By Duncan Geere, Wired UK
Chicken Licken was right, the sky really is falling. NASA satellite data has shown that the Earth’s cloud tops have been lowering over the last decade.
Cloud-top height fell 1 percent on average between March 2000 and February 2010, according to measurements from the multi-angle imaging spectroradiometer mounted on NASA’s Terra satellite. That 1 percent means a reduction of 30 to 40 meters in the average maximum height of clouds, during the 00s. While the short record means it’s difficult to draw any strong conclusions from the data, it does hint towards a longer-term trend. Roger Davies, the lead researcher on the project, warns that it’s something that should be monitored in the coming decades to determine how significant it is for global temperatures.
If there is indeed a consistent reduction in cloud height, and this isn’t just natural variability, then Earth would begin cooling to space more efficiently, reducing the surface temperatures and slowing the effects of climate change. “We don’t know exactly what causes the cloud heights to lower,” Davies said in a press release. “But it must be due to a change in the circulation patterns that give rise to cloud formation at high altitude.”
The Terra spacecraft, which launched in 1999 and records three-dimensional images of clouds around the globe, will continue gathering data in the coming years.
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech [high-resolution]
Source: Wired.co.uk
The world's No. 3 maker of personal computers [DELL Loading... () 
] posted fourth-quarter earnings excluding items of 51 cents per share, down from 53 cents a share in the year-earlier period. After the earnings announcement, the company's shares fell in trading after the closing bell. (Click here for the latest after-hour quote for Dell.) Net income fell to $764 million from $927 million a year earlier.Revenue rose 2 percent to $16.03 billion from $15.69 billion. Analysts had expected the company to report earnings excluding items of 52 cents a share on $15.96 billion in revenue, according to Thomson Reuters. Strength in its corporate business unit was offset by weakness in the division that caters to public businesses. The company forecast fiscal first-quarter revenue below Wall Street's expectations, stoking fears the PC industry has not fully emerged from its downturn. Dell projected sales would be down 7 percent in the current quarter from the previous quarter, when it posted revenue of $16 billion. That translates into about $14.9 billion, below the average forecast for roughly $15.2 billion. Investors were disappointed by the "lack of the upside in the quarter as well," ISI Group analyst Brian Marshall said. "It's going to take a little bit of time for Dell to turn around the tanker ship." "They have $65 billion revenue and it takes a long time to move the needle to more strategically relevant revenue sources and we are just not seeing signs of progress yet," he said. PC makers have grappled with slackening demand as mobile devices such as Apple's [AAPL Loading... () 
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