Nasa: Droughts, wet events made more frequent, intense by global warming: Nasa-led Study - Times of India
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NEW DELHI: Major droughts and pluvials - periods of excessive precipitation and water storage on land - have indeed been occurring more often, confirmed a new National Aeronautics and Space Administration( NASA )-led study. Droughts and floods will become more frequent and severe as our planet warms and climate changes, scientists have predicted, but detecting this on regional and continental scales has proven difficult, the study said. Two NASA, US, scientists examined 20 years of data from the NASA/German GRACE and GRACE-FO satellites to identify extreme wet and dry events, the study published in the journal Nature Water said. Floods and droughts account for more than 20 per cent of the economic losses caused by extreme weather events in the US each year. The economic impacts are similar around the world, though the human toll tends to be most devastating in poor neighbourhoods and developing nations. The scientists also found that the worldwide intensity of these extre