Phys.org: Earth science

In a study published in Weather, researchers estimated the current chances and characteristics of extreme hot episodes in the UK, and how they have changed over the last six decades.

The cloud fraction diurnal variation (CDV) regulates the Earth system's radiative budget and balance, influencing atmospheric variables such as temperature and humidity, as well as physical processes like precipitation and tropical cyclones. However, significant simulation biases of CDV exist in climate models. To date, most model evaluations have focused on the daily mean cloud fraction (CFR), while the CDV has received less attention.

Between 50 and 1,000 kilometers above our heads is the ionosphere, a layer of Earth's upper atmosphere consisting of charged particles: ions (atoms that have gained or lost a negatively charged electron) and loose electrons. The ionosphere alters the path of electromagnetic waves that reach it, including radio and GPS signals, so studying it is helpful for understanding communication and navigation systems.

A study has found New Zealand's native forests are absorbing more carbon dioxide (CO2) than previously thought. Study leader, NIWA atmospheric scientist Dr. Beata Bukosa says the findings could have implications for New Zealand's greenhouse gas reporting, carbon credit costs, and climate and land-use policies. The research was published in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Wildfires pollute waterways and could affect their ability to sequester carbon, recent University of British Columbia research shows.

A small, multi-institutional team of climate scientists has found evidence that human-caused impacts on the stratosphere began earlier than previously thought. In their study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group used observational data, environmental theory and computer modeling to create simulations depicting the state of the stratosphere to a time just after the dawn of the industrial age.

Scientists have used clues locked into tree rings to reveal major changes in the Amazon's rainfall cycle over the last 40 years: wet seasons are getting wetter and dry seasons drier.

The ICON model can be used for weather forecasting as well as climate predictions and long-term projections. So far, however, the different applications have been developed separately. An initiative that aims to bring the two closer together has presented first results in Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

A new study found that land use (agricultural or forested) and the season (wet or dry) significantly impact groundwater quality, but in different ways.

As a glaciologist who thinks about ice a lot, rewatching the movie Frozen umpteen times with my six-year-old daughter provides ample opportunity for my imagination to run wild. The movie is set in the fictional kingdom of Arendelle, which is modeled on a fjord landscape, complete with a large glacier at the head of Arenfjord. Ice unsurprisingly plays a very prominent role in the story. Yet this glacier receives very little attention.

On the first day of the One Oceans Science Congress (OOSC) in France, it was clear this was not a normal science conference.

With flooding now an ever-present danger for communities in Australia and around the world, Australian researchers have demonstrated the effectiveness of world-first real-time water level and rainfall sensing technology using existing mobile phone networks.

Methods to enhance the ocean's uptake of carbon dioxide (CO₂) are being explored to help tackle the climate crisis. However, some of these approaches could significantly exacerbate ocean deoxygenation. Their potential impact on marine oxygen must therefore be systematically considered when assessing their suitability.

Coastal planners take heed: Newly uncovered evidence from fossil corals found on an island chain in the Indian Ocean suggests that sea levels could rise even more steeply in our warming world than previously thought.

A team of planetary scientists, ecologists, and marine biologists affiliated with several institutions in the U.S. and one in the U.K., has found evidence suggesting that parts of the world's oceans have already passed what has come to be known as a planetary boundary.

Forest fires are a fundamental force in Earth's dynamics with a direct impact on human health, food security, and biodiversity. From air quality to landscape configuration and resource availability, the consequences of fire have influenced the development of society throughout history. Their effects on the oceans, though less known, are equally significant.

Aerosols could hold the key to stopping potentially destructive cyclones in their tracks, according to a first-of-its-kind study from The Australian National University (ANU).

An instrument built at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to map minerals on Earth is now revealing clues about water quality. A recent study found that EMIT (Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation) was able to identify signs of sewage in the water at a Southern California beach.

The Kaiser effect, which is known as a stress memory effect, predicts that seismic events occur only when the previous maximum stress is exceeded. Therefore, the Kaiser effect has been applied for the estimation of the magnitude of "in situ" stress on crustal rocks in the community of geotechnical engineering (including forecasting earthquakes).

Geoscientists Professor Anne Bernhardt of Freie Universität Berlin and PD Dr. Wolfgang Schwanghart of the University of Potsdam have uncovered a surprising insight using a global statistical model: The primary factor influencing the formation of submarine canyons is the steepness of the seafloor—not, as commonly assumed, the role of rivers and where they transport sediment into the ocean.