Phys.org: Earth science

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) has started to use Mode-S aircraft observations again to improve the quality of forecasts after this type of data was found to be used in too large numbers during the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over this wet summer, Melburnians and Sydneysiders have had to think twice about cooling off at their local beach. Heavy rainfall has swollen rivers and pumped pollutants, nutrients and murky fresh water far out to sea. Swimmers at Port Phillip Bay beaches are emerging coated in brown goo, while Sydney's seas were contaminated last week.

If the world is warming, why are our winters getting colder? Indeed, East Asia and North America have experienced frequent extreme weather events since the 2000s that defy average climate change projections. Many experts have blamed Arctic warming and a weakening jet stream due to declining Arctic sea ice, but climate model experiments have not adequately demonstrated their validity.

Tipping elements of the Earth system should be considered global commons, researchers argue in a new paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Charles Darwin proposed that life could have emerged in a "warm little pond" with the right cocktail of chemicals and energy. A study from the University of Washington, published this month in Communications Earth & Environment, reports that a shallow "soda lake" in western Canada shows promise for matching those requirements. The findings provide new support that life could have emerged from lakes on the early Earth, roughly 4 billion years ago.

In the AI era, pure data-driven meteorological and climate models are gradually catching up with and even surpassing traditional numerical models. However, significant challenges persist in current deep learning models, such as low physical consistency and suboptimal forecasting of divergent winds.

A study exploring the potential of a decommissioned gas field in Scotland as a major hydrogen store has highlighted concerns over potential leaks and recommended that it shouldn't be used.

The Congo Basin of central Africa is well known for its network of rivers that drain a variety of landscapes, from dense tropical forests to more arid and wooded savannas. Among the Congo River's large tributaries, the Ruki is unique in its extremely dark color, which renders the water opaque below a few centimeters' depth.

2023 was the hottest year on record. Humidity is rising too. Heat and humidity are a dangerous combination, threatening all aspects of our lives and livelihoods.

Early in 2023, a series of storms dumped record-breaking amounts of rain and snow across California. Flooding, power outages, and mudslides from the deluge resulted in 21 deaths and more than $3 billion in losses.

Deglaciation during the Holocene (last ~17,000 years) has had significant impacts on the surrounding mountainous environments as glaciers retreated and left distinct landforms in their wake, such as debris ridges (moraines) deposited at the snout during retreat.