Phys.org: Earth science

Atmospheric rivers carry unfathomable amounts of water across the sky, bringing moisture to drought-stricken regions like the Western U.S. But whether a particular incoming atmospheric river storm will result in disastrous flooding has long been difficult for researchers to determine with confidence. Now, a new Desert Research Institute-led study demonstrates that accounting for soil saturation levels can substantially improve our early warning of potentially destructive flooding events.

A comprehensive 30-year study led by University of California, Irvine glaciologists has produced a circumpolar ice grounding line migration map of Antarctica. An amalgamation of three decades of satellite data compiled and analyzed by the researchers revealed that while most of Antarctica remains remarkably stable, vulnerable sectors are losing grounded ice equivalent to the size of Greater Los Angeles every three years.

In the forests of the southeastern United States, dense tree cover dominates most landscapes. That's why the Appalachian Trail is sometimes nicknamed "The Green Tunnel." But avid hikers know that often in the Southeast, they'll emerge from the green tunnel.

The glacier located near Sunlight Peak, Wyo., has been its icy self since the Yellowstone region's last major glaciation occurred some 20,000 years ago. The bulk of Sunlight's ice has remained ensconced in its northern Rocky Mountain keep for many thousands of years. But that is now changing, according to research from scientists at Washington University in St. Louis.

In 1957, Vancouver took a decisive turn in its urban development when city council lifted the eight-story height limit in the West End neighborhood on the downtown peninsula, opening the door to high-rise living along English Bay. Over the next two decades, more than 300 mid- to high-rise concrete apartment buildings went up, some rising beyond 30 stories.

New geological data indicate that marine life is somewhat resilient to warming in the tropics. Chris Fokkema, Earth scientist at Utrecht University, discovered that tropical algae were largely unaffected by a number of periods of global warming of up to 1.5 degrees Celsius in the distant past. These unicellular organisms form the basis of food webs and are generally very sensitive to rising temperatures. Previous studies of periods of even greater warming showed a dramatic decline in these organisms. "Somewhere beyond those 1.5 degrees, a tipping point occurs."

How much will heat, flooding, drought and storms increase as a result of human-induced climate change? In a groundbreaking study, climate researcher Gottfried Kirchengast and his team at the University of Graz have developed a new method for computing the hazards from extreme events: it can compute all relevant hazard metrics for events such as heat waves, floods and droughts in any region worldwide with unprecedented information content.

Most countries will not achieve climate neutrality through greenhouse gas emission reductions alone; carbon sinks are also needed to offset unavoidable emissions. Researchers are discussing technical solutions, such as applying silicate-rock powder to arable land. This process, known as enhanced rock weathering (ERW), can bind carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

The extreme weather events and resulting destruction that have hit New Zealand this summer are not only signs of a changing climate. They also highlight the now indispensable role of remote sensing satellite technology.

A research team at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has analyzed 40 years of data covering about 1,500 tropical cyclones and discovered that average rain rates surge by more than 20% in the 60 hours before landfall. The study is also the first to clearly identify the physical mechanisms behind this increase, showing that rising humidity over coastal areas and enhanced land-sea frictional contrasts strengthen convection, intensifying rainfall ahead of landfall. The results provide valuable insights for improving coastal disaster preparedness and early-warning systems.

Particles in the atmosphere, known as aerosols, cool the climate by acting as cloud condensation nuclei. The more cloud droplets form around these particles, the less sunlight penetrates a cloud. This cools the climate, although this process is outweighed by the much stronger greenhouse effect.

A leading climate scientist has sought to set the record straight over "demonstrably incorrect" claims made in a major U.S. government report that misrepresented his work and downplayed the role of human activity in global warming.

Wildfires in the northern boreal forests of Alaska, Canada, Scandinavia, and Russia may be more damaging to the climate than previously thought, a new UC Berkeley-led study suggests. That's because these fires don't just burn through trees; they can also penetrate deep into the carbon-rich layers of soil underneath many boreal forests, releasing carbon that has been accumulating for hundreds or even thousands of years.

The Cascadia Subduction Zone is unusually quiet for a megathrust fault. Spanning more than 600 miles from Canada to California, the fault marks the convergence of the Juan de Fuca and North American plates. While other subduction zones produce sporadic rumblings as the plates scrape past each other, Cascadia shows very little seismic activity, fueling assumptions that the plates are locked together by friction.

Changes in rainfall within global monsoon regions affect the livelihoods of billions. For years, climate models have suggested that the fingerprint of human-caused climate change on monsoons would become visible by a certain time. But what if that timeline is wrong? A new study published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences suggests the signal may not emerge until a full decade later than previously estimated.

The South China Sea Throughflow (SCSTF) serves as a critical oceanic conveyor belt for heat and freshwater, mediating water exchanges between the South China Sea (SCS) and the Pacific and Indian oceans while regulating key processes such as heat and salt budgets, eddy activities, and marine biogeochemical cycles. It also plays a pivotal role in modulating the Indonesian Throughflow (ITF) and shaping climate variability across the Indo-Pacific. However, long-term direct observational data of the SCSTF have long been scarce, leaving its long-term changes under climate change and associated driving mechanisms poorly understood.

A research team led by University of Tsukuba has developed a new method to estimate long-term debris supply from steep slopes by measuring debris accumulated on decades-old abandoned roads. Debris supplied by rockfall and related slope processes is a key factor controlling the frequency and magnitude of debris flows. However, estimating the amount of debris supplied over several decades has been technically challenging.

Japan is an archipelago with diverse climate zones and complex topography that is prone to heavy rain and flooding. Add the growing effects of global warming. These disaster risks are heightened with an increased frequency and intensity of extreme precipitation events. Thus, predicting when and where these events might strike is crucial for future-proofing vulnerable infrastructure, especially in rural areas.

Cities are rapidly becoming the defining residential space of human life. Over 55% of the global population lived in urban areas in 2018, a proportion projected to reach nearly 68% by 2050, according to the United Nations (UN).

Greenland's largest glacier, Jakobshavn Glacier, may be edging closer to a critical threshold as meltwater runoff from the Greenland Ice Sheet accelerates in ways not seen in over a century, according to new research published in Climate of the Past. The study reconstructs more than 100 years of freshwater discharge flowing from the ice sheet into Disko Bay in western Greenland, revealing a striking and sustained change that began in the early 2000s.