bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Friction between science and practice: The case of river restoration
Authors: Wilcock Peter
Published: October 2006

The growing public awareness that human activities can harm rivers is leading to rapid growth in efforts to restore river channels to some acceptable, if not natural, state. There is a corresponding increase in criticism from the scientific community that such projects are poorly designed and fail too often. Scientists also complain that design practice does not make use of the best available scientific information and feel that they are not listened to.

Tension between scientist and practitioner is not new, unusual, or limited to river restoration projects. Practitioners may be inclined to dismiss criticism from those who do not leave their handiwork on the landscape for all to evaluate. This view, however, misses the point that the job of science is not to address particular cases, but to find the general principles that apply to all cases. Also, it is likely that much of the criticism is basically correct (given the advantage of hindsight). The problem is not faulty criticism, nor that scientists do not have the right to criticize. The problem is that the critique is ineffective, if effectiveness is measured in terms of injecting better ideas and reliability into practice.
Scientists and senators call for doubling of science budget
Authors: Showstack Randy
Published: October 2006

Leaders of 106 scientific and engineering organizations last week called on the U.S. government to double the federal budget for research by the year 2009.

The groups, which include AGU and represent about 3 million scientists, engineers, and mathematicians, called for a “decade of investment” in health, environmental, technological and other research, beginning in fiscal year 1999. This request followed a call made earlier this year by about 40 scientific societies and research organizations for a 7% increase in the federal fiscal year 1998 science research budget.
The future of marine geosciences discussed
Authors: McNutt Marcia , Baker Paul
Published: October 2006

Our nation's research community is in the midst of an unusually stressful period. In this flat (or declining) budgetary environment, innovative science, novel collaborations, and the development of the next generation of technology are sometimes difficult to justify and support. In recognition of the increased importance of long‐range planning during such times, the Marine Geology and Geophysics (MG&G) and Ocean Drilling programs within the Ocean Sciences Division of the National Science Foundation (NSF) held a workshop titled “The Future of Marine Geosciences” (FUMAGES). The product of this workshop is to serve as a contribution to NSF's Geosciences Directorate for evaluating opportunities and needs for research, infrastructure, and education.
Climate modelers meet in Switzerland
Authors: Beniston Martin , Pielke Roger A. Pielke, , Arpe Klaus , Keuler Klaus , Laprise Rene , Mann Michael E. , Rinke Annette , Parker David E.
Published: October 2006

The ability to model climate at high spatial resolution is a relatively new scientific initiative. While significant progress has been made in climate modeling, in part as a result of increased spatial resolution, much is still unknown about these models. Climate modelers met in Wengen, Switzerland, last year to assess their progress and difficulties. The difficulties include deficiencies in physical parameterization schemes, inadequate simulations of feedback mechanisms between different elements of the climate system, and problems with the quality, representation, and spatial distribution of observational data for verification purposes.
Geologists probe buried craton in western Canada
Authors: Ross Gerald M. , Eaton David W. , Boerner David E. , Clowes Ron M.
Published: October 2006

Precambrian cratons—the relatively stable areas of the Earth's crust that form the core of continents—hold the key to understanding how continents evolve, but vast cratonic areas are concealed from scientific probing beneath Phanerozoic sediments. Working for the Alberta Basement Transect (ABT), a part of the Canadian Lithoprobe project, geologists are examining the evolution of the petroleum‐rich Western Canada Sedimentary Basin (WCSB). Armed with a variety of techniques, the scientists are resolving features within the sedimentary basin and unravelling the genesis of the underlying Precambrian crust and upper mantle. This represents a new view of a significant and largely unknown part of cratonic North America.
Scientists assess impact of Indonesia fires
Authors: Showstack Randy
Published: October 2006

The fires burning in Indonesia over the past several months are setting aflame the biomass and wildlife habitat of the tropical forests, spreading a dangerously unhealthy haze across the populous country and nearby nations in southeast Asia, causing transportation hazards, and sending plumes of smoke up into the troposphere.

Most of the fires have been set—by big landowners, commercial loggers, and small farmers—in attempts to clear and cultivate the land, as people have done in the past. But this year a drought induced by El Niño limited the rainfall that could help extinguish the flames and wash away the smoke and haze. In addition, some scientists say that smoke could even delay the monsoon, which usually arrives in early November.
Micro studies lead to macro understanding
Authors: Soll W. E. , Tompson A. F. B. , Gray W. G. , Janecky D. R.
Published: October 2006

In response to renewed interest in studying processes in porous and fractured media at the microscale, 30 researchers from universities, national laboratories, and industry gathered recently for a workshop. The group presented, discussed, debated, and brainstormed ideas to encourage interdisciplinary communication and foster new collaboration among researchers.

Current microscale research is driven by our limited ability to reliably measure and describe fluid movement, chemical reactions, and other porous media phenomena at the macroscopic (or continuum) scale level. Real breakthroughs that rigorously translate a knowledge of fundamental fluid behavior, complex mineral surface chemistry, or bacterial activity at the pore scale into better models of processes on a macroscopic scale are lacking. Rather than extending traditional models and approaches, researchers are considering how fundamental pore‐scale processes and physical properties are manifested at the continuum scale. Technological advances are allowing us to visualize, measure, simulate, and analyze processes within the pore spaces and discover their intrinsic relationships to macroscopic behavior.
Researchers discuss Mt. Unzen, a decade volcano
Authors: Nakada Setsuya , Eichelberger John , Shimizu Hiroshi
Published: October 2006

In November 1989, a swarm of earthquakes deep beneath Tachibana Bay, Kyushu Island, Japan, heralded the inexorable rise of magma toward the summit of Unzen Volcano, some 15 km upward and 15 km eastward, on the Shimabara Peninsula. When the “magma head” emerged in Jigokuato Crater on May 20, 1991, a beautiful but tragic drama began. It started peacefully as a budding flower unfolding lava petals (Figure 1). But by the time lava stopped flowing in February 1995, it had cost the city of Shimabara and the surrounding towns over $2 billion in damage and 44 human lives. At its height, the crisis required the prolonged evacuation of 11,000 residents. Amid this tragedy, however, volcanologists were able to make unprecedented visual and geophysical observations of processes of magma ascent, dome growth, and dome‐fed pyroclastic flows.
Congress initiates science study
Authors: Showstack Randy
Published: October 2006

The U.S. House of Representatives announced in October a year‐long study to review the nation's science and technology policy and the government's role in funding scientific research. The Science Policy Study, led by Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R‐MI), is the first comprehensive review by Congress since 1985—a time when the Cold War still was being fought and the Internet was largely unknown.

At a workshop to discuss the initiative, House Science Committee Chair James Sensenbrenner, Jr., told about 30 scientists and policy experts that the challenge is “to develop a new, sensible, coherent long‐range science and technology policy, including a review of our nation's science and math education programs.”
Two more moons found orbiting Uranus
Authors: Showstack Randy
Published: October 2006

With an hour of free time on the Hale telescope at Mount Palomar, California, last September, a team of astronomers testing a hunch pointed the 5‐M instrument toward Uranus and discovered two previously undetected irregular moons orbiting the planet.

The moons are the faintest ever detected from the ground, and they solve a puzzle about Uranus.
Recent changes in the Ocean Drilling Program
Authors: Humphris Susan E. , Ellins Katherine K. , Mutti Maria
Published: October 2006

Sweeping changes have occurred in the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) in the past year in recognition of new scientific and technological challenges that it will face during the next 5 years. Ocean drilling objectives into the early part of the 21st century, outlined in ODP's 1996 long‐range plan, will focus on two core themes that address the highly dynamic nature of Earth's natural systems (Figure 1). The first theme, “Dynamics of Earth's Environment,” encompasses a spectrum of scientific problems related to understanding how the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere respond to natural and anthropogenic perturbations, particularly on time scales ranging from tens to thousands of years. The second theme, “Dynamics of Earth's Interior,” focuses on examining properties and processes within the lithosphere that elucidate the structure of Earth's outer layers, global mass and energy fluxes, mantle dynamics, and deformation processes.
U.S. begins merging satellite programs
Authors: Showstack Randy
Published: October 2006

The U.S. government has moved closer to merging and streamlining two separate environmental satellite programs operated by the Department of Defense (DOD) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Earlier this month, the government installed the Integrated Polar Acquisition and Control Subsystem in a Commerce Department facility in Suitland, Maryland. Beginning next summer, the system will operate the two environmental satellites in DOD's Defense Meteorological Satellite Program. Under merger plans, NOAA will be responsible for operating the DOD satellite system as well as its own. The elimination of separate systems could save $678 million through fiscal year 1999, according to James Mannen, Director of the federal government's Integrated Program Office
More rain in the forecast
Authors: Showstack Randy
Published: October 2006

Global land precipitation has increased during the 20th century, especially at the mid and high latitudes, according to a paper published in the November 1997 issue of the Journal of Climate.

The paper, written by NASA scientists Aiguo Dai, Inez Fung, and Anthony Del Genio, is based on a recalibrated compilation and analysis of data from 1900–1988. The paper shows a global land trend of a 2.4 mm per decade increase in annual precipitation amounts, and that rainfall as a global mean has risen by slightly more than 2%. About 22 mm more rain falls now each year than at the turn of the century, the researchers say.
Report suggests strategies for geosciences education
Authors: Showstack Randy
Published: October 2006

Today it is widely recognized that the nation's education system needs reform at all levels. This is particularly true for science education. The geosciences have much to offer the reform process, being a window to the natural world that is inherently interesting to many citizens. The power of tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, and volcanoes; the recognition of possible manifestations of global climate change; the discovery of life forms thriving in extreme environments—around volcanic vents on the deep ocean floor, beneath ice sheets, deep in the crust, and possibly even in places far from the Earth—are all sources of fascination for people of all ages.
Survey maps Philippine Sea structures
Authors: Ohara Yasuhiko , Kasuga Shigeru , Okino Kyoko , Kato Yukihiro
Published: October 2006

Detailed structural images of two basins in the Philippine Sea and related data collected by the Japanese Continental Shelf Surveys Project are increasing our understanding of how back‐arc basins evolve. The area surveyed covers the southeastern East China Sea, the northern Philippine Sea, and the westernmost Northwest Pacific Basin (Figure 1). One purpose of the survey is to gather information to help define Japan's legal continental shelf in the context of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which became effective in 1994.
Gas hydrate drilling conducted on the European Margin
Authors: Mienert Jürgen , Bryn Petter
Published: October 2006

Since 1996, the Norwegian government has licensed hydrocarbon exploration in seven deep water areas on the continental slope north of the Norwegian Trough. Data acquired in this region, which is of interest to both scientists and the oil industry, provide an opportunity to improve understanding of the geology and development of the area through Quaternary times. Gas hydrates, slope stability, and geohazards are especially important topics for research near the Norwegian Trough.
Geomagnetic data for 1991 through 1995 now available on CD‐ROMs
Authors: Coles R. L. , Green A. W. , Kerridge D. J. , LeMouel J. L.
Published: October 2006

CD‐ROMs containing data from a global network of geomagnetic observatories (Figure 1) are now available for 1991 through 1995 from the International Real‐time Magnetic Observatory Network (INTERMAGNET), a nonprofit association of world institutions that operate geomagnetic observatories. The data are 1‐min, hourly, and daily mean values of the vector components (X, Y, X or H, D, Z) and, for most stations, the total field, F. Resolution is 0.1 nanotesla or 0.1 min of arc for declination. Magnetic activity indices (K) are available for most stations, and baseline and absolute value plots are given for all observatories for the 1993, 1994, and 1995 CD‐ROMs.
Rock Fractures and Fluid Flow: Contemporary Understanding and Applications
Authors: Wolfsberg Andrew
Published: October 2006

How can fractures that are significant hydraulic conductors or barriers be located, identified, and characterized? How do flow and transport occur in fracture systems? How can changes in fracture systems be predicted and controlled? With a clear, well‐stated focus, Rock Fractures and Fluid Flow seeks to address these questions by combining into one work the interdependencies of the disciplines needed to get at the answers.
Overlooked threat of tsunamis to the Caribbean discussed
Authors: Mercado Irizarry Aurelio
Published: October 2006

Tsunamis are a true threat to the Caribbean region. According to Jim Lander of the University of Colorado, since 1530, tsunamis have caused more deaths in the Caribbean than in Alaska, Hawaii, and the U.S. east coast combined. A group of scientists recently convened in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, to discuss the reality of the tsunami threat in the Caribbean. Workshop sessions also identified potential tsunamigenic Caribbean sources and discussed the need to establish some type of early warning system.
Penhale to receive 1998 Ocean Sciences Award
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

Polly A. Penhale will receive AGU's 1998 Ocean Sciences Award at the Ocean Sciences Meeting in San Diego, Calif., in February. The award recognizes excellence and long‐standing service contributions to the ocean sciences.
Aqueous Environmental Geochemistry
Authors: Bowman Robert S.
Published: October 2006

With at least a half dozen hydrogeochemistry textbooks on the market, why do we need another one? Aqueous Environmental Geochemistry provides an answer to that question. Most current texts fall into one of two categories. Some are heavy on basic concepts and physical chemistry fundamentals, but contain relatively few relevant examples from the natural environment. Other texts fall at the opposite end of the spectrum, with plenty of good geochemical examples but only qualitative or semiquantitative approaches to understanding them. In contrast, Donald Langmuir's new book provides a thorough development of fundamentals important in low temperature aqueous geochemistry, along with a wealth of examples to illustrate how these fundamentals are applied in solving real problems.
Wind observations from new satellite and research vessels agree
Authors: Bourassa Mark A. , Freilich Michael H. , Legler David M. , Liu W. Timothy , O'Brien James J.
Published: October 2006

An instrument designed to observe wind speeds and directions over the ocean surface has realized the promise suggested by the first spaceborne scatterometer on the SeaSAT satellite nearly 20 years ago. In 1996, NSCAT (NASA Scatterometer) rode into orbit on the Japanese satellite ADEOS and gathered 8.5 months of valuable wind data. NSCAT's unprecedented ability to determine wind speed and direction over 90% of the icefree global water surface with a 25 km resolution in 2 days should have profound impacts on oceanographic and meteorological applications. Prior to these applications, however, the uncertainty of NSCAT data must be determined from calibration and validation with in‐situ observations. Comparison of NSCAT wind speeds and direction to those observed from research vessels shows an extremely good match. The analysis suggests that NSCAT winds appear to be sufficiently accurate for use in forcing ocean models.
Panelists urge scientists to become involved in public policy issues
Authors: Showstack Randy
Published: October 2006

Most sessions at the recent AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco focused on the presentation of scientific information. However, two special sessions organized by AGU's Committee on Public Affairs (COPA) delved into the role of geoscientists in the public policy arena. Panelists explored the sometimes touchy area of scientists as activists, and generally came out in favor of the need for scientists to not only conduct good science but try to see that their work and the overall importance of geoscience actually is incorporated into public policy decisions.
Paleomagnetic lab established in Antarctica
Authors: Florindo Fabio , Sagnotti Leonardo , Roberts Andrew P. , Wilson Gary S. , Verosub Kenneth L.
Published: October 2006

The world's southernmost paleomagnetic laboratory was established at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, in early October as part of the Cape Roberts Project [Cape Roberts Project International Steering Committee, 1994]. The laboratory's location at McMurdo Station (166°40′10″E, 77°50′18″S) is close to Hut Point, where British explorer Robert Falcon Scott established a base in the early 1900s.

The facility is housed in two rooms at the Albert P. Crary Science and Engineering Center. From the laboratory, there is a superb view of southern McMurdo Sound with Black Island, Minna Bluff, Mt. Discovery to the south (where Scott's expedition for the South Pole first traversed), and the Royal Society Range of the Transantarctic Mountains. The lab is equipped with two spinner magnetometers, a thermal demagnetizer, an alternating field demagnetizer, a susceptibility meter, and an impulse magnetizer.
Outstanding student paper award
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

The Atmospheric Sciences Section (AS) presented four Outstanding Student Paper Awards at the AGU 1997 Spring Meeting in Baltimore last May.

Francine Jaskiewicz presented a paper titled “Variability in the Organization of Tropical Convection, and its Effects on the Global Atmospheric Circulation.” Jaskiewicz graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1994 with a B.A. in art history. She received an M.S. in meteorology from the Pennsylvania State University in August 1997.
Offshore pollution paradox
Authors: Showstack Randy
Published: October 2006

A new discovery by a team of scientists at the University of California at Santa Barbara could provide offshore gas and oil production with a cleaner image. The scientists have found that gas and oil flowing from natural vents in the ocean floor off campus contribute significantly to air pollution. In addition, theyfound that offshore drilling actually can decrease that pollution.

“The amount of gas seepage is about equal to the amounts estimated for tailpipe emissions by government agencies in Santa Barbara County,” says geophysics professor and chief investigator Bruce Luyendyk. The 2‐year study, which focused on gas production, found that 3.5 million to 7 million cubic feet of natural gas are released from the nearby ocean floor every day. This makes the study area the world's second biggest region—after the Caspian Sea—where such seepage has been found.
Outstanding student paper awards
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

The Space Physics and Aeronomy Section (SPA) presented Outstanding Student Paper Awards to 11 students at the AGU 1996 Fall Meeting in San Francisco last December.

Mark L. Adrian presented a poster titled “The Thermal Electron Plasma Environment Associated with Transversely Accelerated Ions in the Dayside Ionospheric Cleft.”
Promoting innovations in geoscience education
Authors: Showstack Randy
Published: October 2006

Kenneth Verosub often begins a new semester of teaching geology courses at the University of California at Davis by having students stand on their chairs while he climbs on top of his desk. Actor Robin Williams, in the film “Dead Poets Society,” used this ploy to encourage students to think creatively, and Verosub's students invariably understand the visual reference.

From his perch several feet above the floor, the mustachioed Verosub tells students, “I want you to get a different perspective on how to learn in a science class.”
Spacecraft observations featured at Solar Symposium
Authors: Shea M. A. , Smart D. F.
Published: October 2006

Participants at a symposium on solar phenomena that affect interplanetary space and the Earth's outer environment eagerly received new results from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft, launched in December 1995. Dedicated to solar observations, this spacecraft is providing almost revolutionary new information about the Sun.

Implications of the apparent ejection of solar mass material over a 180° angle are difficult to omprehend. Initial results of the three coronagraphs on the SOHO spacecraft (LASCO experiment) represent a significant advance in observing and modeling the quiet solar corona. Many participants admired the composite model to 30 solar radii as a spectacular technical achievement. Oxygen velocity profiles were presented as a function of radial distance within polar plumes, which appear to be associated with unipolar magnetic field regions and may have significant implications related to the source of the coronal hole high‐speed streams.
Outstanding student paper awards
Authors: Anonymous
Published: October 2006

The Mineral and Rock Physics Committee presented Outstanding Student Paper Awards to Ljuba Kerschhofer and Wenlu Zhu at the Mineral and Rock Physics Reception in December. The reception was held during the AGU 1997 Fall Meeting in San Francisco.
Study of sedimentary basins key to many disciplines
Authors: Dickinson William R.
Published: October 2006

Over geologic time, depressions of the lithosphere forming crustal lows are filled with surface materials deposited by wind, rivers, and ocean currents. These filled receptacles are called sedimentary basins, and their varied sizes and shapes are determined by geodynamic processes. Basin fill is important to geoscientists for two reasons: it preserves unique information about the history of tectonic, biologic, oceanographic, cryospheric, and atmospheric events that occurred throughout Earth's history, and it contains most of the fossil fuel and groundwater supplies and many of the mineral resources on which society depends. Understanding the configuration and properties of basin fill also has implications for the growing issue of disposing of hazardous waste without harming the biosphere.
Solar Wind Eight: Proceedings of the Eighth International Solar Wind Conference
Authors: Dryer Murray
Published: October 2006

Most of us think of the Sun only for the pleasure and sustenance it provides on a diurnal and seasonal basis. Thankfully, this is not so for the authors of Solar Wind Eight! The public is aware of the Sun's waxing and waning during its approximately 11‐year sunspot cycle. Some solar physicists continue, since Galileo's 17th century observations, to count sunspots that provide a crude, cyclic proxy for this waxing and waning of solar activity. Fortunately, the general public has recently become aware of solar wind‐induced concerns such as “space weather” effects on electrical power grids, satellite system components, and communication disruptions. Since the 1960s, when the solar wind was discovered, we have known that space weather effects are caused by interplanetary disturbances transmitted to the Earth and the other planets through solar activity by this ever‐present solar plasma and magnetic field.
Le Mouel receives Fleming Medal
Authors: Backus George , Le Mouël Jean‐Louis
Published: October 2006

Jean‐Louis Le Mouel was awarded the John Adam Fleming Medal at the AGU Fall Meeting Honors Ceremony, which was held on December 10, 1997, in San Francisco, California. The Fleming Medal recognizes original research and technical leadership in geomagnetism, atmospheric electricity, aeronomy, and related sciences. The citation and response are given here.

Jean‐Louis Le Mouel is among our century's most effective geomagneticians. It reflects much credit on the AGU that he is now a Fleming Medalist. He has made many significant contributions to the collection, analysis, and interpretation of magnetic data and has solved several long‐outstanding theoretical problems.
Synthetic aperture radar interferometry capability now available to universities
Authors: Vincent Paul , Rundle John B.
Published: October 2006

Following rapidly on the success of Global Positioning System (GPS) technology to measure crustal deformation has come a quantum leap in our ability to measure ground deformation, in the form of the Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (lSAR) technique. Building upon earlier work by Zebker and Goldstein [1986, 1988] at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, Massonet et 01. [1993] used SAR interferometry from ERS‐1 to reconstruct, with unprecedented detail, the displacement field arising from the June 28,1992, Landers, California, earthquake.
Whale falls may provide important stepping stone habitat between deep sea vents seeps
Authors: Showstack Randy
Published: October 2006

For Craig Smith, professor of oceanography at the University of Hawaii at Manao, whale watching involves more than spying for breaching cetaceans from a tour boat deck. His whale watching includes dives in a submersible to sites of dead whales that have settled to the ocean bottom, and studies of the creatures that find the high concentrations of lipids and proteins in the bones of these sunken behemoths to be rich food sources.

According to Smith, who discovered the first sunken whale in 1987, these “whale falls” serve as important intermediate habitat to allow fauna to disperse between isolated hydrothermal vents and cold water seeps. The question of dispersal arose after the discovery of vents in 1977, and the identification of a few species at some vents or seeps separated by thousands of km.
Helmberger receives Lehmann Medal
Authors: Gilbert J. Freeman , Helmberger Don
Published: October 2006

Don Helmberger was awarded the Inge Lehmann Medal at the AGU Fall Meeting Honors Ceremony, which was held on December 10, 1997, in San Francisco, California. The Lehmann Medal is given in recognition of outstanding contributions to the understanding of the structure, composition, and dynamics of the Earth's mantle and core. The citation and response are given here.
New TOMS instrument measures ozone and aerosols
Authors: Kaye Jack A. , McPeters Richard D. , Herman Jay R. , Bhartia P. K. , Krueger Arlin J.
Published: October 2006

New Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) instruments launched in 1996 have provided new and better information about ozone distribution, sulfur dioxide concentrations following large volcanic eruptions, the distributions of ultraviolet‐absorbing aerosols (including ash plumes) in the troposphere, and the flux of ultraviolet radiation reaching the Earth's surface. The instruments gathered important data on ozone depletion in the Antarctic in the austral springs of 1996 and 1997 and in the Arctic in the Northern Hemisphere spring of 1997. Ash clouds associated with forest fires in the United States and in Indonesia, as well as the eruption of the Soufriere Hills volcano in Montserrat in December 1997, were also observed.

NASA's Earth Probe (EP) satellite, launched in July 1996, carries one TOMS instrument. A second TOMS instrument flew on the Japanese Advanced Environmental Orbiting Satellite (ADEOS), known as “Midori,” launched in August 1996 from Japan. Unfortunately, because the ADEOS spacecraft failed in June 1997, only 10 months of data are available from the ADEOS TOMS instrument (see http://mentor.eorc.nasda.go.jp/ADEOS). The Earth Probe satellite flew in a 500 km Sun‐synchronous orbit, which was chosen to complement the 800 km altitude of the ADEOS spacecraft by providing improved horizontal resolution for viewing aerosol sources (26 km x 26 km at nadir instead of the 42 km x 42 km resolution of ADEOS). Because of the lower orbit, data gaps did not allow for full daily maps of the sunlit Earth from EP TOMS. In order to restore the complete global coverage lost with the ADEOS failure, the EP spacecraft was boosted to a 740 km orbit in early December 1997.
Support for U.S. graduate education in the ocean sciences: Are research assistantships overutilized as a source of funding?
Authors: Schoedinger S. E. , Spinrad Richard W. , Nowell A. R. M.
Published: October 2006

The ocean sciences offer graduate students a unique and exciting educational experience, but is that experience ideally suited to the next step of a student's career, namely postgraduate employment? To begin to answer this question one must consider first whether the requirements of the career that is sought would be met better by a master's or a Ph.D. Often the master's degree is looked upon as a stepping stone along the path to a Ph.D., and then a career in research. Consequently, most of the graduate experiences in ocean sciences are exclusively focused on research. The financial support of students encourages this focus since most of the funding is provided within a specific research project in the form of a research assistantship.
Oeschger receives Revelle Medal
Authors: Broecker Wallace , Oeschger Hans
Published: October 2006

Hans A. Oeschger was awarded the Roger Revelle Medal at the AGU Fall Meeting Honors Ceremony, which was held on December 10, 1997, in San Francisco, California. The Revelle Medal is given for sustained and continued superior contributions to the science of climate dynamics and to predictions of expected climate changes. The citation and response are given here.
NRC says integrated approach needed to understand, protect environment
Authors: Kolb Charles E. , Loehr Raymond C. , Gopnik Morgan
Published: October 2006

A recent study by the National Research Council (NRC) advocates a more comprehensive and integrated approach to our nation's environmental research and development (R&D) activities. Because we face environmental problems of unprecedented complexity, the study maintains that the traditional practice of studying isolated environmental problems and devising narrowly focused control or remediation strategies to manage them will no longer suffice.

In the report, Building a Foundation for Sound Environmental Decisions [National Academy Press, 1997], an NRC committee highlighted the need for developing a deeper scientific understanding of ecosystems, as well as the sociological and economic aspects of human interactions with the environment. To achieve these goals, the committee recommended a core research agenda for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that has three components.
Climate change and the rise and fall of sea level over the millennium
Authors: Varekamp Johan C. , Thomas Ellen
Published: October 2006

Average rates of relative sea level rise (RSLR) along the coast of the eastern United States were 1–2 mm/yr over the last 2,000 years. Higher rates have occurred in recent centuries, and their onset seems to have preceded the period of modern global warming. A modest rate increase started in the 17th century, well before the modern global warming of this century, but the highest rates have occurred during the last 200 years, with a major acceleration around 1800 A.D. No significant acceleration is apparently associated with the rapidly rising temperatures of the last 100 years.

How does one establish possible relationships between rates of sea level rise and climate fluctuations? Tide‐gauge records are too short and noisy to derive a quantitative, empirical relationship between relative sea level rise rates and climate change [Douglas, 1992], and predictions of future rates of sea level rise are largely based on theory. The recent geological record can provide empirical insights, which can be applied toward the assessment of current rates and those predicted for the next century.
In brief
Authors: Showstack Randy
Published: October 2006

Satellite improves space weather forecasts Real‐time data from NASA's Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) satellite became part of the daily U.S space weather forecast operations in late January, providing forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Space Environment Center with an important tool for improving forecasts and warnings of solar storms.

Forecasters with NOAA and the U.S. Air Force—the agencies that, along with NASA, are coordinating the project—are incorp orating the ACE data into operations, allowing the agencies to predict and issue 1‐hour geomagnetic storm alerts with almost 100% accuracy, they say.
Gravity Currents in the Environment and the Laboratory
Authors: Hamilton Kevin
Published: October 2006

A large variety of geophysical phenomena can be considered examples of gravity currents, normally thought of as the horizontal or quasihorizontal penetration of a light fluid by a plume of denser fluid. In Gravity Currents in the Environment and the Laboratory, Simpson discusses both the basic physics and real‐world applications of gravity currents and related phenomena such as hydraulic jumps, undular bores, and the spread of buoyant plumes.

This book is a considerable expansion of an earlier edition published a decade ago and represents the accumulated wisdom of a career devoted to observation and laboratory simulation of small‐scale environmental fluid mechanical phenomena. The result can be recommended enthusiastically both to experts in the field and readers who have more general interests in meteorology, oceanography, or other areas of fluid mechanics.
New constraints on plate tectonic puzzle of the SW Pacific
Authors: Cande S. C. , Stock J. , Raymond C. , Müller R. D.
Published: October 2006

A long‐standing problem in the tectonics of the southwest Pacific has been the lack of closure of the plate circuit linking the Antarctic, Australia, Lord Howe Rise, and Pacific plates in late Cretaceous and early Tertiary time [Molnar et al., 1975]. Avoiding unacceptable overlaps and underlaps in reconstructions of these plates requires invoking relative motion on one or more nebulous plate boundaries somewhere along the plate circuit, such as between East and West Antarctica, within West Antarctica [Stock and Molnar, 1987], or perhaps between the Lord Howe Rise and Challenger Plateau in the Tasman Sea [Lawverand Gahagan, 1994]. This problem is of more than mere local interestsince the motion of the Pacific plate relative to the rest of the globe is constrained through its connection with West Antarctica.
Climate change and biodiversity seminar highlights knowns and unknowns
Authors: Weinstein Alan
Published: October 2006

Greenhouse gas emissions can be expected to warm the globe by about 2°C over the next 50–100 years. This could have such consequences as raising sea level by 44 cm, thereby affecting 70 million people and destroying the habitats of hundreds of species, increasing the occurrences of such diseases as malaria, and changing the economies of most of the world. All of the physical, chemical, biological, and economic forces at play here are highly nonlinear, leading to feedbacks that could alter all of the findings. These were some of the conclusions of a seminar on “Climate Change and Biodiversity,” which attracted over 130 scientists, engineers, and policy makers, mostly from the United Kingdom.
Identifying Marine Phytoplankton
Authors: Hargraves Paul E.
Published: October 2006

Until recently, anyone who needed to accurately identify marine phytoplankton had one of four choices: use the outdated Englishlanguage volumes by E. E. Cupp and N. I. Hendey plus the more recent book by J. Dodge, acquire a working knowledge of German and use the old volumes by Schiller and Hustedt, spend huge amounts of time in an exceedingly well‐equipped marine science library trying in vain to keep up with the rapidly evolving field of phytoplankton systematics and taxonomy, or track down one of the rarest of endangered species—a phytoplankton taxonomist—and beg for help.

To these unfortunate choices is added one considerably more hopeful: Identifying Marine Phytoplankton. This volume, which has seven contributing authors, contains most of the taxonomic groups that make up the planktonic autotrophs and some heterotrophs of the seas, coasts, and estuaries of the world (missing are cyanobacteria and some of the picoplankton groups).
Researchers focus attention on remarkable Io
Authors: Spencer John
Published: October 2006

Jupiter's moon Io is one of the most remarkable and dynamic objects in the solar system. Extremely high heat flow, produced by tidal heating, generates extensive volcanic activity. This leads to a unique surface geology and chemistry, a dynamic though tenuous atmosphere, and a complex interaction with Jupiter's magnetosphere, which generates extensive clouds of ionized and neutral material that fill the magnetosphere. Our understanding of Io has increased greatly in the last few years, thanks to intensive study from ground‐based telescopes, Earth‐orbiting telescopes including the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), and particularly because of the close‐up observations by the Jupiter‐orbiting Galileo spacecraft. Galileo flew 900 km above Io in December 1995 and has since been observing Io periodically from distances as close as 300,000 km.
Glaciers receive a surge of attention in the Karakoram Himalaya
Authors: Hewitt Kenneth
Published: October 2006

Between 1994 and 1996 catastrophic movement of the 15.5‐km‐long Chiring Glacier transferred 1‐1.5 km3 of ice from its upper two thirds to its lower third, and into the main Panmah Glacier of which it is a tributary. By October 1996, a lobe of Chiring ice some 3.2 km2 in area had entered and compressed the main glacier, which was severely disturbed for 3 km above and 5 km below the junction of the glaciers (Figure 1). Ice streams and medial moraines were pushed into a series of looped or “tear‐drop” forms, well‐known in the surging glaciers. Despite an observational record back to 1856, it was not previously realized that changes in the glacier involve surging.
Interdisciplinary scientists gather for plasma structure workshop
Authors: Sojka Jan J.
Published: October 2006

Two of the most exciting papers presented at the Third Peaceful Valley Workshop were on the nature of plasma structure found in the nighttime midlatitude E and F regions. The first was from a coordinated rocket campaign called Sporadic E Experiment over Kyushu (SEEK) dedicated to the understanding of puzzling quasi‐periodic radar echoes that have been detected in association with sporadic E layers. In‐situ probes on two rockets measured localized electric fields as large as 20 mV/m, confirming theoretical predictions of strong polarization processes that may result from wavelike distortions imposed on normally stratified sporadic E layers. An unexpected result was the discovery of a large localized wind of 150 m/s at E region altitudes and the associated velocity shear, which was likely to lead to Kelvin‐Helmholtz instability.
New protocols needed for sharing hydrometeorologic data
Authors: McGurk B. J. , Miller N. L.
Published: October 2006

The collection of hydrometeorological data is becoming privatized, and competition within the industrial sector (utilities, weather forecasting, etc.) is intensifying. Disruption in collection and distribution of these data will adversely affect both the science community and general public. The problem extends beyond California and the United States: governments worldwide are outsourcing data collection activities, and contractors recognize that restricting free access to hydrometeorological data increases profit margins.

The issue that must be raised, however, is whether restricting free public and governmental access to these data reduces water resources management efficiency as well as the accuracy and timeliness of flood forecasting, and delays the delivery of information to the public. Therefore, we propose a strategy that provides select users with real‐time information for the benefit of the public, while protecting competitive interests within the private sector.
Comment [on “Locked‐in Stress in Viscoelastic Earth Materials”]
Authors: Fletcher Raymond C.
Published: October 2006

This is a comment on the item “Locked‐in Stress in Viscoelastic Earth Materials” (Eos, June 17, 1997, p. 248).

In the box the author remarks “…ur is finite and uθ = uΦ = O…. There is a corresponding radial strain but no tangential strain…” The former is true, but the latter is false. The tangential strains are ϵθθ = ϵΦ= ur/r.
Study finds Appalachian forest mortality rates may be higher than government surveys indicate
Authors: Showstack Randy
Published: October 2006

A newly released 3‐year survey of the mixed hardwood forest in the Appalachian region of the United States indicates that trees in a stretch of woods from Alabama to Pennsylvania are dying at a rate 2 to 3 times higher than federal and state reports have indicated. While the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service and other agencies estimate the region's average tree mortality rate, a key measure of forest health, as approximately 0.5% annually or 5% per decade, the survey by the Appalachia Forest Action Project (AFAP) claims the rate actually is 2% annually or 20% per decade.

The AFAP report issued in February, “Patterns of Forest Health: A Report on Citizen Monitoring in the Eastern Mountains,” also states that both commercial and noncommercial trees are affected, that the forest can appear healthy although the species composition is undergoing rapid change with greater mortality rates for some species, and that acid rain and ground‐level ozone may be the causing for the forest damage. These atmospheric agents can weaken the immune systemsof some tree species and make them more susceptible to disease.
Science policy study hearings announced
Authors: Showstack Randy
Published: October 2006

The U.S. House of Representatives' Science Committee has announced a series of six hearings to gather testimony from experts concerning the National Science Policy Study. The study, led by science committee Vice Chairman Vernon Ehlers (R‐Mich.), is reviewing the U.S. national science policy and working to develop a new, long‐range science and technology policy. The hearings are scheduled as follows: March 3: Defining a science and technology vision—A group of futurists will discuss the future role of science and technology and its relationship with the American people.
Aquamarine waters recorded for first time in Eastern Bering Sea
Authors: Vance T. C. , Schumacher J. D. , Stabeno P. J. , Baier C. T. , Wyllie‐Echeverria T. , Tynan C. T. , Brodeur R. D. , Napp J. M. , Coyle K. O. , Decker M. B. , Hunt G. L. , Stockwell D. , Whitledge T. E. , Jump M. , Zeeman S.
Published: October 2006

During the late summer of 1997, for the first time ever recorded, most of the continental shelf of the eastern Bering Sea was covered by aquamarine waters (Figure 1), resulting from a massive bloom of coccolithophores (Figure 2). Light reflecting off the calcium carbonate plates of the flagellated coccolithophores gave the water its anomalous color, which was first observed in July. The bloom was also clearly visible from space, as shown by some of the first images from the multispectral sea‐viewing wide‐field‐of‐ view sensor (SeaWiFS) scanner in September.

Light penetration into the water column, essential for primary production by diatoms and other phytoplankton, was markedly reduced. This shift potentially altered the trophic dynamics throughout the food web of one of world's most productive ecosystems.
Math and science study rates students
Authors: Showstack Randy
Published: October 2006

The Netherlands and Sweden walked off with the equivalent of golden microscopes and calculators in international literacy test results in science and mathematics released on February 24.

Students in those two countries scored first and second among 21 nations participating in the most recent phase of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), billed as the largest and most ambitious study of comparative educational achievement ever undertaken. TIMSS tested science and math literacy of students in their final year of secondary school; Asian countries opted not to participate in this third and final phase of testing.
Principles of Glacier Mechanics
Authors: Waddington Edwin D.
Published: October 2006

Glaciers are awesome in size and move at a majestic pace, and they frequently occupy spectacular mountainous terrain. Naturally, many Earth scientists are attracted to glaciers. Some of us are even fortunate enough to make a career of studying glacier flow. Many others work on the large, flat polar ice sheets where there is no scenery. As a leader of one of the foremost research projects now studying the flow of mountain glaciers (Storglaciaren, Norway), Roger Hooke is well qualified to describe the principles of glacier mechanics. Principles of Glacier Mechanics is written for upper‐level undergraduate students and graduate students with an interest in glaciers and the landforms that glaciers produce. While most of the examples in the text are drawn from valley glacier studies, much of the material is also relevant to “glacier flatland” on the polar ice sheets.
Reeburgh begins term as GBC Editor
Authors: White M. Catherine
Published: October 2006

On January 1, William S. Reeburgh began his 4‐year term as editor of Global Biogeochemical Cycles (GBC). In his new role, Reeburgh seeks to maintain the high standards set by previous editors James McCarthy, Karl Turekian, and Jorge Sarmiento. Their efforts have brought GBC to preeminence in its field in only 10 years, as shown by recently released citation impact factors. Biogeochemistry is inherently interdisciplinary, and Reeburgh's goal is to maintain and expand GBC as the journal of choice for the best work by physical and biological scientists investigating biogeochemical interactions among atmospheric, terrestrial, and oceanic environments.