In April 2021, two tropical cyclones, Seroja and Odette, collided in the Indian Ocean northwest of Australia. Two researchers from the University of Oldenburg have now studied how this rare phenomenon affected the ocean. According to their case study, the rendezvous caused an unusual cooling of the surface water and an abrupt change in the direction of the combined storm. Since the frequency and intensity of tropical cyclones are increasing as a result of global warming, it is possible that…
New study shows seal moms prefer slow and steady icebergs, while seals prefer faster ice in better foraging grounds later in the year. Harbor seals in icy regions use icebergs shed by glaciers as safe platforms to give birth, care for young and molt. New research finds that as glaciers change with the climate, the resulting changes in size, speed and number of icebergs affect seals’ critical frozen habitat. Mother seals prefer stable, slower-moving bergs for giving birth and caring…
Geoscientists led by Universities of Leicester and Southampton create new climate record for early Antarctic ice ages. Periods of sudden melting in the Antarctic ice sheet have been unearthed in a new climate record from over 20 million years ago by geoscientists led by the University of Leicester and the University of Southampton. Published in the journal Nature Communications, the new study reveals how sensitive our planet’s early ice ages were to the effect of the Earth’s eccentric orbit around the…
Researchers find a potential explanation for the unusually sudden temperature rise in 2023: reduced low-level cloud cover limits Earth’s ability to reflect solar radiation. Rising sea levels, melting glaciers, heatwaves at sea – 2023 set a number of alarming new records. The global mean temperature also rose to nearly 1.5 degrees above the preindustrial level, another record. Seeking to identify the causes of this sudden rise has proven a challenge for researchers. After all, factoring in the effects of anthropogenic…
What was the cause of the great Tōhoku earthquake of 2011, and how can we better understand geological processes in order to protect coastal infrastructure in the long term – for example, from a tsunami like the one 13 years ago? These questions are currently the focus of a scientific expedition as part of the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP), in which researchers from the MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen are participating. Since…
New AWI simulations make it possible to compare actual extreme weather events in various climate scenarios, and to gauge the role of global warming in connection with these extremes in the process. Only a few weeks ago, massive precipitation produced by the storm “Boris” led to chaos and flooding in Central and Eastern Europe. An analysis conducted by the Alfred Wegener Institute shows that in a world without the current level of global warming Boris would have deposited roughly nine…
On Sept. 26, 2024, as Hurricane Helene slammed into the Gulf Coast of Florida, NASA’s Atmospheric Waves Experiment, or AWE, recorded enormous swells in the atmosphere that the hurricane produced roughly 55 miles above the ground. On Sept. 26, 2024, Hurricane Helene slammed into the Gulf Coast of Florida, inducing storm surges and widespread impacts on communities in its path. At the same time, NASA’s Atmospheric Waves Experiment, or AWE, recorded enormous swells in the atmosphere that the hurricane produced roughly…
EU Twinning Project to Investigate Deep-Sea Food Webs around Madeira. A kick-off meeting was held yesterday in Funchal, Madeira, to officially launch the EU Twinning project TWILIGHTED. Over the next three years, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel will work as the German partner alongside institutions from Norway and Portugal to explore the twilight zone in waters around Madeira. At the same time, marine research in Madeira will be strengthened through knowledge transfer, with the goal to establish a…
Researchers in the Stanford Radio Glaciology lab use radio waves to understand rapidly changing ice sheets and their contributions to global sea-level rise. This technique has revealed groundwater beneath Greenland, the long-term impacts of extreme melt, a process that could accelerate ice sheet mass loss in Antarctica, the potential instability of an ice sheet that could raise sea levels by 10 feet, and more. Now, PhD students within the group have created an open-source tool that others can use to…
WMO report on global water resources: Third State of Global Water Resources report published / Unparalleled low water levels in the river basins of the Mississippi and the Amazon. Not only was 2023 characterized by unprecedentedly high temperatures but also by excessive droughts in many parts of the world as well as floods in other areas. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has now presented its third report on the status of global water resources. According to the report, 2023 was…
Battle for iron in the oceans of the early Earth. Team from the Universities of Tübingen and Bristol hypothesizes the contribution of different bacteria to form today’s deposits of banded iron ores. Early in the Earth’s development, the atmosphere contained no oxygen. Yet the iron dissolved in the oceans was oxidized in gigantic quantities and deposited as rock. It can be seen today, for example, as banded iron ore in South Africa. A new study investigates how various bacteria excrete…
A mysterious type of iron-rich magma entombed within extinct volcanoes is likely abundant with rare earth elements and could offer a new way to source these in-demand metals, according to new research from The Australian National University (ANU) and the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Rare earth elements are found in smartphones, flat screen TVs, magnets, and even trains and missiles. They are also vital to the development of electric vehicles and renewable energy technologies such as wind…
Human settlement pressure increases disaster risk in mountain regions. Climate change together with population expansion will increase disaster risk especially for people in mountain regions. An underestimated danger in the mountains are slow-moving landslides, which damage buildings and infrastructure and can cause many fatalities in the event of a sudden collapse. The rapidly growing population is increasingly settling on steeper slopes and is therefore exposed to this risk, as researchers from the University of Potsdam and the Potsdam Institute for…
European measurement campaign atmo4ACTRIS launched. The atmospheric lidar ATLID, the last of four instruments on board the EarthCARE satellite launched in May, has now been successfully put into operation. The joint mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) is designed to measure clouds, aerosols and radiation more accurately than ever before. Researchers from the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS) are making an important contribution by developing algorithms that derive the aerosol and cloud…
Extremely clean air on the ground, warm air intrusions and sulphate aerosol at high altitudes – a Leipzig research project has gained new insights into clouds in Antarctica. From January to December 2023, the vertical distribution of aerosol particles and clouds in the atmosphere above the German Neumayer Station III of the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) was investigated from the ground for the first time. The height-resolved measurements were the first of their…
In Search of the Origin of an Underwater Plateau. Today, the research vessel SONNE sets off on an expedition to the southwestern Indian Ocean. From 12 September to 28 October 2024, a team of 25 scientists, led by PD Dr Jörg Geldmacher from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, will investigate the seabed south of Madagascar. Expedition SO307 will focus on geological and biological investigations to improve the understanding of the geology and biology of the seabed and…
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