Rebecca Herscher

was introduced in the House of Representatives last year.

Rebecca Herscher, NPR News.

The ocean absorbs some carbon dioxide, one of the planet-warming gases that causes climate change.

But figuring out exactly how much carbon dioxide the oceans can absorb is very complex.

One reason it's so challenging is that there's not a lot of data collected in the Southern Ocean.

But sailboats that are competing in round-the-world races do collect measurements of ocean temperature in that region.

Scientists in Germany and Belgium found the sailboat data can improve computer models about ocean CO2 absorption.

The study was published in the journal Science Advances and recommends even more data collection from sailboats in the future.

Rebecca Herscher, NPR News.

The U.S.

got lucky, hurricane experts say.

There were storms, 13 of them, and some of them were very powerful.

Lindsay Long is a meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

And climate change is making seasons like this one more likely.

A hotter planet means hotter ocean water.

which is fuel for hurricanes.

Although the total number of storms isn't increasing, the number of big, powerful storms is going up.

And forecasters warn there's no guarantee that the U.S.

will be this lucky in the future.

Rebecca Herscher, NPR News.