Category: Earth

  • Australia’s ‘carbon budget’ assessment reveals astonishing boom and bust cycles

    Australia’s ‘carbon budget’ assessment reveals astonishing boom and bust cycles

    by Yohanna Villalobos, Benjamin Smith, Pep Canadell and Peter Briggs, The Conversation Australia’s Carbon Budget 2010-2019. A product of the National Environmental Science Program – Climate Systems Hub; and a contribution to the Global Carbon Project – Regional Carbon Cycle Assessment and Processes-2. Credit: NESP-2 If you really want to know how much Australia contributes…

  • Research findings may improve flood warnings for millions living on the Indian subcontinent

    Research findings may improve flood warnings for millions living on the Indian subcontinent

    Precipitation and TPW following DI events. a–d, Same as in Fig. 2 but for precipitation anomaly (mm day−1, shading) and TPW anomaly (integrated from the surface to 200 hPa, mm, magenta contours). The black box in a–d is the target region associated with significant changes in precipitation and TPW over India and the Arabian Sea. Credit: npj…

  • Satellite analysis of rivers could provide improved flood warnings

    Satellite analysis of rivers could provide improved flood warnings

    Study area indicating investigated reaches A and B. Credit: Geophysical Research Letters (2023). DOI: 10.1029/2023GL105839 A new way to monitor the flow of rivers from satellites could provide a valuable early warning system for flood risk, scientists say. University of Glasgow researchers have developed the first method of measuring the speed of river flows by…

  • Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula Erupts in a Blaze of Lava

    Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula Erupts in a Blaze of Lava

    Brightness temperature images acquired by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite on the NOAA-20 satellite on December 18 (left) and December 19, 2023. After weeks of warnings, a new fissure has opened on the Reykjanes peninsula in southwestern Iceland. The waiting is over. After weeks of ominous earthquake swarms and warnings from geologists about the…

  • Canada’s Sky Dazzled by Solar Phenomena

    Canada’s Sky Dazzled by Solar Phenomena

    By Lindsey Doermann, NASA Earth Observatory December 20, 2023 December 17, 2023 A spate of solar activity produced widespread auroras across Canada. A flurry of solar activity in mid-December 2023 sent energized particles crashing into Earth’s magnetosphere, producing undulating auroras across northern latitudes of our planet. The VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) on the…

  • Science Made Simple: What Is Earth’s Magnetosphere?

    Science Made Simple: What Is Earth’s Magnetosphere?

    Earth’s magnetosphere, essential for protecting us from solar radiation, contrasts sharply with Mars, which lost its protective field. Studying this shield, especially through NASA’s missions like the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission, is crucial for understanding space weather and its impact on Earth. What Is Earth’s Magnetosphere? Enveloping our planet and protecting us from the fury of…

  • Custom Software Accelerates High-Profile Ocean Model

    Custom Software Accelerates High-Profile Ocean Model

    The illustration depicts ocean surface currents simulated by MPAS-Ocean. Credit: Los Alamos National Laboratory, E3SM, U.S. Dept. of Energy A new solver algorithm for the MPAS-Ocean model significantly enhances climate research by reducing computational time and improving accuracy. This breakthrough, integrating Fortran and C++ programming, is a step forward in efficient and reliable climate modeling.…

  • Mollusks from polar expeditions reveal new details about the ocean

    Mollusks from polar expeditions reveal new details about the ocean

    Glasses with nearly 100 year old mussels and sea snails. The samples contain information on how the chemistry of the ocean was before nuclear tests and CO2 from industrialization changed it. Credit: Christof Pearce In the early hours of 30 October 1961, a Russian bomber took off and flew north. The plane was headed for…

  • Florida Keys city to replace sewage wells following research findings

    Florida Keys city to replace sewage wells following research findings

    Graphical abstract. Credit: Chemosphere (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.140949 The Marathon City Council says it will end the use of shallow sewage wells, a move that could drastically reduce the pervasive pharmaceutical contamination in local fish populations uncovered by FIU scientists. The announcement was made following a settlement with the citizen-based group Friends of the Lower Keys,…

  • The largest lake the Earth has ever seen

    The largest lake the Earth has ever seen

    The megalake holds the Guinness World Record for the largest known lake on Earth. It extended over an immense area of 2.8 million square kilometers, eclipsing even the vastness of the modern Mediterranean Sea. Within its confines, it harbored a remarkable reservoir of about 1.77 million cubic kilometers of water, a quantity exceeding the combined…