Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY 1 MAART, 2017

A28 SCIENCE
Wednesday 1 March 2017

Study finds peculiar tie between warm climate, slow snowmelt

DAN ELLIOTT ers healthy, and for floods
Associated Press. and flood control.
DENVER (AP) — Global “We think the impacts
warming could mean that could be far-reaching,”
mountain snow melts at a Musselman said.
slower pace, researchers Mountain snow is a vi-
said Monday, a peculiar tal water source around
finding that might be bad the globe. NASA, which
news for the West and oth- is conducting an unrelat-
er regions that depend on ed study on how to mea-
snow for water. sure snow from space, says
Scientists have long known one-sixth of the world’s
the annual snowmelt is population gets most of its
starting sooner as the cli- fresh water from snow.
mate warms. New research The snow that falls in Colo-
by the National Center for rado’s mountains alone
Atmospheric Research in feeds four rivers that pro-
Boulder, Colorado, found vide water to a dozen
that when the snow be- states and Mexico. One of
gins to melt earlier in the those rivers, the Colorado,
season, it dissipates more supplies water to about 40
slowly than it does in late million people and 6,300
spring or summer, in part square miles of farmland.q
because the angle of the In this Dec. 17, 2015 file photo, the Poudre River winds through a scenic canyon outside Fort Col-
lins, Colo.
early year sun is lower so its Associated Press
rays are less intense.
The sun’s intensity is partic-
ularly important because The conclusions, published fall decreases, said Mus- Hawaiian Airlines joins
the energy in direct sun- in the journal Nature Cli- selman, a post-doctoral
light is the biggest driver of mate Change, could help fellow at the Boulder re- international climate change study
snowmelt, said Keith Mus- explain why computer search center.
selman, the lead research- models show rivers fed by The new study didn’t ex- HONOLULU (AP) — Hawai- gium called In-service Air-
er. mountain snow are ex- amine the broader con- ian Airlines says it has be- craft for a Global Observ-
Another factor that slows pected to run lower in a sequences of the findings, come the first U.S. airline ing System.
the snowmelt in the ear- warming climate, even if but Musselman said some to join an international re- Members include research
ly season is the fact that rainfall increases as snow- slow-melting snow that lin- search project on climate organizations, universities
nights are still cooler. gers in the mountain soil change and air quality. and weather services from
The airline said Monday Germany, France and the
could be taken up by trees technicians recently in- United Kingdom. The data
and plants or evaporate stalled equipment on one are used by about 200
into the atmosphere in- of its Airbus A330 airplanes universities in Europe, the
stead of flowing into rivers that will collect atmospher- United States, Japan, South
and reservoirs, where peo- ic air samples from takeoff America, India and China.
ple can use it. to landing and record key Scientists expect Hawaiian
Changing the timing and high-altitude greenhouse to produce valuable met-
pace of snowmelt could gas measurements. rics thanks to its central Pa-
also have implications for The project is run by an in- cific location and non-stop
the annual surge of spring ternational not-for-profit flights around the Pacific
runoff that helps keep riv- organization based in Bel- and U.S.q