Strengthened ocean-desert process in the North Pacific over the past two decades

Changes in Earth's reflectance over the past two decades.

We correlate an overlapping period of earthshine measurements of Earth's reflectance (from 1999 through mid-2001) with satellite observations of global cloud properties to construct from the latter a proxy measure of Earth's global shortwave reflectance. This proxy shows a steady decrease in Earth's reflectance from 1984 to 2000, with a strong climatologically significant drop after 1995. From ...

Childhood leprosy in India over the past two decades.

OBJECTIVES Clinico-epidemiological pattern of childhood leprosy in India over the past two decades were analysed from the Indian studies conducted during the years 1990-2009. RESULTS Twelve studies on childhood leprosy were included. Ten were conducted in health institutions and one was a community-based survey. Voluntary reporting was the principal method of case detection; community survey ...

Tropical–North Pacific Climate Linkages over the Past Four Centuries*

Analyses of instrumental data demonstrate robust linkages between decadal-scale North Pacific and tropical Indo-Pacific climatic variability. These linkages encompass common regime shifts, including the noteworthy 1976 transition in Pacific climate. However, information on Pacific decadal variability and the tropical high-latitude climate connection is limited prior to the twentieth century. He...

Ocean acidification of the North Pacific Ocean

The addition of fossil fuel carbon dioxide to the atmosphere is rapidly changing seawater chemistry and the calcium carbonate saturation state of the world’s oceans as a result of the acidifying effects of CO2 on seawater. This acidification makes it more difficult for many marine organisms (e.g., corals, plankton, calcareous algae, and mollusks) to build skeletons, tests, and shells of calcium...

Rectal cancer: progress over the past two decades.