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…
Category: Earth
-
Earth's growing heat imbalance driven more by clouds than air pollution, study finds
-
Ultra-high-resolution lidar reveals hidden cloud structures
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and collaborators have developed a new type of lidar—a laser-based remote-sensing instrument—that can observe cloud structures at the scale of a single…
Continue Reading
-
Mysterious, thermally insulating patches at the base of Earth's mantle
With modern seismic tomography, Earth scientists have discovered that above Earth’s core-mantle boundary (CMB), about 2,900 kilometers beneath our feet, there is a thin layer about 300 kilometers thick with remarkable structural complexity and…
Continue Reading
-
Southeast Asia's greenhouse gas emissions demand urgent regional action
A new regional assessment shows that Southeast Asia is a major net source of greenhouse gases, with land-use change and rising fossil fuel use overwhelming natural carbon sinks, reservoirs that store carbon-containing chemical compounds for a…
Continue Reading
-
West Antarctica's history of rapid melting foretells sudden shifts in continent's 'catastrophic' geology
Due to its thick, vast ice sheet, Antarctica appears to be a single, continuous landmass centered over the South Pole and spanning both hemispheres of the globe. The Western Hemisphere sector of the ice sheet is shaped like a hitchhiker’s…
Continue Reading
-
Climate Models Got It Wrong: Plants Can’t Absorb As Much CO₂ As We Thought
Overestimated nitrogen availability has led climate models to exaggerate how much plant growth can offset rising CO2 levels. Rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are a major driver of climate change. At the same time, higher CO2…
Continue Reading
-
Scientists Find Ancient Air Bubbles in 1.4 Billion-Year-Old Salt Crystals
Researchers have found ancient gases and fluids trapped in 1.4-billion-year-old halite crystals from northern Ontario, Canada. Their analyses directly constrain Mesoproterozoic (1.8 to 0.8 billion years ago) oxygen and carbon dioxide…
Continue Reading
-
Vast freshwater reserves found beneath salinity-stressed coastal Bangladesh
Despite its tropical climate and floodplain location, Bangladesh—one of the world’s most densely populated nations—seasonally does not have enough freshwater, especially in coastal areas. Shallow groundwater is often saline, a problem that…
Continue Reading
-
More eyes on the skies can help planes reduce climate-warming contrails
Aviation’s climate impact is partly due to contrails—condensation that a plane streaks across the sky when it flies through icy and humid layers of the atmosphere. Contrails trap heat that radiates from the planet’s surface, and while the…
Continue Reading
-
An ecosystem never forgets: Extreme heat and drought responses linked to hydrological memory
The low-latitude highlands region of southwestern China experienced two major climate events in recent years: a severe drought in 2009–2010 and an extreme heat wave in 2019. Though both sprang from similar large-scale atmospheric circulation…
Continue Reading