EOS

Source: Community Science

Geographic information system (GIS) maps help researchers, policymakers, and community members see how environmental risks are spread throughout a given region. These types of interactive, layered maps can be used for storytelling, education, and environmental activism. When community members are involved in their use and creation, GIS maps can also be a tool for equity.

Lively et al. outlined a project focusing on mapping the features and flooding risks at and around the Tar Creek Superfund site in Ottawa County, Okla. Ottawa County is home to 10 federally recognized Tribal Nations. Residents have experienced decades of health and environmental harm from the region’s legacy of zinc and lead mining, most of which occurred within the Quapaw Reservation. Although mining ceased in 1970, giant piles of mining waste, mine water discharges, and unstable ground have poisoned residents and made entire towns unlivable. For almost a century, floods have spread these contaminants across downstream communities.

Technical experts and community members with local knowledge worked together to build a GIS map that can be used by community members and leaders. It depicts how floodwaters run through former mining sites, which then ferry toxic waste throughout the region’s creeks and soils.

The map is viewable in various layers that show the locations of different kinds of mining waste, tribal land boundaries, and flood zones designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Users can also view layers showing soil types and the locations of aquifers, fault lines, and wells.

Between 2021 and 2023, members of the Local Environmental Action Demanded Agency (LEAD), a community-led organization, connected with GIS professionals through AGU’s Thriving Earth Exchange. This program partners local organizations with volunteer scientists and experts to address environmental or geoscience-related issues in their communities. Many members of the project team contributing to the Tar Creek project were local to the Miami, Okla., region.

Though much of the actual map building was completed by the GIS expert team member, decisions on what to include in each layer of the map were made by LEAD representatives and nonscientist community members. This coproduction defined equity not only by who built or contributed to the map but also by how it is used by the community as a key storytelling tool—helping to educate officials and residents about the ongoing environmental and health risks when flooding occurs in the region. For the team, it was important not to just make the map but also to use it: Production without activism, the researchers said, would make for an unfinished project. (Community Science, https://doi.org/10.1029/2024CSJ000077, 2026)

—Rebecca Owen (@beccapox.bsky.social), Science Writer

Citation: Owen, R. (2026), Making a map to make a difference, Eos, 107, https://doi.org/10.1029/2026EO260035. Published on 11 February 2026. Text © 2026. AGU. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

Editors’ Highlights are summaries of recent papers by AGU’s journal editors. Source: Earth and Space Science

The color of the oceans is an important diagnostic parameter as it reflects the health of oceans, monitors CO2 variability, and tracks ecosystem changes due to environmental stressors. Remote observations of the ocean color (OC) are routinely performed, but rapid changes in this parameter are difficult to capture. Geostationary platforms are uniquely suited for this purpose, because they monitor the same area and can therefore detect changes in real time. However, measurements of OC from geostationary satellites are not routinely performed.

The Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) geostationary instrument monitors air quality and pollution over North America. Using a new approach, Fasnacht et al. [2025] apply a combination of statistical and machine learning techniques to TEMPO hyperspectral hourly measurements, and obtain OC values across the USA coastal regions and the Great Lakes.

Thus, the authors demonstrate the feasibility of capturing hourly variability of environmental parameters from deep space. This reinforces the scientific value of future dedicated geostationary ocean color missions, such as the Geosynchronous Littoral Imaging and Monitoring Radiometer (GLIMR), and the Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) Ocean Color Instrument (OCX).  

Citation: Fasnacht, Z., Joiner, J., Bandel, M., Ibrahim, A., Heidinger, A., Himes, M. D., et al. (2025). Exploiting machine learning to develop ocean color retrievals from the tropospheric emissions: Monitoring of pollution instrument. Earth and Space Science, 12, e2025EA004341. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EA004341

—Graziella Caprarelli, Editor-in-Chief, Earth and Space Science

Text © 2026. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

Editors’ Vox is a blog from AGU’s Publications Department.

The surface of Mars represents the comprehensive geochemical inventory of the interactions between the lithosphere, atmosphere, and/or hydrosphere over a period of more than four billion years. By investigating the chemical composition and variability of surface materials, we can reconstruct the planet’s evolutionary history and investigate how different geological processes shaped the surface environment of Mars over geologic time. Due to their unique properties and global distribution, reactive salts of chlorine, called oxychlorine species, constitute an important component of the Martian surface.

A new article in Reviews of Geophysics investigates the state of the knowledge and discusses potential areas of future exploration for oxychlorine species on Mars. Here, we asked the author to give an overview of oxychlorine species on Mars, how scientists study them, and what questions remain.

Why is it important to understand the composition of the surface environment of Mars?

Certain surface materials can serve as diagnostic indicators of early and contemporary aqueous activity on the Martian surface.

Certain surface materials—such as salts and hydrated minerals—can serve as diagnostic indicators of early and contemporary aqueous activity on the Martian surface. Accurately understanding the formation, evolution, and preservation of these minerals that formed in aqueous systems can provide crucial constraints on the chemistry and availability of water that are needed to evaluate habitability conditions on Mars. Furthermore, characterizing the modern surface composition is the essential first step in deconvoluting geochemical cycles as well as assessing regolith toxicity, important for future robotic, sample return, and human missions to Mars.

In simple terms, what are oxychlorine species and where have they been found on Mars?

Oxychlorine species are chemical compounds composed of chlorine and oxygen, ranging from stable salts like perchlorate and chlorate to reactive gases and transient intermediates. This diversity arises from the multiple oxidation states of chlorine, which vary from -1 in chloride (Cl-) to +7 in perchlorate (ClO4-). While perchlorate and chlorate (ClO3-) have been identified on Mars, highly reactive intermediates are also likely to exist, at least transiently, during oxychlorine formation and destruction processes.

These compounds are widely distributed across the Martian surface. The Phoenix lander first detected them in the northern plains, while the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers have confirmed their presence in soil, sediment, and rock samples within the Gale and Jezero craters, respectively. Furthermore, oxychlorine salts have been identified as inclusions within pristine Martian meteorites. These widespread detections suggest that oxychlorines are a global component of the Martian regolith, influencing the planet’s geochemical and environmental evolution.

The locations of oxychlorine detections on the surface of Mars. Credit: Mitra [2025], Figure 2

How do scientists detect and sample oxychlorine species?

Scientists have successfully employed various analytical techniques to identify oxychlorine species on the surface of Mars. The Phoenix lander used ion selective electrodes in the Wet Chemistry Laboratory (WCL) to detect perchlorate anions in the Martian regolith. Additional measurements from the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer (TEGA) and the Surface Stereo Imager (SSI) also confirmed the presence of perchlorate anions. At Gale Crater, the Curiosity rover’s Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument identified these species by heating samples and measuring the evolution of oxygen and chlorine-bearing gases, such as HCl.

More recently, the Perseverance rover used its Raman and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy instruments—SHERLOC, SuperCam, and PIXL— to detect oxychlorine species within altered rock assemblages at Jezero Crater. Beyond in situ analysis, orbital instruments like CRISM can be used to detect hydrated oxychlorine salts using visible and near-infrared spectroscopy. Finally, multiple analytical methods in terrestrial laboratories can detect oxychlorine species using spectroscopy, chromatography, and diffraction techniques.

What are recent advances in our understanding of oxychlorine formation and destruction on Mars?

Early research focused on atmospheric production, but the low abundance of oxygen-bearing gases in the Martian atmosphere failed to explain the high concentrations of perchlorate on Mars. Recent studies have identified three additional formation mechanisms: plasma redox chemistry during electrostatic discharges, heterogeneous reactions between chlorine-bearing salts and energetic radiation, and aqueous processes. Among these, the irradiation of chloride minerals and ices by ultraviolet light or galactic cosmic rays is particularly effective on contemporary Mars because the thin atmosphere allows radiation to interact directly with the surface.

Regarding destruction, perchlorate salts can degrade into chlorate when exposed to galactic cosmic radiation. Furthermore, chlorate can be effectively consumed by dissolved ferrous iron or ferrous minerals at temperatures as low as 273 K. While perchlorate remains kinetically stable in the presence of most redox-sensitive materials, reactive intermediates like hypochlorite (ClO–) and ClO2 gas readily react with organic compounds, leading to their mutual destruction.

Oxychlorine cycle on Mars. Credit: Mitra [2025], Figure 5

What does the presence of oxychlorine tell us about Mars’ history?

Oxychlorine species record the unique environmental history of Mars. Chlorine isotope data and detections in meteorites, such as Tissint and EETA79001, suggest an active oxychlorine cycle spanning 4 billion years, indicating that oxidizing fluids have been widespread throughout Martian history. Unlike Earth, where the nitrate-to-perchlorate ratio is high (~104), the ratio on Mars is less than one, except for inclusion in EETA79001. This discrepancy highlights fundamentally different geochemical fixation processes and nitrogen-chlorine cycles between the two planets.

Furthermore, chlorates are effective iron oxidants under Mars-relevant conditions and likely contribute to the formation of the planet’s ubiquitous ferric minerals. Additionally, as potent freezing point depressants, these salts may stabilize transient liquid brines even in modern equatorial regions. As a halogen-rich planet, Mars hosts a reactive surface chemistry where oxychlorine species play a substantially more dominant role than they do on Earth.

Is the presence of oxychlorine species helpful or harmful to human exploration and possible use of Mars?

Oxychlorine species can act as a potential hazard as well as a critical in situ resource for future human exploration.

Oxychlorine species can act as a potential hazard as well as a critical in situ resource for future human exploration. Perchlorate and chlorate salts can thermally decompose to release molecular oxygen (O2) and can thus potentially be used for human consumption. Approximately 60 kg of the Martian regolith, containing ~0.5 to 1 wt.% oxychlorine salt, could theoretically provide a single person’s daily oxygen supply. On the other hand, perchlorate is a well-known contaminant in drinking water since it interferes with thyroid functioning and can cause a goiter. Therefore, perchlorate in the Martian regolith could be a possible source of contamination for drinking water or agricultural systems. Owing to high chemical reactivity and oxidation potential, oxychlorine salts present in the Martian regolith are likely to pose persistent cleaning challenges for habitats, suits, and equipment during extra vehicular activity (EVA) on Mars. Additionally, agriculture in the oxychlorine-laden regolith might lead to contamination of plants and vegetables and could eventually lead to biomagnification in humans.

What are some of the remaining questions where additional research is needed?

While oxychlorine research has flourished over the last two decades, critical gaps remain regarding the spatial distribution and formation rates of distinct species. Recent detections of atmospheric HCl and electrostatic discharges necessitate a rigorous re-evaluation of Martian atmospheric chemistry. By leveraging emerging terrestrial models of chlorate formation, new pathways for Martian oxychlorine production can be proposed. Determining the relative contributions of atmospheric, plasma redox, and heterogeneous pathways is vital to understanding the evolution of the chlorine cycle and estimating equilibrium concentrations and residence times.

Furthermore, the chemical reactivity of transient intermediates, specifically ClO2 gas and chlorite, remains poorly understood regarding organic preservation at low temperatures. We also require precise thermodynamic data on complex salt mixtures to accurately predict brine stability. Ultimately, experimental validation of these salts as a viable in situ resource for oxygen and fuel is imperative for future human exploration and the interpretation of returned Martian samples.

—Kaushik Mitra (kaushik.mitra@utsa.edu; 0000-0001-9673-1032), The University of Texas at San Antonio, United States

Citation: Mitra, K. (2026), A double-edged sword: the global oxychlorine cycle on Mars, Eos, 107, https://doi.org/10.1029/2026EO265004. Published on 10 February 2026. This article does not represent the opinion of AGU, Eos, or any of its affiliates. It is solely the opinion of the author(s). Text © 2026. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

A major part of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), a large-scale ocean circulation pattern, was warmer during the peak of Earth’s last ice age than previously thought, according to a new study published in Nature. 

The study’s results contrast with those from previous studies hinting that the North Atlantic was relatively cold and that AMOC was weaker when faced with major climate stress during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), about 19,000–23,000 years ago. 

The findings add confidence to models that scientists use to project how AMOC may change in the future as the climate warms, said Jack Wharton, a paleoceanographer at University College London and lead author of the new study.

Deepwater Data

The circulation of AMOC, now and in Earth’s past, requires the formation of dense, salty North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW), which brings oxygen to the deep ocean as it sinks and helps to regulate Earth’s climate. Scientists frequently use the climatic conditions of AMOC during the LGM as a test to determine how well climate models—like those used in major global climate assessments—simulate Earth systems. 

However, prior to the new study, few data points existed to validate scientists’ models showing the state of NADW during the LGM. Scientists in 2002 analyzed fluid in ocean bottom sediment cores from four sites in the North Atlantic, South Pacific, and Southern Oceans, with results suggesting that deep waters in all three were homogeneously cold.

Researchers sampled 16 sediment cores from across the North Atlantic to deduce how waters may have circulated during the peak of the last ice age. Credit: Jack Wharton, UCL

“The deep-ocean temperature constraints during the [Last Glacial Maximum] were pretty few and far between,” Wharton said. And to him, the 2002 results were counterintuitive. It seemed more likely, he said, that the North Atlantic during the peak of the last ice age would have remained mobile and that winds and cold air would have cooled and evaporated surface waters, making them saltier, denser, and more prone to create NADW and spur circulation.

“This is quite new,” he remembered thinking. “What kind of good science could help show that this is believable?”

Wharton and his colleagues evaluated 16 sediment cores collected across the North Atlantic. First, they measured the ratio of trace magnesium and calcium in microscopic shells of microorganisms called benthic foraminifera. This ratio relates to the temperature at which the microorganisms lived. The results showed much warmer North Atlantic Deep Water than the 2002 study indicated. 

Wharton felt cautious, especially because magnesium to calcium ratios are sometimes affected by ocean chemistry as well as by temperature: “This is quite new,” he remembered thinking. “What kind of good science could help show that this is believable?”

The team, this time led by Emilia Kozikowska, a doctoral candidate at University College London, verified the initial results using a method called clumped isotope analysis, which measures how carbon isotopes in the cores are bonded together, a proxy for temperature. The team basically “did the whole study again, but using a different method,” Wharton said. The results aligned. 

Ratios of magnesium to calcium contained in benthic foraminifera, tiny microbes living in marine sediment, offer insights into the temperature of North Atlantic waters thousands of years ago. Credit: Jack Wharton and Mark Stanley

Analyzing multiple temperature proxies in multiple cores from a broad array of locations made the research “a really thorough and well-done study,” said Jean Lynch-Stieglitz, a paleoceanographer at the Georgia Institute of Technology who was not part of the research team but has worked closely with one of its authors. 

The results, in conjunction with previous salinity data from the same cores, allowed the team to deduce how the North Atlantic likely moved during the LGM. “We were able to infer that the circulation was still active,” Wharton said. 

Modeling AMOC

The findings give scientists an additional benchmark with which to test the accuracy of climate models, Lynch-Stieglitz said. “LGM circulation is a good target, and the more that we can refine the benchmarks…that’s a really good thing,” she said. “This is another really nice dataset that can be used to better assess what the Last Glacial Maximum circulation was really doing.”

“Our data [are] helping show that maybe AMOC was sustained.”

In many widely used climate models, North Atlantic circulation during the LGM looks consistent with the view provided by Wharton’s team’s results, indicating that NADW was forming somehow during the LGM, Lynch-Stieglitz said. However, no model can completely explain all of the proxy data related to the LGM’s climatic conditions.

“Our data [are] helping show that maybe AMOC was sustained,” which helps reconcile climate models with proxy data, Wharton said. Lynch-Stieglitz added that a perhaps equally important contribution of the new study is that it removes the sometimes difficult-to-simulate benchmark of very cold NADW during the LGM that was suggested in research in the early 2000s. “We don’t have to make the whole ocean super cold [in models],” she said.

Some climate models suggest that modern-day climate change may slow AMOC, which could trigger a severe cooling of Europe, change global precipitation patterns, and lead to additional Earth system chaos. However, ocean circulation is highly complex, and models differ in their ability to project future changes. Still, “if they could do a great job with LGM AMOC, then we would have a lot more confidence in their ability to project a future AMOC,” Lynch-Stieglitz said.

Wharton said the results also suggest that another question scientists have been investigating about the last ice age—how and why it ended—may be worth revisiting. Many hypotheses rely on North Atlantic waters being very close to freezing during the LGM, he said. “By us suggesting that maybe they weren’t so close to freezing…that sort of necessitates that people might need to rethink the hypotheses.”

—Grace van Deelen (@gvd.bsky.social), Staff Writer

Citation: van Deelen, G. (2026), The AMOC of the ice age was warmer than once thought, Eos, 107, https://doi.org/10.1029/2026EO260053. Published on 10 February 2026. Text © 2026. AGU. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

Editors’ Highlights are summaries of recent papers by AGU’s journal editors. Source: Geophysical Research Letters  

Thunderstorms, produced when air rises through the depth of the troposphere, are notoriously difficult to represent in global climate models. Whether air parcels have the energy to rise or not does not depend solely on their characteristics, notably their “Convective Available Potential Energy” (CAPE). It is relative to the state of the environment around them. Specifically, the intensity that they reach, which translates into the potential to produce hail, lightning or damaging winds, depends on how much surrounding air is “entrained” from the sides as the air rises.

Peters et al. [2026] propose a new formulation for CAPE, that they call ECAPE for Entraining CAPE, which incorporates the effect of entrainment from first principles. To verify their theory, they first show that it predicts the geographical distribution of thunderstorms hotspots, such as the U.S. Great Plains, the Pampas of South America, and the African Sahel. They then use it to explain why thunderstorms are more intense over land than over oceans: because of a higher lifting condensation level (LCL) over land, that is, a higher bar that rising air has to reach before it can rise all the way to the top. In addition to solving this longstanding issue, the very fine resolution of the analysis (100m, 1hr) provides an invaluable benchmark for the current generation of kilometer-scale global models being developed.

Citation: Peters, J. M., Chavas, D. R., Su, C.-Y., Murillo, E. M., & Mullendore, G. L. (2026). A unified theory for the global thunderstorm distribution and land–sea contrast. Geophysical Research Letters, 53, e2025GL120252. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025GL120252   

—Alessandra Giannini, Editor, Geophysical Research Letters

Text © 2026. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

Editors’ Vox is a blog from AGU’s Publications Department.

Coastal (tidal) wetlands are low-lying ecosystems found where land meets the sea, including mangroves, saltmarshes, and seagrass meadows. They are shaped by tides and support a mix of marine and terrestrial processes. However, agricultural and urban development over the past century have drained, modified, or degraded many of these coastal wetland ecosystems and now require restoration efforts.

A new article in Reviews of Geophysics explores how subsurface hydrology and biogeochemical processes influence carbon dynamics in coastal wetlands, with a particular focus on restoration. Here, we asked the lead author to give an overview of why coastal wetlands matter, how restoration techniques are being implemented, and where key opportunities lie for future research.

Why are coastal wetlands important?

Coastal wetlands provide many benefits to both nature and people. They protect shorelines from storms and erosion, support fisheries and biodiversity, improve water quality by filtering nutrients and pollutants, and store large amounts of carbon in their soils. Despite covering a relatively small area globally, they punch well above their weight in terms of ecosystem services, making them critical environments for climate regulation, coastal protection, and food security.

What role do coastal wetlands play in the global carbon cycle?

Coastal wetlands are among the most effective natural systems for capturing and storing carbon.

Coastal wetlands are among the most effective natural systems for capturing and storing carbon. This stored carbon is often referred to as “blue carbon”. Vegetation in these ecosystems, such as mangroves, saltmarsh, and seagrass, take up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and transfer it to sediments through roots. These plants can store carbon 40 times faster than terrestrial forests. Because coastal wetland sediments are often waterlogged and low in oxygen, this carbon can be stored for centuries to millennia. In addition to surface processes, groundwater plays an important but less visible role by transporting dissolved carbon into and out of wetlands. Understanding these hidden subsurface pathways is essential for accurately estimating how much carbon wetlands store and how they respond to environmental change.

How has land use impacted coastal wetlands over the past century?

Over the past century, coastal wetlands have been extensively altered or lost due to human activities. Large areas have been drained, filled, or isolated from tides to support agriculture, urban development, ports, and flood protection infrastructure. These changes disrupt natural water flow, reduce plant productivity, and expose carbon-rich soils to oxygen, which can release stored carbon back into the atmosphere as greenhouse gases. In many regions, groundwater flow paths have also been modified by drainage systems and groundwater extraction, further altering wetland function. As a result, many coastal wetlands have shifted from long-term carbon sinks to sources of emissions.

How could restoring wetlands help to combat climate change?

Restoring coastal wetlands can help combat climate change by re-establishing natural processes that promote long-term carbon storage.

Restoring coastal wetlands can help combat climate change by re-establishing natural processes that promote long-term carbon storage. When tidal flow and natural hydrology are restored, wetland plants can recover, sediment accumulation increases, and carbon burial resumes. Importantly, restoration can also reconnect groundwater and surface water systems, helping stabilize (redox) conditions that favor carbon preservation in sediments. While wetlands alone cannot solve climate change, they offer a powerful nature-based solution that delivers climate mitigation alongside co-benefits such as coastal protection, biodiversity recovery, and improved water quality. Getting restoration right is key to ensuring these systems act as carbon sinks rather than sources.

What are the main strategies being deployed to restore coastal wetlands?

Common restoration strategies include removing or modifying levees and tidal barriers, reconnecting wetlands to natural tidal regimes, re-establishing natural vegetation through improving the hydrology of the site, and managing sediment supply. Increasingly, restoration projects are recognizing the importance of subsurface processes, such as groundwater flow and salinity dynamics, which strongly influence vegetation health and carbon cycling. Successful restoration requires site-specific designs that consider hydrology, geomorphology, and long-term sea-level rise.

What are some remaining questions where additional research efforts are needed?

Despite growing interest in wetland restoration, major knowledge gaps remain. One key challenge is quantifying how groundwater processes influence carbon storage and greenhouse gas emissions across different wetland types and climates. We also need better long-term measurements to assess whether restored wetlands truly deliver sustained carbon benefits under rising sea levels and increasing climate variability. Finally, integrating hydrology, biogeochemistry, and ecology into predictive models remains difficult but essential. Addressing these gaps will improve carbon accounting, guide smarter restoration investments, and strengthen the role of coastal wetlands in climate mitigation strategies.

—Mahmood Sadat-Noori (mahmood.sadatnoori@jcu.edu.au; 0000-0002-6253-5874), James Cook University: Townsville, Australia

Editor’s Note: It is the policy of AGU Publications to invite the authors of articles published in Reviews of Geophysics to write a summary for Eos Editors’ Vox.

Citation: Sadat-Noori, M. (2026), Coastal wetlands restoration, carbon, and the hidden role of groundwater, Eos, 107, https://doi.org/10.1029/2026EO265003. Published on 9 February 2026. This article does not represent the opinion of AGU, Eos, or any of its affiliates. It is solely the opinion of the author(s). Text © 2026. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

Source: Water Resources Research

If humans want to live in space, whether on spacecraft or the surface of Mars, one of the first problems to solve is that of water for drinking, hygiene, and life-sustaining plants. Even bringing water to the International Space Station (ISS) in low Earth orbit costs on the order of tens of thousands of dollars. Thus, finding efficient, durable, and trustworthy ways to source and reuse water in space is a clear necessity for long-term habitation there.

Current systems, like the Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) on the ISS, offer a blueprint for closed-loop water reclamation, but they need improvements for future applications. Meanwhile, recent technological and scientific advances are pointing to new ways of finding, purifying, and managing water resources in demanding environments. In a new review, Olawade et al. provide an overview of the current state of extraterrestrial water management, as well as of the field’s prospects and challenges.

Water systems in space need to be closed loop, highly efficient, and durable, all while having low energy requirements, the authors say. Currently, the ECLSS is prohibitively energy intensive, and may not be efficient enough, for use on longer missions. Future suggested approaches for filtration and recycling include photocatalysis to purify water via light, bioreactors to filter urine and wastewater, ion-exchange systems to remove dissolved salts and heavy metals from extracted water, and ultraviolet or ozone disinfection to kill pathogens. Each comes with its own pros and cons: Microbial fuel cells in bioreactors could produce electricity, for example, but photocatalytic purification has low energy demands.

Sourcing water on places like the Moon or Mars would require either extracting water bound up in regolith or drilling into ice bodies. Sufficiently powering water reclamation systems is another concern, making energy-efficient systems a priority. Water system durability is also important, both to protect inhabitants and to reduce the need for onerous maintenance work.

Emerging technologies could meet many of these challenges. The authors point to advances in nanotechnology, which could be used to create highly tailored membranes for filtration that are more effective and resistant to fouling, and to the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to autonomously manage water systems, as two areas of promise. (Water Resources Research, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025WR041273, 2026)

—Nathaniel Scharping (@nathanielscharp), Science Writer

Citation: Scharping, N. (2026), A road map to truly sustainable water systems in space, Eos, 107, https://doi.org/10.1029/2026EO260023. Published on 9 February 2026. Text © 2026. AGU. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

body {background-color: #D2D1D5;} Research & Developments is a blog for brief updates that provide context for the flurry of news regarding law and policy changes that impact science and scientists today.

Students who have applied for the Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) from the National Science Foundation (NSF) have had their applications returned without review—even though their proposed research appears to fall squarely within the fields of study outlined in the program solicitation.

In response, a group of scientists created a template letter for students to share concerns with their representatives.

GRFP provides 3 years of financial support over a 5-year fellowship program for outstanding graduate students pursuing full-time degrees in science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM), including STEM education. The program solicitation, posted in September 2025, lists the following fields as eligible.

1. Chemistry
2. Computer and Information Sciences and Engineering
3. Engineering
4. Geosciences
5. Life Sciences
6. Materials Research
7. Mathematical Sciences
8. Physics & Astronomy
9. Psychology
10. Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences
11. STEM Education and Learning Research

However, at least dozens of applicants in those fields have received emails, obtained by Eos, that stated that their proposals were ineligible.

 Related

•  Thread in the GRFP subreddit
•  Grant Witness Template for Letter to Representatives
•  Get Involved: AGU Science Policy Action Center

 

“The proposed research does not meet NSF GRFP eligibility requirements. Applicants must select research in eligible STEM or STEM education fields,” the email read.

Neuroscience, physiology, ecology/biogeochemistry, and chemistry of life sciences are among the proposal research topics that have been returned without review (RWR), according to posts on Reddit and Bluesky.

One Redditor described the RWR as “soul-crushing.” “The dropdown menu part is what gets me,” they wrote, referring to how they selected a category from a list within the application. “What do you mean I am ineligible in a category that YOU provided?!”

Karolina Heyduk, an ecologist and evolutionary biologist at the University of Connecticut, shared on Bluesky that one of her student’s applications was rejected. Heyduk told Eos over email that she has no idea why, as the research—on photosynthesis in bromeliads—was “clearly within stated fields that are eligible, and had no agriculture, health, or policy angles.”

“The GRFP is an opportunity for new scientists to propose their best ideas and get their first shot at external funding. While not everyone will be funded, there is some expectation of a fair and transparent review process, and that doesn’t seem to be happening this year. For new grad students, or those applying this year, the outright rejection without a clear reason is incredibly discouraging,” she told Eos.

Rejected Appeals

Some applicants have appealed the decision, after having advisers look over their applications, and have received responses, also obtained by Eos, affirming that the decision is final.

“As your application was thoroughly screened based on these eligibility criteria, the RWR determination will stand and there will be no further consideration of your application,” the email text read.

Last March, the New York Times compiled, via government memos, agency guidance, and other documents, a list of words that the Trump administration indicated should be avoided or limited. The list included “climate science,” “diversity,” “political,” and “women.”

On Reddit threads, applicants who received RWR are speculating over whether their applications may have been automatically rejected for the use of so-called banned words. One student used the word “underrepresented” in a personal statement, to reference a program to which they had previously been accepted. Others, applying for neuroscience fellowships that involved studies with rats, wondered whether the word “ethanol” had been flagged. Another said they had tried to avoid using banned words, but that it was “unavoidable.”

“My project is about bears and ‘black’ is a trigger word,” they wrote. “Insane.”

Reaching out to Representatives

The group behind the template letter for students includes Noam Ross, who is among the creators of Grant Witness, a project to track the termination of scientific grants under the Trump administration. The letter notes that, after NSF awarded significantly fewer GRFP awards than usual in the spring, it released its guidance for this year’s application more than a month later than usual—leaving students with much less time than usual to complete their applications, and leaving others ineligible to apply.

“I request that you contact the NSF administrator to ask why eligible GRFP applications are being rejected without review and to ask them to remedy the situation quickly, as review panels are convening imminently,” the letter reads. “We cannot allow the continued degradation of our scientific workforce, and [the cutting] off the opportunities for so many future scientists.”

—Emily Gardner (@emfurd.bsky.social), Associate Editor

These updates are made possible through information from the scientific community. Do you have a story about how changes in law or policy are affecting scientists or research? Send us a tip at eos@agu.org. Text © 2026. AGU. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
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Editors’ Highlights are summaries of recent papers by AGU’s journal editors. Source: Space Weather 

The solar wind is a continuous stream of charged particles released from the Sun into the solar system. It plays a major role in space weather, which can impact satellites, astronauts, and power systems on Earth. Forecasting the solar wind often depends on detailed maps of the Sun’s magnetic field and complex models of the solar corona, which introduce uncertainty and are not always available.

Owens et al. [2026] present a new approach that uses solar wind measurements near Earth to reconstruct solar wind conditions closer to the Sun. By tracing the solar wind back towards its source, the method provides realistic starting conditions for solar wind models without relying on magnetic maps. The authors show that this approach can produce realistic solar wind conditions while reducing assumptions and sources of error. This simpler set-up allows the method to be applied consistently across different modelling frameworks.

This work represents an important step towards more robust and accessible solar wind modeling. In the long term, it can help improve space weather forecasts and our ability to protect technology and infrastructure in space and on Earth.

Citation: Owens, M. J., Barnard, L. A., Turner, H., Gyeltshen, D., Edward-Inatimi, N., O’Donoghue, J., et al. (2026). Driving dynamical inner-heliosphere models with in situ solar wind observations. Space Weather, 24, e2025SW004675. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025SW004675

—Tanja Amerstorfer, Associate Editor, Space Weather

Text © 2026. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.