These images show the nitrogen dioxide plume column enhancements from two power plants in Saudi Arabia. Riyadh power plant 8 uses data based on the 60-m Sentinel-2 UB band, while Riyadh power plant 9, uses data based on the 10-m Sentinel-2 B band. The red triangles mark the centre of the emitted facilities. Credit: ESA,…
Category: Earth
Planting some tree species may worsen, not improve, NYC air, says new study
More than a fifth of New York City’s surface is covered with trees, and many more are being planted. Here, Manhattan’s General Grant Memorial and Riverside Park, seen from an apartment building near 125th Street. Credit: Róisín Commane In line with longstanding initiatives to expand its green spaces, New York City is planting tens of…
Greenland fossil discovery stuns scientists and confirms that center of ice sheet melted in recent past
Willow bud scale, arctic poppy seed, fungal bodies, and rock spikemoss megaspores found in the GISP2 soil sample viewed under a microscope at the University of Vermont. Credit: Halley Mastro/University of Vermont The story of Greenland keeps getting greener—and scarier. A new study provides the first direct evidence that the center—not just the edges—of Greenland’s…
Study shows link between asymmetric polar ice sheet evolution and global climate
Icebergs collapsing from the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Credit: Li Yuansheng Joint research led by Professor An Zhisheng from the Institute of Earth Environment of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has revealed the pivotal role of the growth of the Antarctic ice sheet and associated Southern Hemisphere sea ice expansion in triggering the mid-Pleistocene climate transition…
New model refutes leading theory on how Earth's continents formed
𝑃−𝑋𝐻2𝑂 phase diagrams showing the effect of variably hydrated EAT compositions on the melts’ fO2 (∆FMQ) and H2O contents. Credit: Nature Geoscience (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41561-024-01489-z The formation of Earth’s continents billions of years ago set the stage for life to thrive. But scientists disagree over how those land masses formed and if it was through…
Retreating Andean rocks signal the world's glaciers are melting far faster than predicted, report scientists
A researcher collects a sample of bedrock from the Queshque Glacier in the Peruvian Andes Mountains. The samples show tropical glaciers have retreated to their smallest size in more than 11,700 years based on cosmogenic nuclide measurements of recently exposed bedrock, an international team of scientists, led by Boston college researchers, reports in the journal…
New York's Long Island Sound acidifies during droughts
Connecticut and Houstatonic river discharge and ratios of dissolved organic carbon to total alkalinity for the tributaries and west Long Island Sound across the study interval of 2020–2022. Credit: Frontiers in Marine Science (2024). DOI: 10.3389/fmars.2024.1398087 New York’s Long Island Sound (LIS) is an important inlet and estuary in the North Atlantic Ocean, which is…
Study yields new insights into the link between global warming and rising sea levels
The ANET-POLENET team flew to remote field sites on Antarctica’s Backer Islands to record bedrock uplift. Ohio State University co-author Terry Wilson is second from the left. Credit: Nicolas Bayou A McGill-led study suggests that Earth’s natural forces could substantially reduce Antarctica’s impact on rising sea levels, but only if carbon emissions are swiftly reduced…
Study uncovers key to delayed climate recovery following mass extinction event
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain A study led by a University of Waikato Ph.D. student has shed light on the cause of delayed climate recovery following Earth’s most severe extinction event 251 million years ago—a discovery that will contribute to our understanding of the global climate system. Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences…
Volcanoes and wine: Eruptions reduced historical Moselle Valley vineyard production
Annual wine quantities and volcanic forcing across two regions of the Moselle Valley. Credit: Ljungqvist et al. 2024. Climate has an important role to play in viticulture (wine production) due to the impacts on grape harvest from variability in parameters such as temperature, precipitation and aridity. Warmer and drier climates with long growing seasons benefit…