Snow is not as white as it looks. Mixed in with the reflective flakes are tiny, dark particles of pollution. University of Washington scientists recently published the first large-scale survey of impurities in North American snow, to see whether they might absorb enough sunlight to speed melt rates and influence climate. The results, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, show that North American snow away from cities is similar to Arctic snow in many places, with more pollution in the U.S.
Read more at UW Today »How the ‘Beast Quake’ is helping scientists track real earthquakes
It’s not just the football players who have spent a year training. University of Washington seismologists will again be monitoring the ground-shaking cheers of Seahawks fans, this year with a bigger team, better technology and faster response times. Scientists with the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network will install instruments this Thursday to provide real-time monitoring of the stadium’s movement during the 2015 NFL playoffs.
Read more at UW Today »Tropical crops, oil spill response, salmon fishery performance and more: This week's published research
Each week we share the latest peer-reviewed publications coming from the College of the Environment. Over the holidays, twenty-eight new articles co-authored by members of the College of the Environment were added to the Web of Science database, including studies of retention forestry for biodiversity conservation, steelhead migration, ice floes and more. Check them out!
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