Phys.org: Earth science

Sand underpins everything from skyscrapers to smartphones. Sharp sand (as opposed to rounded desert sand) is the key ingredient in concrete, while high-purity silica sand is essential for making the silicon chips that power our digital devices.

For decades, scientists assumed that only large ocean temperature patterns covering 200 kilometers (124 miles) or more could strongly influence storms. Now, by leveraging advances in computing power, a team of scientists from UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center have discovered that small-scale ocean processes can have a much larger influence on storm development than previously thought.

New research has uncovered why different climate models offer varying projections of sea surface temperature (SST) changes in the tropical Pacific, a region critical for global climate patterns. The study, published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, identifies cloud–radiation feedback as the dominant source behind these differences.

Northwestern University researchers are actively overturning the conventional view of iron oxides as mere phosphorus "sinks." A critical nutrient for life, most phosphorus in the soil is organic—from remains of plants, microbes or animals. But plants need inorganic phosphorus—the type found in fertilizers—for food.

The overall amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has been steadily increasing, a clear trend linked to human activities and climate change. Less concerning but more mysterious, the difference between the highest and lowest amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere each year has also been increasing.

University of Idaho researchers have developed a mathematical model that simplifies the way scientists understand changes in glacier movement. This new approach demonstrates that diverse patterns of ice flow—ranging from short-term fluctuations to multi-year trends—can be explained using a single set of fundamental equations.

Seismology has revealed much of the basics about earthquakes: Tectonic plates move, causing strain energy to build up, and that energy eventually releases in the form of an earthquake. As for forecasting them, however, there's still much to learn in order to evacuate cities before catastrophes like the 2011 magnitude 9.0 Tōhoku earthquake that, in addition to causing the tsunami that led to the Fukushima nuclear disaster, resulted in more than 18,000 deaths.

In the last few years, Antarctic sea ice has been behaving erratically. Sea ice cover has been much more variable than it used to be, with anomalies lasting much longer than previously documented. Most concerning for scientists is that sea ice cover has been remarkably low in recent years. A new study shows that the extreme lows are highly unlikely to have happened in the last century.

The Greenland Ice Sheet is the largest ice mass in the Northern Hemisphere, and it's melting rapidly. Climate change is causing more intense atmospheric rivers, which can deliver intense snowfall—enough to slow Greenland's ice mass loss, a new study finds.

To reduce the loss of human lives and damage to property caused by typhoon disasters, it is crucial to continuously improve numerical models and enhance their capacity to forecast typhoon tracks and intensities. Numerical models serve as important tools in typhoon numerical simulations and operational forecasts. Since 1990, the accuracy of typhoon track forecasts using numerical models has gradually improved. However, improvement in intensity forecasts has been slow.

The American Meteorological Society has released the following statement regarding weather forecasting at the federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).