A University of Oklahoma-led article published in Geophysical Research Letters highlights newly measured extremes recorded during the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Dynamics and Chemistry of the Summer Stratosphere field project. “Extreme Altitudes of Stratospheric Hydration by Midlatitude Convection Observed During the DCOTSS Field Campaign,” led by OU School of Meteorology Interim Director and Associate Professor Cameron Homeyer, summarizes the extremes in measured stratospheric depth of hydration by convection recorded during the DCOTSS project as a whole, and then highlights a specific…
Spacecraft metals left in the wake of humanity’s path to the stars. Airplane-based research by Purdue scientists detects unprecedented levels of alloy aerosols in the atmosphere. The Space Age is leaving fingerprints on one of the most remote parts of the planet — the stratosphere — which has potential implications for climate, the ozone layer and the continued habitability of Earth. Using tools hitched to the nose cone of their research planes and sampling more than 11 miles above the…
Robert Reinecke of Mainz University contributed scientific modeling and expertise to the 2022 report / Joint research within the Rhine-Main Universities Alliance. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) recently presented its second report on the status of global water resources. According to this report, large parts of the world experienced drier conditions in 2022 than those recorded on average for the equivalent periods over the last 30 years. “Nearly 40 percent of the territories examined were suffering from drier than normal…
Researchers from the University of Bremen and the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency have compared long-term data on the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation from two different latitudes and discovered a statistical correlation. Their aim was to investigate how the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation has developed over a period of 25 years, based on moored observation stations. This data will help to refine climate models in the future. The study has been published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. In addition…
SwRI-contributed study suggests impact-driven mixing of mantle materials could create current mantle composition. Southwest Research Institute’s Dr. Simone Marchi collaborated on a new study finding the first geophysically plausible scenario to explain the abundance of certain precious metals — including gold and platinum — in the Earth’s mantle. Based on the simulations, or model, scientists found that impact-driven mixing of mantle materials scenario that could prevent the metals from completely sinking into the Earth’s core. Early in its evolution, about…
Utrecht geologist unexpectedly finds remnants of a lost mega-plate. Utrecht University geologist Suzanna van de Lagemaat has reconstructed a massive and previously unknown tectonic plate that was once one-quarter the size of the Pacific Ocean. Her colleagues in Utrecht had predicted its existence over 10 years ago based on fragments of old tectonic plates found deep in the Earth’s mantle. Van de Lagemaat reconstructed lost plates through field research and detailed investigations of the mountain belts of Japan, Borneo, the…
Presidents lay foundation for new lab building on Cabo Verde. The international Cape Verde Atmospheric Observatory (CVAO) is being further expanded: The President of the Republic of Cabo Verde José Maria Neves and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier laid the foundation for a new laboratory building on São Vicente, one of the Cape Verde Islands off Africa, on Thursday. The island in the tropical Atlantic has become an international focal point of climate research in recent years. The atmospheric observatory has…
New publication: Researchers simulate past ocean conditions in flume-tank experiments. Ocean currents determine the structure of the deep-sea ocean floor and the transport of sediments, organic carbon, nutrients and pollutants. In flume-tank experiments, researchers from MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen have simulated how currents shape the seafloor and control sediment deposition. This will help in reconstructions of past marine conditions. They have now published their results in the Nature journal Communications Earth &…
U Bremen Research Alliance partners develop future mars station. Aggressive space radiation, a toxic atmosphere, temperatures averaging minus 65 degrees Celsius, and very low atmospheric pressure: living conditions on Mars are everything but friendly. The Bremen-based “Humans on Mars” initiative is researching radically new solutions for surviving in this extreme setting. Numerous members of the U Bremen Research Alliance are involved with their expertise: the DLR Institute of Space Systems, the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM,…
Optical studies on desert dust for “sharper” satellite images. In September, a new research group begins its work in Leipzig at the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS): The junior research group led by Dr. Moritz Haarig aims to understand the influence of the complex shape of mineral dust particles on the scattering of light in order to better quantify the impact of mineral dust on weather and climate. “OLALA” (Optical Lab for Lidar Applications) is supported by the Leibniz…
Researchers led by Yuko Motizuki from the Astro-Glaciology Laboratory at the RIKEN Nishina Center in Japan have developed a new laser-based sampling system for studying the composition of ice cores taken from glaciers. The new system has a 3-mm depth-resolution—about 3 times smaller than what is currently available—meaning that it can detect temperature variations that occurred over much smaller periods of time in the past. The new laser melting sampler, or LMS, is expected to help reconstruct continuous annual temperature…
KIT researchers see long-term perspective for lithium extraction at geothermal plants. On the way towards climate neutrality, Europe will need large amounts of lithium for battery storage systems. So far, however, its share in the worldwide lithium extraction volume has been one percent only. For this reason, researchers of KIT study ways to extract lithium from geothermal sources. “In theory, geothermal power plants in the Upper Rhine Valley and Northern German Basin might cover between 2 and 12 percent of…
The Svalbox Digital Model Database (DMDb) just made its formal debut into the scientific community in a new article published in the journal Geosphere. The Svalbard archipelago, located north of Norway halfway to the North Pole and well within the Arctic Circle, is a remote geological wonderland. Svalbox DMDb is a new regional database which currently collates 135 digital outcrop models (DOMs), making data from 114 km2 of this incredibly difficult-to-access area freely available to anyone with internet access. Digital…
… toward Totten Ice Shelf in Southeast Antarctica. An international team of scientists has successfully conducted large-scale helicopter-based observations along the coast of East Antarctica and has identified pathways through which warm ocean water flows from the open ocean into ice shelf cavities for the first time. During six days of observations, the team was able to retrieve temperature and other data at 67 sites covering the entire continental shelf region off the Totten Ice Shelf, the floating portion of…
Miniature robots to carry out research below the ice. The DLR project line TRIPLE enters its second phase / Joint Project TRIPLE-nanoAUV 2 coordinated by MARUM. The project line TRIPLE, funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, is entering its second funding phase. In the research project TRIPLE-nanoAUV 2, which is headquartered at MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen, a miniature autonomous vehicle is being developed for sub-ice technology missions….
Oregon State University research has uncovered a possible clue as to why glaciers that terminate at the sea are retreating at unprecedented rates: the bursting of tiny, pressurized bubbles in underwater ice. Published today in Nature Geoscience, the study shows that glacier ice, characterized by pockets of pressurized air, melts much more quickly than the bubble-free sea ice or manufactured ice typically used to research melt rates at the ocean-ice interface of tidewater glaciers. Tidewater glaciers are rapidly retreating, the…
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