Brief

Data validates deforestation affects climate

NASA satellite data are giving scientists insight into how large-scale deforestation in the Amazon Basin in South America is affecting regional climate. During the Amazon dry season last August, researchers found there was a distinct pattern of higher rainfall and warmer temperatures over deforested regions.

Researchers analyzed multiple years of data from NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). They also used data from the Department of Defense Special Sensor Microwave Imager and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Geo-stationary Operational Environmental Satellites.

The study appears in a recent issue of the American Meteorological Society Journal of Climate. Lead authors Andrew Negri and Robert Adler are research meteorologists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Other authors include Liming Xu, formerly with the University of Arizona, Tucson, and Jason Surratt, North Carolina State University, Raleigh.

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2004/jun/HQ_04183_deforestation.html