Phys.org: Earth science

For the first time, researchers have observed and measured weak electrical discharges, known as coronae, on trees during thunderstorms. A new study describes the near-invisible sparkles appearing similarly on branches of several tree species up and down the U.S. East Coast during the summer of 2024, implying that thunderstorms may paint entire canopies with a scintillating blue glow, albeit too faintly for human eyes to see.

A team of scientists led by the German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research (UFZ), and Leipzig University has developed a new method to track Earth's greenness—a key indicator of vegetation health and activity—by calculating its center of mass.

Volcanoes and wildfires can inject millions of tons of gases and aerosol particles into the air, affecting temperatures on a global scale. But picking out the specific impact of individual events against a background of many contributing factors is like listening for one person's voice from across a crowded concourse. MIT scientists now have a way to quiet the noise and identify the specific signal of wildfires and volcanic eruptions, including their effects on Earth's global atmospheric temperatures.

A key question in any discussion about climate is "How much rain fell?" But perhaps there is an even more important one. Like any household budget, the global water economy is based on "income," that is, water entering the system as precipitation, and "expenditure"—water leaving the system through various forms of evaporation. On land, water evaporates mainly through vegetation, in a process known as evapo-transpiration.

The extraction of gas and oil by fracking—large-scale fracturing of underground rocks by injecting water, sand and additives—is generating growing concern in Argentine Patagonia. Neuquén province—home to the country's largest hydrocarbon reserves—has experienced an increase in earthquakes since fracking operations began there in 2015.

Thick cloud cover can completely obscure the surface of the Earth from satellite view, while thinner haze and shadows distort the image of rural and urban regions. As such, many remote sensing images for monitoring climate, crops, and urban growth are only partially usable.

Several studies have predicted that not all geomagnetic reversals have been discovered, but it was unknown in which periods they might be hidden. Researchers led by the National Institute of Polar Research used a statistical method called adaptive kernel density estimation to model the frequency of geomagnetic reversals at high temporal resolution. Based on the model, they proposed that undiscovered reversals may be hidden in four periods after the Cretaceous Normal Superchron.

Standing on the coast and looking out to sea, you cannot detect the changes with the naked eye. But in northern Germany, sea levels are rising, as is the risk of flooding for the lower-lying coastal regions.

When the supercontinent Pangea began to fragment around 200 million years ago during the Early Jurassic, it reshaped the face of the planet. Vast new oceans opened, continents drifted apart and the familiar geography of today slowly emerged. For decades, many geoscientists have suggested that this dramatic breakup was fueled by an accumulation of heat beneath the supercontinent, a kind of planetary "thermal insulation" effect that caused the underlying mantle (the thick layer of rock between Earth's crust and its core) to grow unusually hot.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have now discovered for the first time that large blackwater lakes in the extensive peatlands of the central Congo Basin are releasing ancient carbon. To date, climate researchers had assumed that carbon was stored safely for millenia in the peat. How the carbon is mobilized from the peat to the lake, where it is finally released to the atmosphere, is still unknown. Climate changes and altered land use, especially the conversion of forest to cropland, could exacerbate this trend—with consequences for the global climate.

When we dream of landscapes, we might imagine rolling valleys or rugged mountains. But there is a whole landscape hidden from human view: the secret world of the seafloor.

Tiny aerosol particles in the air play a big role in regulating how much sunlight our planet absorbs or reflects, and how clouds form above us. In a recent study, researchers found that extreme heat waves can trigger new particle formation (NPF), even at temperatures as high as 40°C (104°F).

Scientists say they have drilled deeper than ever beneath the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, peering back millions of years to reveal signs it was once, at least in part, open ocean.

A study led by the University of Barcelona and published in the journal Nature Communications shows that climate change has profoundly altered extreme episodes of melting in the Greenland ice sheet by making them more frequent, more extensive and more intense. Since 1990, the area affected by extreme melting episodes has increased at a rate of 2.8 million km² per decade. Additionally, the production of water from ice melt has increased more than sixfold, rising from 12.7 gigatons per decade to 82.4 gigatons per decade.

Antarctica plays a crucial role in Earth's climate system by reflecting solar radiation back into space. The large white ice surfaces and clouds play a decisive role in this process. However, how clouds actually form in Antarctica, how they interact with the atmosphere and what role aerosols play in this process has not been sufficiently researched to date. Engaging in the SANAT flight campaign, the Alfred Wegener Institute, the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research and the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry aim to help close this knowledge gap. The flight-based aerosol measurements conducted in Antarctica are the first of their kind in 20 years and also the first to extend deep into the interior.

Researchers have long been puzzled by the observed cooling of the eastern tropical Pacific and the Southern Ocean accompanying global warming. Existing climate models have failed to capture this pattern. At the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, researchers have come a significant step closer to the answer: Using a new generation of more physical climate models, they have demonstrated the first successful representation of the observed trend in a climate simulation and have delivered an explanation of the underlying mechanisms.

Volcanic eruptions are significant geologic hazards. Underwater volcanoes are challenging to study, yet they play an integral role in marine geology and may cause destructive tsunamis that can threaten coastal communities.

The climate crisis is warming Antarctica fast, with potentially disastrous consequences. Now scientists have modeled the best- and worst-case scenarios for climate change in Antarctica, demonstrating just how high the stakes are—but also how much harm can still be prevented.

Forest loss does more than reduce tree cover. A new global study involving UBC Okanagan researchers shows it can fundamentally change how watersheds hold and release water. The research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, analyzed data from 657 watersheds across six continents.

Researchers have identified a "tipping point" about 2.7 million years ago when global climate conditions switched from being relatively warm and stable to cold and chaotic, as continental ice sheets expanded in the Northern Hemisphere. Following this transition, Earth's climate began swinging back and forth between warm interglacial periods and frigid ice ages, linked to slow, cyclic changes in Earth's orbit. However, glacial periods after this tipping point became far more variable, with large swings in temperature over relatively short timescales of roughly a thousand years.