
awards.
|