Publication date: 1 March 2026
Source: Advances in Space Research, Volume 77, Issue 5
Author(s): Shaofeng Bu, Wenming Xie, Xuchen Shen, Xiaodong Peng, Cheng Liu, Jingyi Ren
To avoid the worst effects of climate change, many billions of metric tons of industrially generated carbon dioxide will have to be captured and stored away by the end of this century. One place to store such an enormous amount of greenhouse gas is in Earth itself. If carbon dioxide were pumped into the cracks and crevices of certain underground rocks, the fluid would react with the rocks and solidify carbon into minerals. In this way, carbon dioxide could potentially be locked in the rocks in stable form for millions of years without escaping back into the atmosphere.
Earth is not infinite. Pollution beyond certain levels threatens the climate and ecosystems. To prevent this, scientists have proposed planetary boundaries, defining the safe operating limits of the Earth system. A KAIST research team recalculated climate change and nitrogen pollution using the same standard and found that current carbon emissions already exceed the planet's sustainable limit by more than double.
Global warming has accelerated since 2015, according to a new study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). After accounting for known natural influences on global temperature, the research team detected a statistically significant acceleration of the warming trend for the first time.
Author(s): E. V. Parkevich, K. V. Shpakov, A. I. Khirianova, K. S. Vinogradova, A. A. Tarasenko, and D. V. Antonov
We investigate the processes of plasma formation and phase transitions occurring during the explosion of metal point emitters made from copper and tungsten wires approximately 1 mm in length and ∼10 µm in diameter. The experiments were performed under vacuum-to-forevacuum discharge conditions using …
[Phys. Rev. E 113, 035203] Published Fri Mar 06, 2026
Author(s): L. F. B. Souza, Y. Elskens, R. Egydio de Carvalho, and I. L. Caldas
We derive a two-dimensional symplectic map for particle motion at the plasma edge by modeling the electrostatic potential as a superposition of integer spatial harmonics with relative phase shift, then reduce it to a two-wave model to study the transport dependence on the perturbation amplitudes, re…
[Phys. Rev. E 113, 035204] Published Fri Mar 06, 2026
SummaryEarth’s magnetic field has exhibited erratic polarity reversals over much of its history; however, the processes that cause polarity transitions are still poorly understood. Dipole reversals have been found in many numerical dynamo simulations and often occur close to the transition between dipole-dominated and multipolar dynamo regimes. However, the physical conditions used in reversing simulations are necessarily far from those in Earth’s liquid iron core because of the long runtimes needed to capture polarity transitions and because a systematic exploration of parameter space is needed to find the dipole-multipole transition. Here, we use the theory of distinguished limits in an attempt to simplify the search for the dipole-multipole transition at increasingly realistic physical conditions. We consider three limits that are all built from the requirements of a constant magnetic Reynolds number $\mathit {Rm}$; one limit further attempts to impose balance between Magnetic, Coriolis, and Archimedean forces (a QG-MAC balance) while the other two seek to constrain solutions to an inertia-MAC, or QG-IMAC, balance. The presence of inertia, although not geophysically realistic, allows us to build limits that more closely follow the conditions where simulated reversals have been found to date. Numerical simulations along paths in parameter space defined by these limits show some consistencies with the assumed dynamical balances within the accessible parameter space, but also important discrepancies from predicted behaviour for certain diagnostic quantities, particularly the magnetic field strength and the magnetic/kinetic energy ratio. Furthermore, the paths do not follow the dipole-multipole transition; starting from reversing conditions, simulations move into the dipolar non-reversing regime as they are advanced along the path. By increasing the Rayleigh number, a measure of the buoyancy driving convection, above the values predicted by the distinguished limit, we are able to bound the dipole-multipole transition down to an Ekman number $\mathit {E}\sim 10^{-6}$, comparable to the most extreme conditions reported to date. Our results, therefore, demonstrate that using distinguished limits is an efficient method for seeking the dipole-multipole transition in rapidly rotating dynamos. However, the conditions under which we bound the dipole-multipole transition become increasingly hard to access numerically and also increasingly unrealistic because $\mathit {Rm}$ rises beyond plausible bounds inferred from geophysical observations. Future work combining the theory of distinguished limits with variations in the core buoyancy distribution, as suggested by recent studies, appears a promising approach to accessing the dipole-multiple transition at extreme physical conditions.
Forest damage in Europe caused by wildfires, storms and bark beetle outbreaks is projected to increase compared to recent decades under all analyzed climate scenarios, according to a new international study, published in Science, with contributions from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).
Much of our understanding of Earth's past is derived from stratigraphic records exposed in rock outcrops or recovered from drilled cores. These records span immense time intervals, from thousands to billions of years, and form the basis of geochronologies used to reconstruct geological, climatic, and environmental change. However, as a new study published in Communications Earth & Environment shows, these records are far from uniform.
In the face of climate change, permafrost peatland wildfires could play more of a role in the destructive cycle of global warming, University of Alberta research suggests.
Recent University of Toronto Ph.D. graduate Gabrielle Migliato Marega (CivMin) has developed an improved tool for estimating how much water from heavy rains ends up in sanitary sewers. The tool is particularly useful in areas where accurate data about sewer flow rates is difficult to find, such as in low- and middle-income countries, where many new sewer systems are being built.
SummaryLouis Néel’s theory of magnetism, which describes a rock’s magnetization as being carried by “ideal” uniformly magnetized or single domain (SD) particles, has been a cornerstone of paleomagnetic studies for over seven decades and has enabled paleomagnetists to make plate tectonic reconstructions, date geological and archaeological materials, and recover the history of Earth’s magnetic field. Unfortunately, many geological samples produce experimental results that disagree with the predictions made by Néel theory. This “non-ideal” behavior is often associated with larger particles that are non-uniformly magnetized. In this paper, we use simulations based on Néel theory to demonstrate that non-ideal behavior is also expected in assemblages of SD particles with a range of sizes and shapes previously assumed to be ideal. This effect occurs over a relatively small range of shapes and sizes for magnetite, but a much wider range for titanomagnetites. Our results call into question the typical interpretation of SD particles as ideal magnetic carriers. Instead, we suggest that the geological stability of a rock’s magnetization is influenced not only by the domain state of the magnetic carriers, but also by their shape and composition. This has important implications for paleointensities (and cooling rate corrections thereof), paleodirections, and the dating of viscous magnetizations.
SummaryThis paper presents a novel thermodynamically consistent constitutive model for partially saturated porous rocks across a wide range of conditions. The material states generated behind the shock wave from an explosive source can vary significantly, ranging from crushed and melted rock near the source to a poroelastic medium in the far field. In the model, rock strength is determined by the effective pressure, which is calculated using two independent equations of state: one for the solid rock and another for the pore fluid. The model accounts for shock-induced liquefaction resulting from fluid pressure buildup in the pore spaces near the explosive source. Simultaneously, it describes the increase in wave propagation speed due to elastic pore contraction in both dry and partially saturated rocks. This model is applied to investigate how fluid saturation affects the amplitude and shape of the generated waves, as well as the residual stress surrounding the cavity formed by spherical explosions.
Outdoor air pollution is estimated to contribute to more than 100,000 premature deaths in the United States each year, according to the National Weather Service. Accurate air quality forecasts—designed to protect public health, alerting communities to dangerous levels of pollutants linked to asthma attacks, heart disease and premature death—are critical for helping people limit exposure and for guiding regulatory action.
Publication date: Available online 3 March 2026
Source: Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics
Author(s): Wenyuan Xing, Nuo Ma, Pengfei Wu, Honglin Pan, Yong Wang
Publication date: Available online 2 March 2026
Source: Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics
Author(s): Mehmet Ali Çelik, Melahat Batu Ağırkaya, Dessalegn Obsi Gemeda
Publication date: March 2026
Source: Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics, Volume 280
Author(s):
Publication date: Available online 26 February 2026
Source: Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics
Author(s): A. Maghrabi, Abdulah Aldosari, Mohammed Al Mutairi, Mohammed Altlasi, Abdulah Alsherhri
Publication date: April 2026
Source: Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics, Volume 281
Author(s): Nitin Dubey, Swati, Devbrat Pundhir, Dhananjali Singh, Raj Pal Singh
Publication date: March 2026
Source: Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics, Volume 280
Author(s): C.L. Linsha, Hamza Varikoden, K. Nandhulal, R. Vishnu
