Start Date: End Date: Published Date Data Date
North Pole Sea Ice Minimum 2009
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Published September 19, 2009
On September 12, 2009, sea ice reached its annual minimum extent, covering 5.10 million square kilometers (2.97 million square miles) of the Arctic Ocean. This image shows the 2009 ice extent compared to the 1979-2000 average.
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El Nino Conditions Set in Across Pacific Ocean
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Published July 28, 2009
A patch of warmer than average ocean temperatures in the eastern Pacific on July 26, 2009, revealed the onset of El Niño conditions.
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Sea Surface Temperature and Hurricane Bertha
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Published July 26, 2008
On land, the passage of a severe storm might be marked by fallen trees or swollen streams. In the ocean, a hurricane leaves a swath of cold water in its path. That trail of cold water marks the passage of Hurricane Bertha through the North Atlantic Ocean in this sea surface temperature image.
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La Nina and Pacific Decadal Oscillation Cool the Pacific
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Published April 29, 2008
The cool water anomaly in the center of the image shows the lingering effect of the year-old La Niña. However, the much broader area of cooler-than-average water off the coast of North America from Alaska (top center) to the equator is a classic feature of the cool phase of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO).
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Dust Dampens Hurricane Formation
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Published April 18, 2007
Warm sea surface temperatures help fuel hurricanes, and in 2006, those temperatures were cooler than expected. Why the difference between 2005 and 2006? William Lau of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and Kyu-Myong Kim of University of Maryland-Baltimore County think the answer comes from the Sahara, namely dust.
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