Phys.org: Earth science

Earth's cloud cover is rapidly shrinking and contributing to record-breaking temperatures, according to new research involving the Monash-led Australian Research Council Center of Excellence for 21st Century Weather.

Intense, short-lived summer downpours are expected to become both more frequent and more intense across Alpine regions as the climate warms. In a new study, scientists from the University of Lausanne (UNIL) and the University of Padova analyzed data from nearly 300 mountain weather stations and found that a 2°C rise in regional temperature could double the frequency of these extreme events.

Scientists used satellite data, drones and on-the-ground observations to assess the edges of existing peatlands (waterlogged ecosystems that store vast amounts of carbon). The study—led by the University of Exeter—found peatlands in the European and Canadian Arctic have expanded outwards in the last 40 years.

The central estimate of the remaining carbon budget for 1.5°C is 130 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) (from the beginning of 2025). This would be exhausted in a little more than three years at current levels of CO2 emissions, according to the latest Indicators of Global Climate Change study published in the journal Earth System Science Data, and the budget for 1.6°C or 1.7°C could be exceeded within nine years.

An international team of geoscientists, chemists and climate scientists, has found evidence of a possible ghost plume beneath the territory of Oman. In their paper published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, the group describes the different types of evidence for the plume they found and what it could mean for the study of plate tectonics.

Submarine canyons around Antarctica tend to have less sea ice, higher sea surface temperatures, and more biomass such as phytoplankton blooms than the shelves they cut into. Phytoplankton blooms feed Antarctic krill, making these canyons an attractive feeding ground for larger predators such as penguins, who make permanent homes for foraging and breeding on the shores surrounding submarine canyons.

During the last ice age, storms soaked the now-arid Southwestern U.S., while today's rainy Pacific Northwest remained relatively dry. As global temperatures rose and ice sheets retreated, those storms shifted north—reshaping the climate patterns that define both regions today.

A new tool that assesses the level of danger posed by tsunamis in real-time has been made operational on a global scale.

New research reveals the importance of winter sea ice in the year-to-year variability of the amount of atmospheric CO2 absorbed by a region of the Southern Ocean.

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.