Axios

News of Antarctica's accelerating ice melt garnered worldwide headlines yesterday, as scientists revealed that 3 trillion tons of ice has been lost to the sea since 1992 — mostly from the thawing West Antarctic Ice Sheet and Antarctic Peninsula.

Why it matters: The location of the ice melt is important for determining the future of coastal communities, according to climate scientists. And, due to West Antarctica melting, it turns out that the U.S. coastline will be hit extra hard, paying a sea level rise tax of about 25%.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has issued an El Niño watch, meaning that conditions are favorable for El Niño conditions to develop in the tropical Pacific Ocean within the next six months.

Why it matters: If an El Niño forms, it would follow one of the most intense such events on record, which teamed up with long-term climate change, to lead to the warmest year ever recorded: 2016. Depending on its exact location in the Pacific and its intensity, the climate phenomenon can reorder weather patterns around the world. On the plus side, it can contribute to increased upper atmospheric winds over the tropical Atlantic, weakening nascent hurricanes and keeping the number of storms lower than they otherwise would be.

For nearly a year and a half, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has operated without a Senate-confirmed leader, setting a record for the position's vacancy. Now a new report from Bloomberg Businessweek investigates the Trump administration's nominee for the position, former AccuWeather CEO Barry Lee Myers.

The big picture: Trump nominated Myers in October of 2017 and he was cleared by the Senate Commerce Committee in December and again in January, when the White House resubmitted his nomination. But Myers' nomination has yet to reach the Senate floor. Despite support from most Republicans, he has been mired in controversy and concerns over conflict of interest.

The Mars Opportunity rover, which has been exploring the red planet for the past 15 years, is in danger of succumbing to a fierce dust storm that will soon encircle the entire planet, NASA scientists said Wednesday. The dust storm is blocking the sunlight that the rover needs in order to charge its batteries, forcing it to go into an emergency mode to conserve energy.

Why it matters: The ongoing dust storm is no ordinary tempest, it's reached a severity that has not been seen before in the nearly two decades of detailed observations, NASA said. The Opportunity rover is one of several rovers that NASA operates on Mars. Its research helps us learn more about the red planet in order to pave the way for eventual human exploration there.