https://phys.org/earth-news/environment en-us The latest news on the environment, environmental issues, earth science and space exploration. Getting climate models to mimic real-time observations when it comes to warming is critical—small discrepancies can lead to misunderstandings about the rate of global warming as the climate changes. A new study from North Carolina State University and Duke University finds that when modeling warming trends in the Pacific Ocean, there is still a missing piece to the modeling puzzle: the effect of wind on ocean currents in the equatorial Pacific. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-equator-key-accurate-future-climate.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 06 Mar 2024 15:27:03 EST news628961221 Eighty-five percent of the Earth's air resides in the lowest layer of its atmosphere, or troposphere. Yet, major gaps remain in our understanding of the atmospheric chemistry that drives changes in the troposphere's composition. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-unprecedented-view-aerosol-formation-earth.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 06 Mar 2024 11:15:53 EST news628946148 One in 50 people living in two dozen coastal cities in the United States could experience significant flooding by 2050, according to Virginia Tech-led research. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-thousands-coastal-residents.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 06 Mar 2024 11:00:01 EST news628942548 Changes in human activity may have led to atmospheric CO2 levels declining in the 16th century, due to large-scale land use changes in the Americas during New World-Old World contact between 1450 and 1700 CE, suggests a Nature Communications paper. The findings are based on data from an Antarctic ice core, dated up to about 500 years old. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-ice-cores-16th-century-pandemics.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 06 Mar 2024 10:59:10 EST news628945149 Take a deep breath. Pay attention to how air moves from your nose to your throat before filling your lungs with oxygen. As you exhale your breath, a mix of oxygen and carbon dioxide leaves your nose and mouth. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-river-global-carbon.html Earth Sciences Environment Tue, 05 Mar 2024 15:35:04 EST news628875301 Will ice floating in the Arctic Ocean move faster or slower over the coming decades? The answer to this question will tell us whether marine transportation can be expected to get more or less hazardous. It might also have important implications for the rate of ice cover loss, which is hugely consequential for Northern Indigenous communities, ecosystems, and the global climate system. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-decades-arctic-sea-ice-faster.html Earth Sciences Environment Tue, 05 Mar 2024 15:20:03 EST news628874401 Scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently combined satellite data, field observations, and sophisticated numerical modeling to paint a picture of how 22.45 million square kilometers of the Arctic will change over the next 80 years. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-arctic-river-environment.html Earth Sciences Environment Tue, 05 Mar 2024 13:00:04 EST news628866001 In the weeks following the devastating 2021 Marshall Fire, researchers from CU Boulder sifted through burned and unburned areas to test soils for toxic metals. Today, they report that although concentrations of toxic metals were somewhat higher on burned properties than unburned ones, those concentrations were lower than levels of concern for human health. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-soil-toxic-minor-marshall-boulder.html Environment Tue, 05 Mar 2024 12:38:33 EST news628864702 The Arctic could see summer days with practically no sea ice as early as the next couple of years, according to a new study out of the University of Colorado Boulder. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-arctic-ice-free-decade-scientists.html Earth Sciences Environment Tue, 05 Mar 2024 11:00:01 EST news628851621 Last year, the International Olympic Committee announced that the South Pacific island of Tahiti will host the two-day surfing competition for the 2024 Paris Summer Games. The site in question, Teahupo'o, is revered among surfers for the legendary speed and ferocity of its waves; it is equally venerated by locals for the abundant food it provides, the pristine clarity of the lagoon where families swim and its vibrant reefs. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-opinion-hosting-olympics-competition-tahiti.html Environment Tue, 05 Mar 2024 09:51:30 EST news628854685 The water cycle looks simple in theory—but human impacts, climate change, and complicated geography mean that in practice, floods and droughts remain hard to predict. To model water on Earth, you need incredibly high-resolution data across an immense expanse, and you need modeling sophisticated enough to account for everything from snowcaps on mountains to soil moisture in valleys. Now, scientists have made a tremendous step forward by building the most detailed models created to date. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-digital-twin-earth-technology-based.html Earth Sciences Environment Tue, 05 Mar 2024 05:00:08 EST news628837205 An increase in pockets of open water in Antarctica's sea ice (polynyas) may mean coastal plants and animals could one day establish on the continent, University of Otago-led research suggests. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-antarctica-coasts-icy.html Earth Sciences Environment Mon, 04 Mar 2024 15:00:01 EST news628764602 A team of researchers from Alaska Pacific University, the University of Alaska Anchorage and, Northern Arizona University has found evidence that reductions in sea ice in the Arctic are helping white spruce trees move north and up mountainsides. In their study, published in the journal Science, the group compared tree-line spread in areas with reductions in sea ice and areas where little sea ice reduction has occurred. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-evidence-reductions-sea-ice-tree.html Environment Mon, 04 Mar 2024 12:10:01 EST news628775398 A new analysis of freshwater resources across the globe shows that the updated planetary boundary for freshwater change was surpassed by the mid-twentieth century. In other words, for the past century, humans have been pushing the Earth's freshwater system far beyond the stable conditions that prevailed before industrialization. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-analysis-global-freshwater-shifted-pre.html Earth Sciences Environment Mon, 04 Mar 2024 09:52:03 EST news628768321 Continental drift is a concept familiar to many, referencing the movement of Earth's continents due to shifting tectonic plates over millions of years, splitting one globe-spanning supercontinent into the configuration we see today. Alongside this there have been smaller land mass movements that have opened seaways, affecting ocean circulation patterns and climate. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-mantle-convection-linked-seaway-closure.html Earth Sciences Environment Mon, 04 Mar 2024 09:30:01 EST news628766254 New research suggests that sunlight-blocking particles from an extreme eruption would not cool surface temperatures on Earth as severely as previously estimated. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-volcanic-super-eruptions-major-cooling.html Earth Sciences Environment Mon, 04 Mar 2024 08:47:35 EST news628764440 The same weather system that led to the spread of the devastating Labor Day wildfires in 2020 brought record-breaking cold and early-season snowfall to parts of the Rocky Mountains. Now, new research from Portland State is shedding light on the meteorology behind what happened and the impacts of such an extreme weather event. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-extreme-weather-event-brought-western.html Environment Sat, 02 Mar 2024 08:59:23 EST news628592355 After one of the most intense cyclones in world history tore through the Pacific island of Tanna in Vanuatu, new research led by the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa showed the resilience of the island's forests. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-powerful-cyclone-remarkable-recovery-pacific.html Environment Sat, 02 Mar 2024 08:58:23 EST news628592295 Sea ice levels in Antarctica have registered historic lows for three consecutive years, portending grave consequences for life on Earth as we know it. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-scientists-fret-antarctic-sea-ice.html Environment Sat, 02 Mar 2024 08:52:03 EST news628591917 Glacier-fed streams are undergoing a process of profound change, according to EPFL and Charles University scientists in a paper appearing in Nature Geoscience today. This conclusion is based on the expeditions to the world's major mountain ranges by members of the Vanishing Glaciers project. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-glacier-shrinkage-green-transition.html Earth Sciences Environment Fri, 01 Mar 2024 08:07:03 EST news628502821 Over the last four decades, warming climate and ocean temperatures have rapidly altered the Greenland Ice Sheet, creating concern for marine ecosystems and weather patterns worldwide. The environment has challenged scientists in their attempts to measure how water moves around and melts the ice sheet because equipment can be destroyed by icebergs floating near the glaciers. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-gps-tracked-icebergs-climate.html Earth Sciences Environment Fri, 01 Mar 2024 06:59:03 EST news628498741 Massive volcanic events in Earth's history that released large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere frequently correlate with periods of severe environmental change and mass extinctions. A new method to estimate how much and how rapidly carbon was released by the volcanoes could improve our understanding of the climate response, according to an international team led by researchers from Penn State and the University of Oxford. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-mercury-ancient-volcanoes-environmental-impact.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 29 Feb 2024 15:56:07 EST news628444559 Climate change is disrupting the seasonal flow of rivers in the far northern latitudes of America, Russia and Europe and is posing a threat to water security and ecosystems, according to research published in Science. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-climate-disrupts-seasonal-rivers.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 29 Feb 2024 14:00:01 EST news628421280 Researchers using a novel method of measuring long-term wildfire smoke exposure have found that Indigenous communities in California are exposed to disproportionate amounts of dangerous particulate matter—sometimes far beyond what has been previously known. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-wildfire-disproportionately-affects-california-indigenous.html Environment Thu, 29 Feb 2024 12:27:05 EST news628432022 Several areas of the globe—including the Bay of Bengal, the Philippines, and the Caribbean Sea—are likely to experience record-breaking average surface air temperatures in the year period up to June 2024 as a result of the ongoing El Niño phenomenon. The modeling results, published in Scientific Reports, also suggest that there is an estimated 90% chance of record-breaking global mean surface temperatures occurring over the same period under a moderate or strong El Niño scenario. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-el-nio-average-temperatures-areas.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 29 Feb 2024 11:00:01 EST news628421291 Government scientists have cooked up a new concept for how to potentially cool an overheating Earth: Fiddle with the upper atmosphere to make it a bit drier. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-scientists-idea-hack-planet-drying.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 29 Feb 2024 04:40:59 EST news628404053 Researchers in the United States and China have discovered a curious link between air pollution and suicide rates that prompts us to reconsider how to approach this issue. China's efforts to reduce air pollution have prevented 46,000 suicide deaths in the country over just five years, the researchers estimate. The team used weather conditions to tease apart confounding factors affecting pollution and suicide rates, arriving at what they consider to be a truly causal connection. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-air-quality-linked-suicide.html Environment Wed, 28 Feb 2024 16:06:05 EST news628358762 There's enough water frozen in Greenland and Antarctic glaciers that if they melted, global seas would rise by many feet. What will happen to these glaciers over the coming decades is the biggest unknown in the future of rising seas, partly because glacier fracture physics is not yet fully understood. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-mph-glacier-fracture-reveal-physics.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 28 Feb 2024 15:27:35 EST news628356453 It's been a warm day, maybe even a little humid, and the tall clouds in the distance remind you of cauliflower. You hear a sharp crack, like the sound of a batter hitting a home run, or a low rumble reminiscent of a truck driving down the highway. A distant thunderstorm, alive with lightning, is making itself known. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-lightning-million-yearly-ground-unprecedented.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 28 Feb 2024 11:53:01 EST news628343577 The world is becoming increasingly interconnected, which has many benefits. Shoppers in Colorado, for instance, can enjoy tropical fruits in the dead of winter, thanks to vast and complex trade networks. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-interconnected-world-key-experts.html Environment Wed, 28 Feb 2024 08:40:07 EST news628332003