Phys.org: Earth science

The circumglobal teleconnection pattern (CGT) is a key mode of atmospheric variability during boreal summer, identified by an upper-tropospheric wave train propagating along the subtropical jet. CGT is one of the critical drivers of Northern Hemisphere mid-latitude heat waves. However, how the structure of CGT responds to global warming and its effect on future heat wave characteristics remains inconclusive.

Earth system box models are essential tools for reconstructing long-term climatic and environmental evolution and uncovering Earth system mechanisms. To overcome the spatiotemporal resolution limitations of current deep-time models, a research team has developed CESM-SCION, a new-generation high-resolution climate-biogeochemistry coupled model. This model advances the spatiotemporal resolution of long-term Earth system simulations to a new level and identifies marine regression as a key driver of the Late Paleozoic Ice Age onset.

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is the system of currents responsible for shuttling warm water northward and colder, denser water to the south. This "conveyor belt" process helps redistribute heat, nutrients, and carbon around the planet.

The mid-ocean ridge runs through the oceans like a suture. Where Earth's plates move apart, new oceanic crust is continuously formed. This is often accompanied by magmatism and hydrothermal activity. Seawater seeps into the subsurface, is heated to temperatures above 400°C, and rises again to the ocean floor.

The Huíla plateau, bounded by dramatic cliffs and chasms, stands above the arid coastal plains in the country's southwest.

When it rains, it pours. And that's good news for California's water supply.

When we think of global warming, what first comes to mind is the air: crushing heat waves that are felt rather than seen, except through the haziness of humid air. But when it comes to melting ice sheets, rising ocean temperatures may play more of a role—with the worst effects experienced on the other side of the globe.

The first study from GreenDrill—a project co-led by the University at Buffalo to collect rocks and sediment buried beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet—has found that the Prudhoe Dome ice cap was completely gone approximately 7,000 years ago, much more recently than previously known.

As temperatures rise around the world, city heat becomes increasingly unbearable during the hottest seasons. The urban heat island effect causes cities to become significantly warmer than surrounding rural areas due to human activities and building materials that trap heat.

Single-celled algae in the ocean known as coccolithophores play an important role in the marine carbon cycle when they take up bicarbonate from seawater to build their shells. Coccolithophore numbers have been increasing globally in recent years, meaning their influence is growing, even as scientists still don't fully understand the factors driving their explosive growth. One explanation could be changes to the alkalinity of ocean water, specifically, greater amounts of bicarbonate available for the tiny creatures to use.

A long stretch of humid heat followed by intense thunderstorms is a weather pattern historically seen mostly in and around the tropics. But climate change is making humid heat waves and extreme storms more common in traditionally temperate midlatitude regions such as the midwestern U.S., which has seen episodes of unusually high heat and humidity in recent summers.

Recurring high-energy flood events are not the exception but the rule in the Ahr Valley in western Germany—and this occurs over periods of centuries to millennia. This is shown in a study recently published in the journal Earth Surface Processes and Landforms and led by Leipzig University. Researchers from the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research (UFZ) and the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO), both in Leipzig, also participated in the study.

A new study reveals that microplastics are impairing the oceans' ability to absorb carbon dioxide, a process scientists find crucial for regulating Earth's temperature.

You have probably seen the images of the surface of Mars, beamed back by NASA's rovers. What if there were a time machine capable of roaming Earth during its remote geological past, perhaps even going right back to its beginnings, beaming back pictures of similar quality?

The intermittent nature of solar energy poses challenges to grid stability, making accurate ultra-short-term solar irradiance forecasting crucial for balancing supply and demand. However, traditional numerical weather prediction models often struggle with cloud initialization, leading to forecast inaccuracies.

In the predawn darkness, a team of scientists climbs the slope of Mexico's Popocatépetl volcano, one of the world's most active and whose eruption could affect millions of people. Its mission: figure out what is happening under the crater.

Advanced computer models can quantify the impacts of climate change and other environmental challenges, providing deep insights into things like streamflow, vegetation, wildlife and even the risk of wildfires.

Thousands of glaciers will vanish each year in the coming decades, leaving only a fraction standing by the end of the century unless global warming is curbed, a study showed on Monday.

A research team led by The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) scholars has discovered a significant slowdown in Arctic sea ice melting since 2012, with a decrease rate of 11.3% per decade to an insignificant downward trend of only −0.4% per decade.

Earth is taking in more energy than it releases back to space—a growing "energy imbalance" that is fueling global warming. A new study led by scientists at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science finds that recent changes in air pollution are not the main reason this imbalance has increased.