Preparations for the launch of the new Earth observation satellite EarthCARE (Earth Cloud Aerosol and Radiation Explorer) are in full swing. The joint mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) will measure clouds, aerosol and radiation more accurately than ever before. This will be made possible by linking four state-of-the-art instruments. Three so-called processors, which the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS) has developed together with partners, are making an important contribution to…
– volcanism as a driver of the climate in the “Carnic crisis”. New research on the so-called ‘Carnian Crisis’ by a team led by Alexander Lukeneder, palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum Vienna, reveals astonishing developments surrounding global climate change during the Triassic period. Extensive geochemical and geophysical data decipher one of the greatest environmental catastrophes in Earth’s history, the ‘Carnian Crisis’. Climate change 233 million years ago led to a global mass extinction in the seas of the Mesozoic…
Sudden onset of drying is a rising problem, particularly acute in South America and southern Africa. But in high mountain regions of Central Asia, climate change has instead brought more moisture. Sudden, severe dry spells known as flash droughts are rising in intensity around the world, with a notable exception in mountainous Central Asia, where flash drought extent is shrinking, according to new research. Heat and changes to precipitation patterns caused by a warming climate are driving these trends, the…
Satellite radar data show kilometer-scale seawater intrusion, causing ice to rise and fall. A team of glaciologists led by researchers at the University of California, Irvine used high-resolution satellite radar data to find evidence of the intrusion of warm, high-pressure seawater many kilometers beneath the grounded ice of West Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier. In a study published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the UC Irvine-led team said that widespread contact between ocean water and the glacier –…
Spherical pyrite from black smokers puts Tübingen and Göttingen researchers on the trail of the first microbes that lived billions of years ago. A team of researchers at the Universities of Tübingen and Göttingen has found that certain minerals with characteristic shapes could indicate the activity of bacteria in hydrothermal vents – or black smokers – in the deep ocean several billion years ago. This represents a major step in our understanding of the origin of life. The study, led…
NASA has selected a team of University of Florida aerospace engineers to pursue a groundbreaking $12 million mission aimed at improving the way we track changes in Earth’s structures, such as tectonic plates and oceans. The mission, titled “GRATTIS” (Gravitational Reference Advanced Technology Test in Space), was the sole proposal selected in a national competition. GRATTIS will demonstrate the performance of state-of-the-art sensors that measure nanometer-scale gravitational changes from space to monitor movements on the Earth’s surface and interior. “UF…
Machine-trained algorithms assess the current avalanche situation in a similar way to humans – with different approaches, strengths and weaknesses. This text has been translated automatically. Forecast for Saturday, February 10, 2024, for southern Switzerland, issued by a forecast model developed with a lot of data and the machine learning (ML) method: Avalanche warning level 3 (significant) with a tendency towards 4 (large). After three years of testing, a model is sitting at the table for the first time this…
Over the course of hundreds of millions of years, Earth has lived through a series of climatic shifts, shaping the planet as we know it today. Past changes in CO2 levels and temperature can help us understand the planet‘s response to global warming today. As part of a growing field called biogeodynamics, researchers are racing to understand how such changes have impacted life on the planet in the past. “We’re trying to understand processes relevant to the present using the…
The 3.7 billion-year-old rocks may extend the magnetic field’s age by 200 million years. Geologists at MIT and Oxford University have uncovered ancient rocks in Greenland that bear the oldest remnants of Earth’s early magnetic field. The rocks appear to be exceptionally pristine, having preserved their properties for billions of years. The researchers determined that the rocks are about 3.7 billion years old and retain signatures of a magnetic field with a strength of at least 15 microtesla. The ancient…
WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF) researchers expect an elevated wildfire danger in the Alpine Foreland from 2040 onwards due to changing meteorological conditions. The danger currently remains very low in that region, but there is likely to be a shift in this regard as a result of climate change. There is likely to be a significant increase in the danger of wildfires through the 21st century. Indeed, the expectation is that by 2100 the danger will be…
ZMT researcher observes the state of reefs in the eastern tropical Pacific. According to scientists from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI), the world’s coral reefs are currently experiencing another global coral bleaching event. Events like this used to be infrequent, but this is now the second of this magnitude in the last 10 years and the fourth since 1982. Dr Sonia Bejarano from the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research…
The Antarctic Circumpolar Current plays an important part in global overturning circulation, the exchange of heat and CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere, and the stability of Antarctica’s ice sheets. An international research team led by the Alfred Wegener Institute have now used sediments taken from the South Pacific to reconstruct the flow speed in the last 5.3 million years. Their data show that during glacial periods, the current slowed; during interglacials, it accelerated. Consequently, if the current global warming…
Santorini is one of the best-studied volcanic archipelagos in the world. An international drilling expedition has now for the first time used a scientific drill ship to explore and investigate the seafloor around the Greek volcanic island. The researchers have uncovered evidence of an underwater eruption in 726 CE, previously known only from historical records. Their findings are published today in the journal Nature Geoscience. – Joint press release from the Universität Hamburg and the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean…
With a new experimental technique… The behavior of granular materials has been difficult to visualize, but a new method reveals their internal forces in 3D detail. Granular materials, those made up of individual pieces, whether grains of sand or coffee beans or pebbles, are the most abundant form of solid matter on Earth. The way these materials move and react to external forces can determine when landslides or earthquakes happen, as well as more mundane events such as how cereal…
First global study of coastal seas as carbon dioxide reservoirs possible. Coastal seas form a complex transition zone between the two largest CO2 sinks in the global carbon cycle: land and ocean. Ocean researchers have now succeeded for the first time in investigating the role of the coastal ocean in a seamless model representation. The team led by Dr. Moritz Mathis from the Cluster of Excellence for Climate Research CLICCS at Universität Hamburg and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon was able to…
It is important for water management to understand how drought spreads. In a new study, researchers from the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF show that in every third case, atmospheric drought is followed by low water levels. More rarely does drought have a negative impact on groundwater. With climate change, extreme climate events such as longer dry spells are becoming more frequent. This can have a negative impact on water management, for example in agriculture. If a…
Feedback
