Feed aggregator

Estimating the Dst index using machine learning from IMAGE/HENA observations

Publication date: 15 March 2025

Source: Advances in Space Research, Volume 75, Issue 6

Author(s): Yuheng Yan, Xiancai Yu, Xianguo Zhang, Tianran Sun

Climatology of meteor echoes and mean winds in the MLT region revealed by SVU meteor radar over Tirupati (13.63<sup>o</sup>N, 79.4<sup>o</sup>E): Long-term trends

Publication date: 15 March 2025

Source: Advances in Space Research, Volume 75, Issue 6

Author(s): M. Venkat Ratnam, A.Kalyan Teja, M. Pramitha, S. Eswaraiah, S. Vijaya Bhaskara Rao

Effects of north magnetic pole drift on penetration altitude of charged particles

Publication date: 15 March 2025

Source: Advances in Space Research, Volume 75, Issue 6

Author(s): Ayushi Srivastava, Bharati Kakad, Amar Kakad

Seasonal evolution of the ionospheric summer evening and Weddell Sea Anomalies: Antarctic Peninsula area

Publication date: 15 March 2025

Source: Advances in Space Research, Volume 75, Issue 6

Author(s): M.A. Bravo, C.U. Villalobos, C. Castillo Rivera, A.J. Foppiano, E.M. Ovalle

Determination of electron heat flux in the topside ionosphere and its impact on the vertical profile of OI 630.0 nm emission rate during nighttime SAR arcs for different solar activity conditions

Publication date: 15 March 2025

Source: Advances in Space Research, Volume 75, Issue 6

Author(s): Kshitiz Upadhyay, Kazuo Shiokawa, Duggirala Pallamraju, Artem Gololobov

Energetics of physical processes operated on May 8–12, 2024: From the solar storm to lithospheric disturbances

Publication date: 15 March 2025

Source: Advances in Space Research, Volume 75, Issue 6

Author(s): L.F. Chernogor

Statistical and modeling study of the response of high-latitude regional electron content to a reference geomagnetic storm

Publication date: 15 March 2025

Source: Advances in Space Research, Volume 75, Issue 6

Author(s): K.V. Belyuchenko, M.V. Klimenko, V.V. Klimenko, K.G. Ratovsky, A.M. Vesnin

New research sheds light on earliest days of Earth's formation

Phys.org: Earth science - Wed, 03/26/2025 - 18:37
New research led by a York University professor sheds light on the earliest days of Earth's formation and potentially calls into question some earlier assumptions in planetary science about the early years of rocky planets. Establishing a direct link between Earth's interior dynamics occurring within the first 100 million years of its history and its present-day structure, the work is one of the first in the field to combine fluid mechanics with chemistry to better understand Earth's early evolution.

Scientists develop model for high-resolution global land surface temperature observation

Phys.org: Earth science - Wed, 03/26/2025 - 16:52
A research team, led by Prof. Meng Qingyan from the Aerospace Information Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has successfully developed the Global Spatiotemporal Fusion Model (GLOSTFM), a high-efficiency spatiotemporal fusion model that utilizes multi-source satellite data.

Clouds may amplify global warming far more than previously understood

Phys.org: Earth science - Wed, 03/26/2025 - 16:20
Tropical marine low clouds play a crucial role in regulating Earth's climate. However, whether they mitigate or exacerbate global warming has long remained a mystery. Now, researchers from the School of Engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) have developed a method that significantly improves accuracy in climate predictions. This led to a major discovery—that tropical cloud feedback may have amplified the greenhouse effect by a staggering 71% more than previously known to scientists.

NIH Cancels Climate and Health Research Grants

EOS - Wed, 03/26/2025 - 16:19
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.

The Trump administration’s intentions toward addressing climate change are clear: Federal agencies purged mentions of the climate crisis from their websites and slashed funding for mitigation tools such as the Future Risk Index. Now, those intentions are extending to health research: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has begun to cancel funding for investigations into the health effects of climate change, and will not financially support new research on the subject, according to ProPublica and Nature.

 
Related

NIH is the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world. Every year, the agency is responsible for awarding nearly $48 billion in grants for investigations into everything from cancer cures to avian flu, as well as climate change.

Documents sent to Nature on 25 March direct grants management staff at NIH to halt funding, including issuing future, already-awarded grant dollars, to any projects that are “no longer an NIH/HHS priority,” including research related to climate change. The documents also direct the NIH to halt grants for research related to COVID-19, “now that the pandemic is over.” The cuts to COVID-19 research—including cuts to projects meant to develop antiviral drugs—come as the administration also plans to end its funding for Gavi, an international program that purchases vaccines for children in developing countries. Gavi estimates that the loss of U.S. support may cause the deaths of more than 1 million children who will not receive routine vaccinations.

Climate change is a major threat to public health, according to international agencies such as the World Health Organization. A warming world increases risks of heat-related illness, disease, malnutrition, and injury, which often disproportionately affect already-vulnerable populations. Funding cuts to research on climate and health hinders scientists’ ability to understand these threats. 

COVID-19, environmental health, and climate change are linked—studies show that those living in air pollution hotspots face an increased likelihood of death from COVID-19, as do those living near fossil fuel production facilities

Halting funding for climate and health research “is an agenda item for the fossil fuel industry, and this administration is doing what the fossil fuel industry wants,” Lisa Patel, executive director of the Medical Society Consortium on Climate & Health, told ProPublica.

A now-offline NIH report from 2024 detailed some of the NIH-funded climate projects that may now be under threat, such as research to understand the health impacts of the Maui wildfires, a project meant to expand the capacity of public health systems to respond to climate disasters in Appalachia, and an initiative to promote public health in Alaska Native communities facing climate health concerns.

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

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 © 2024. 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.

Shifts in subtropical North Atlantic Ocean expected over the next decade

Phys.org: Earth science - Wed, 03/26/2025 - 16:10
A new study analyzed nearly four decades of deep ocean observations to reveal significant cooling and freshening of deep water in the Subtropical North Atlantic. The results suggest that warmer, saltier deep waters observed across other parts of the Atlantic may reach the region within the next 10 years, potentially influencing large-scale sea level changes and altering the flow of ocean currents in the region.

High methane emissions from Australian coal mine detected using airborne sensors

Phys.org: Earth science - Wed, 03/26/2025 - 15:28
Methane emissions from a large open-cast coal mine in Australia are three to eight times higher than reported. This has been revealed in a study based on aircraft-based measurements by the University of Bremen and Airborne Research Australia (ARA). It is the first time that precise data has been available.

Concern for groundwater management as summer heat and drought strain Perth's ecosystems

Phys.org: Earth science - Wed, 03/26/2025 - 14:59
New research from the University of Western Australia has highlighted the impact of the 2023–24 summer's extreme heat and drought on Perth's ecosystems.

Global warming exposes 1,620 kilometers of new Greenland coastline

Phys.org: Earth science - Wed, 03/26/2025 - 14:30
An international team of polar ecologists, geographers, and marine scientists has found that global warming has, over the past 20 years, melted enough glacier ice in Greenland that an additional 1,620 kilometers of that country's coastline is now exposed to the elements.

South Carolina could lose 1 million acres of wetlands as federal protections vanish, report says

Phys.org: Earth science - Wed, 03/26/2025 - 14:30
As flood threats rise, wetlands across South Carolina could play an important role in fending off high water before it soaks homes, businesses, roads and other property that people depend on.

Forecasting the Future of Southern Ocean Ecosystems

EOS - Wed, 03/26/2025 - 13:21
Source: Earth’s Future

Ecosystems in the Southern Ocean, the body of water surrounding Antarctica, are under threat from climate change. The area’s inhabitants, from whales to krill to phytoplankton, face changes such as a loss in sea ice and rising ocean temperatures. If species that are unique to the area, such as the Antarctic toothfish, dwindle in population as a result, this decrease could affect fishery operations and lead to cascading socioeconomic and geopolitical consequences.

Scientists use marine ecosystem models to understand how fragile regions such as the Southern Ocean will respond to changing climate, as well as to develop management and conservation plans. The Fisheries and Marine Ecosystem Model Intercomparison Project (FishMIP) combines results from an ensemble of marine ecosystem models, but it includes relatively few models that focus on the Southern Ocean. Though scientists have made progress in understanding this area’s food webs and biogeochemical processes in the past decade, work remains to be done on assessing how the ecosystem may evolve under different climate change scenarios.

Murphy et al. are developing a new suite of models to complement FishMIP called the Southern Ocean Marine Ecosystem Model Ensemble (SOMEME). By consulting experts in fields such as ocean and biogeochemical modeling, the team determined that the variables used across FishMIP (sea surface temperature, sea ice concentration, and phytoplankton biomass) made it a sufficient framework for their new suite. The SOMEME effort seeks to address some of the gaps in FishMIP by better representing regional elements, including sea ice, species such as Antarctic krill, the historical impacts of whaling, and the connections between fisheries and climate.

These additions will help scientists understand how climate change can affect the region and how those effects can be mitigated, the researchers say. The team expects the model will grow more capable as they incorporate artificial intelligence into the approach and as the project gains more collaborators. (Earth’s Future, https://doi.org/10.1029/2024EF004849, 2025)

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

Citation: Owen, R. (2025), Forecasting the future of Southern Ocean ecosystems, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250086. Published on 26 March 2025. Text © 2025. 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.

Buried Sediments Point to an Ancient Ocean on Mars

EOS - Wed, 03/26/2025 - 13:20

From alluvial fans to lake beds, Mars has no shortage of surface features that were clearly sculpted by flowing water. But evidence of a planetary-scale body of water on the Red Planet—that is, an ocean—has been comparatively lacking.

Now, researchers have analyzed radar data collected by a Mars rover and found buried sediments arranged much in the same way as terrestrial coastal deposits. The discovery is evidence that an ancient ocean once persisted over much of the Red Planet’s northern hemisphere, according to the team.

“We can generate a profile of the subsurface structure.”

In 2021, China’s Tianwen-1 spacecraft touched down on Mars’s northern hemisphere in the Utopia Planitia region. Its payload, the 250-kilogram Zhurong rover, spent the next 12 months making a 1,921-meter traverse of Mars’s northern lowlands. Some of the data the rover collected included ground-penetrating radar measurements.

Ground-penetrating radar works by directing electromagnetic waves into the ground and measuring at what depths they’re reflected by boundaries between different materials. It’s commonly used by geoscientists on Earth to map buried layers of sediment and is also used by archaeologists to find buried artifacts.

“It allows us to see beneath the Martian surface,” said Hai Liu, a geophysicist at Guangzhou University in China. “We can generate a profile of the subsurface structure.” Liu and his graduate student Jianhui Li, also a geophysicist at Guangzhou University, coled the new research.

A Layer Cake, but Tilted

The team used the method to probe up to tens of meters below the Martian surface. The data revealed layers of sedimentary deposits that were tilted, like a partially collapsed layer cake. The tilt ranged from about 6° to 20°, sloping down to the north. That level of tilting, and its consistent orientation revealed over much of Zhurong’s largely southward traverse, suggests that the region was once home to a coastline, the researchers concluded.

The angle at which sediment builds up on a coast is determined by how far waves and tides travel inland. (Martian tides would have been largely driven by the Sun; its two moons, Phobos and Deimos, are far too small to exert much of a tidal force.)

The slopes of coastal sedimentary deposits on Earth are similar, Li, Liu, and their colleagues showed.

Shorelines Here and There

The idea that Mars once hosted an ocean isn’t new—data from spacecraft orbiting the planet have revealed surface features consistent with shorelines roughly 300 kilometers south of Zhurong’s location. (Some research has called those findings into question, however.) And one way of explaining the so-called Martian dichotomy—the stark difference in elevation, cratering, and crustal thickness between the planet’s northern lowlands and southern highlands—is that much of the northern hemisphere was once under water.

If an ocean did once cover much of Mars’s northern hemisphere, it must have retreated over time given that the Red Planet is a dry and dusty world today. That shrinking ocean would have left imprints of successive generations of coastlines north of its southernmost reach, said Abdallah Zaki, a geomorphologist at the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin who was not involved in the research.

Because Zhurong explored an area that might have once been a shoreline, it’s logical for the rover to have spotted coastal deposits, said Zaki, who studies landscapes shaped by water on both Earth and Mars. “It makes sense.”

It’s unlikely that a smaller body of water such as a lake could have produced these deposits, Li, Liu, and their colleagues concluded. Lakes experience only limited tides, and their waves tend to be much smaller than those in oceans. The tilt sediments around lakes therefore tend to be significantly shallower than what the team measured.

These results were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

Going Underground

If there was once an ocean on Mars, future datasets could answer an important question: Where did all the water go? It’s likely that some evaporated and was lost to space, but some of it could still be lurking under the Martian surface.

“A lot of it could have moved underground,” said Michael Manga, a planetary scientist at the University of California, Berkeley and a member of the research team. Last year, Manga and his colleagues published a study in which they used seismic data from the InSight lander on Mars to constrain the amount of water potentially permeating subsurface rocks. The team concluded that it was a lot, enough to cover the entirety of Mars to a depth of 1–2 kilometers.

“We need to get more subsurface data.”

Continuing to explore what lies beneath Mars’s surface is critical to understanding how the Red Planet was influenced by water, Zaki said. “We need to get more subsurface data.”

Zaki and other researchers are looking forward to the European Space Agency’s upcoming launch of the ExoMars mission, which will include a rover known as Rosalind Franklin. The roughly 300-kilogram rover, named for the scientist who codiscovered DNA’s double-helix structure, will be equipped with ground-penetrating radar and a 2-meter drill.

—Katherine Kornei (@KatherineKornei), Science Writer

Citation: Kornei, K. (2025), Buried sediments point to an ancient ocean on Mars, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250115. Published on 26 March 2025. Text © 2025. 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.

Peatland Plantations in Southeast Asia are Carbon Hotspots

EOS - Wed, 03/26/2025 - 12:37
Editors’ Highlights are summaries of recent papers by AGU’s journal editors. Source: Geophysical Research Letters

Approximately 41% of Southeast Asia’s peatland forests were impacted by land-use change, and conversion to tree plantations is one of the most common practices. However, data on the altered greenhouse gas production and emissions in these systems remain extremely limited.

Taillardat et al. [2025] measure the concentration, composition, and age of carbon in water and soil at an industrial, short-rotation Acacia plantation in peatland areas of Sumatra, Indonesia. Exceptionally high levels of dissolved organic carbon, carbon dioxide, and methane were found in porewater and drainage networks, indicating that these plantations are carbon hotspots. This was century-old carbon in the water, highlighting the combination of both high productivity and exposure of old carbon-dense substrates to exposure in a plantation setting.  

Citation: Taillardat, P., Moore, J., Sasmito, S., Evans, C. D., Alfina, T., Lok, S., et al. (2025). Methane and carbon dioxide production and emission pathways in the belowground and draining water bodies of a tropical peatland plantation forest. Geophysical Research Letters, 52, e2024GL112903. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL112903

—Valeriy Ivanov, Editor, Geophysical Research Letters

Text © 2024. 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.

The amount of fresh water available for lithium mining is vastly overestimated, hydrologists warn

Phys.org: Earth science - Wed, 03/26/2025 - 10:00
New research into lithium mining in the "Lithium Triangle" of Chile, Argentina and Bolivia—source of more than half of the world's lithium resources—shows that the commonly accepted models used to estimate how much water is available for lithium extraction and what the environmental effects may be are off by more than an order of magnitude.

Theme by Danetsoft and Danang Probo Sayekti inspired by Maksimer