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The article discusses radiative-forcing atmospheric constituents and mathematical simulations that account for greenhouse gases that heat the atmosphere and aerosols that cool it. Climate scientist Drew Shindell of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and his team are noted for modifying the NASA climate model to account for aerosols. Their report appears in the October 30, 2009 issue of "Science." INSET: Back Story.

The article discusses data that shows the loss of India's groundwater as a result of increased irrigation of crops. Satellite data from the U.S. National Aeronautics & Space Administration's (NASA) Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) revealed that the pace at which water from India's aquifers is being extracted is faster than the aquifer's ability to replenish itself. Also discusses are factors contributing to the increased demand for groundwater, such as population growth.

This article discusses the availability of data from the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration allowing researchers to measure the size, shape and trajectory of solar flares. This data is gathered with two satellites that are synchronized so as to provide coordinated data similar to the process of binocular vision. The use of this data to analyze coronal mass ejections is described.

The article compares small iron oxide nodules recently found on Mars by NASA's Opportunity rover to similar spherules within certain sandstones of the Southwest. Early this year, scientists announced the discovery of tiny, spherical grains of hematite, a type of iron oxide, in some Martian sediments. Those spherules were dubbed blueberries because their distribution within the sediments reminded one of the scientists of blueberries in a muffin. The same type of iron oxide concretions form within some Utah sandstones, says Marjorie A. Chan, a geologist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. The Utah nodules probably formed when a stream of groundwater rich in dissolved minerals, including iron, encountered chemical conditions that caused the iron to precipitate. Detailed analyses of the sediments encasing the Martian blueberries would probably be even more revealing, but Opportunity isn't equipped for such investigations. Therefore, according to David Catling of the University of Washington in Seattle, Opportunity's landing site would be a good candidate for a future mission that can return samples to Earth.

Reports that studies by the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) show that the central portion of Greenland's ice sheet is not getting any thinner, but that one of the studies shows thinning around the margins of the ice sheet. Impact on rising sea levels; Study by scientists at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia which was published in the July 21 issue of 'Science.'