Phys.org: Earth science

The RapidScat instrument aboard the International Space Station measured Typhoon Nangka's powerful winds as it continues to move through the Northwestern Pacific Ocean.

NASA's Aqua satellite provided a bird's eye view of Tropical Storm Linfa as it was approaching the southeastern China coast on July 8. NASA's RapidScat instrument found that the typhoon's strongest winds were on its eastern side toward Taiwan and away from China. Both countries have posted warnings on July 8.

Typhoon Chan-Hom's eye was visible from space when NASA's Aqua satellite passed overhead early on July 8, 2015.

At the bottom of the sea, volcanic and magmatic forces create hot springs that spew super-heated water into the deep sea. The hot, acidic water scours metals from Earth's crust, and the warm chemical-rich water from these remote geysers supports exotic deep-sea ecosystems.

It is well known that large volcanic eruptions contribute to climate variability. However, quantifying these contributions has proven challenging due to inconsistencies in both historic atmospheric data observed in ice cores and corresponding temperature variations seen in climate proxies such as tree rings.

Tropical Depression 4E formed in the Eastern Pacific and crossed the 140 West longitude line as of the 0300 UTC time, which brought it into the Central Pacific Ocean. NOAA's GOES-West satellite captured an infrared image of the depression at 0900 UTC (5 a.m. EDT) on July 8 that showed the large storm in the Central Pacific.

Many pressing questions about Earth's climate revolve around water. With droughts and flooding an ongoing concern, people want to know how much water is on the move and where it is going. To help answer those questions, a new NASA study provides estimates for the global water cycle budget for the first decade of the 21st century, taking the pulse of the planet and setting a baseline for future comparisons.

NASA's Aqua satellite captured a picture Tropical Storm Linfa in the South China Sea on July 7 when it was between southern Taiwan and the northern Philippines.

NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Typhoon Nangka on July 6 and took an infrared look at the large storm as it strengthened from a tropical storm into a typhoon.

The Earth's magnetic field periodically reverses such that the north magnetic pole becomes the south magnetic pole. The latest reversal is called by geologists the Matuyama-Brunhes boundary (MBB), and occurred approximately 780,000 years ago. The MBB is extremely important for calibrating the ages of rocks and the timing of events that occurred in the geological past; however, the exact age of this event has been imprecise because of uncertainties in the dating methods that have been used.

Following last year's success, the EU-funded FIXO3 project has launched a second call offering marine researchers the chance to use 15 ocean observatories free of charge.

Although global concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has continuously increased over the past decade, the mean global surface temperature has not followed the same path. A team of international reseachers, KIT scientists among them, have now found an explanation for this slowing down in global warming: the incoming solar radiation in the years 2008-2011 was twice as much reflected by volcanic aerosol particles in the lowest part of the stratosphere than previously thought. The team presents their study in Nature Communications.

A University of Tokyo research group has discovered slow-moving low-frequency tremors which occur at the shallow subduction plate boundary in Hyuga-nada, off east Kyushu. This indicates the possibility that the plate boundary in the vicinity of the Nankai Trough is slipping episodically and slowly (over days or weeks) without inducing a strong seismic wave.

Alaska currently has 21 separate incidents listed in the Inciweb database ranging in size from 104,218 acres down to 212 acres.

Despite its cold waters and harsh winds, the North Sea is a fertile basin for phytoplankton blooms. The drifting, plantlike organisms tend to be most abundant in late spring and early summer due to high levels of nutrients in the water and increasing sunlight. The intense winds blowing over the relatively shallow North Sea causes a lot of vertical and horizontal mixing that brings nutrients to the surface, as does runoff from European rivers.

Using more than a decade's worth of daily satellite images, researchers have determined ecosystems of South Africa's Cape Floristic Region bounce back from wildfires much more quickly in warmer winter weather.

Scientists studying the regional climate have discovered the reason why British summers are getting wetter.

Soccer fever gripped the U.S. at the same time as the smoke from Canadian wildfires gripped the skies over Vancouver, British Columbia. This was the site of the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup Finals on July 05, 2015.

Rice University has been awarded a $1 million grant by the W.M. Keck Foundation to develop gas-releasing microbial sensors for the study of soil and marine life.

Tropical Storm Nangka strengthened to a typhoon in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean just after NASA's Aqua satellite passed overhead on July 6. Infrared data from the AIRS instrument showed very cold cloud top temperatures indicating strong thunderstorms within the tropical cyclone.