Most recent 30 articles: PHYS.ORG - Earth
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Ghost particle on the scales: Research offers more precise determination of neutrino mass - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · What is the mass of a neutrino at rest? This is one of the big unanswered questions in physics. Neutrinos play a central role in nature. A team led by Klaus Blaum, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, has now made an important contribution in "weighing" neutrinos as part of the international ECHo collaboration. Their findings are published in Nature Physics. Using a Penning trap, it has measured the change in mass of a holmium-163 isotope with extreme precision when its nucleus captures an electron and turns into dysprosium-163. From this, it was able to determine the Q value 50 times more accurately than before. Using a more precise Q-value, ... Read more ... |
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Warming of Antarctic deep-sea waters contribute to sea level rise in North Atlantic, study finds - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · Analysis of mooring observations and hydrographic data suggest the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation deep water limb in the North Atlantic has weakened. Two decades of continual observations provide a greater understanding of the Earth's climate regulating system. A new study published in the journal Nature Geoscience led by scientists at University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, found that human-induced environmental changes around Antarctica are contributing to sea level rise in the North Atlantic. "Although ... Read more ... |
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NASA's Juno gives aerial views of mountain and lava lake on Io - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · Scientists on NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter have transformed data collected during two recent flybys of Io into animations that highlight two of the Jovian moon's most dramatic features: a mountain and an almost glass-smooth lake of cooling lava. Other recent science results from the solar-powered spacecraft include updates on Jupiter's polar cyclones and water abundance. The new findings were announced Wednesday, April 16, by Juno's principal investigator Scott Bolton during a news conference at the European Geophysical Union General Assembly in Vienna. Juno made extremely close flybys of Io in December 2023 and February 2024, getting within about 930 miles (1,500 ... Read more ... |
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Baby white sharks prefer being closer to shore, scientists find - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · Now, marine scientists have shown for the first time that juvenile great white sharks select warm and shallow waters to aggregate within one kilometer from the shore. These results, published in Frontiers in Marine Science, are important for conservation of great white sharks—especially as ocean temperatures increase due to climate change—and for protecting the public from negative shark encounters. Baby great white sharks ("pups") don't receive any maternal care after birth. In the studied population off Padaro Beach near Santa Barbara in central California, pups and juveniles gather in "nurseries," unaccompanied by adults. "This is one of the largest and ... Read more ... |
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Data-driven music: Converting climate measurements into music - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · A geo-environmental scientist from Japan has composed a string quartet using sonified climate data. The 6-minute-long composition - titled "String Quartet No. 1 "Polar Energy Budget" - is based on over 30 years of satellite-collected climate data from the Arctic and Antarctic and aims to garner attention on how climate is driven by the input and output of energy at the poles. The backstory about how the composition was put together is published April 18 in the journal iScience as part of a collection "Exploring the Art-Science Connection." "I strongly hope that this manuscript marks a significant turning point, transitioning from an era where only scientists handle data ... Read more ... |
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'Human-induced' climate change behind deadly Sahel heat wave: Study - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · The West African nations of Mali and Burkina Faso experienced an exceptional heat wave from April 1 until April 5, with soaring temperatures above 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) triggering many deaths. Observations and climate models used by researchers at the WWA showed that "heat waves with the magnitude observed in March and April 2024 in the region would have been impossible to occur without the global warming of 1.2C to date", which scientists attribute to human-induced climate change. While periods of high temperatures are common in the Sahel at this time of year, the report said that the April heat wave would have been 1.4C cooler "if humans had not ... Read more ... |
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A third of China's urban population at risk of city sinking, new satellite data shows - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · Land subsidence is overlooked as a hazard in cities, according to scientists from the University of East Anglia (UEA) and Virginia Tech. Writing in the journal Science, Prof Robert Nicholls of the Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research at UEA and Prof Manoochehr Shirzaei of Virginia Tech and United Nations University for Water, Environment and Health, Ontario, highlight the importance of a new research paper analyzing satellite data that accurately and consistently maps land movement across China. While they say in their comment article that consistently measuring subsidence is a great achievement, they argue it is only the start of finding solutions. Predicting future ... Read more ... |
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Amazonia's fire crises: Emergency fire bans insufficient, strategic action needed before next burning season - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · Dr. Manoela Machado, a postdoctoral researcher at the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford and also at the Woodwell Climate Research Center, and the lead author of the study, said, "Emergency fire bans are not a standalone solution for the fire crises; they can be effective when strategically implemented and rigorously enforced during critical periods to prevent ignitions, but to solve the crises, we need measures that address the motivations behind different types of fires and, most crucially, focus on stopping deforestation." The Amazon plays an essential role in regulating global climate patterns, supporting biodiversity, and sustaining local and ... Read more ... |
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Coal train pollution increases health risks and disparities, research warns - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · The study, published in the journal Environmental Research, focuses on the San Francisco Bay Area and is the first health impact assessment of coal train pollution in the world. It found that coal train pollution has significant health effects that disproportionately impact communities of color and people who are young, old, or have low incomes. While centered on East Bay neighborhoods, the study carries implications for communities worldwide living alongside passing coal trains. At least 80 countries use coal power, which generates about 40% of the world's electricity. "These trains run all over the world, exposing the poorest populations who often live close to ... Read more ... |
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El Nino not climate change driving southern Africa drought: Study - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · A drought that pushed millions of people into hunger across southern Africa has been driven mostly by the El NiƱo weather pattern - not climate change, scientists said on Thursday. Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi have declared a national disaster over the severe dry spell that started in January and has devastated the agricultural sector, decimating crops and pastures. Appealing for almost $900 million in aid this week, Zambia's President Hakainde Hichilema linked the lack of rains to climate change. But scientists at the World Weather Attribution (WWA) research group found global warming had little to do with it. "Over the past year, attribution studies have ... Read more ... |
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Here's why experts don't think cloud seeding played a role in Dubai's downpour - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · Cloud seeding, although decades old, is still controversial in the weather community, mostly because it has been hard to prove that it does very much. No one reports the type of flooding that on Tuesday doused the UAE, which often deploys the technology in an attempt to squeeze every drop of moisture from a sky that usually gives less than 4 or 5 inches (10 to 13 centimeters) of rain a year. "It's most certainly not cloud seeding," said private meteorologist Ryan Maue, former chief scientist at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "If that occurred with cloud seeding, they'd have water all the time. You can't create rain out of thin air per se and get 6 ... Read more ... |
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LA's water supplies are in good shape: But is the city ready for the next drought? - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · California's second wet winter in a row has left L.A's water supplies in good shape for at least another year, but the inevitable return to dry conditions could once again put the city's residents in a precarious position. After the state's final snow survey of the season, officials with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power announced that Eastern Sierra snowpack is measuring 103% of normal, "providing ample supplies through the city's most cost-efficient water supply from the Los Angeles Aqueduct." The aqueduct - two pipelines that deliver water from the Mono Basin and Owens Valley hundreds of miles away - is the backbone of L.A.'s water system. The recent rain ... Read more ... |
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Mapping plant functional diversity from space: Ecosystem monitoring with novel field-satellite integration - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · An international team of researchers, led by Professor Jin Wu from the School of Biological Sciences at The University of Hong Kong (HKU), has made a promising advancement in mapping plant functional traits from space using time-series satellite data. The study, published in Remote Sensing of Environment, showcases the innovative combination of the Sentinel-2 satellite mission and its dynamic time-series capabilities. This innovative approach not only unlocks a deeper understanding of essential foliar traits, providing crucial insights into the functional diversity and ecosystem functioning of terrestrial ecosystems, but it also equips us with powerful tools to address ... Read more ... |
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NASA chief warns of Chinese military presence in space - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · China is bolstering its space capabilities and is using its civilian program to mask its military objectives, the head of the US space agency NASA said Wednesday, warning that Washington must remain vigilant. "China has made extraordinary strides especially in the last 10 years, but they are very, very secretive," NASA administrator Bill Nelson told lawmakers on Capitol Hill. "We believe that a lot of their so-called civilian space program is a military program. And I think, in effect, we are in a race," Nelson added. He said he hoped Beijing would "come to its senses and understand that civilian space is for peaceful uses," but added, "We have not seen that ... Read more ... |
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New study shows how quickly surface water moves to groundwater reservoirs across Australia - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · Groundwater recharge is the rate at which groundwater resources are replenished by rainfall in millimeters per year (mm/y). The recharge rates estimated for the Darwin area typically ranged between 150 and 420 mm/y, compared to values typically less than 2 mm/y around Alice Springs. In both cases, these values are only a fraction of the total annual rainfall. The recharge rates estimated for the Beetaloo Sub-basin typically ranged between 1 and 50 mm/y, with an average of 16.5 mm/y. CDU Ph.D. candidate and lead author Stephen Lee said the study used recently developed approaches to estimate recharge, and several existing datasets, aiming to aid water resource ... Read more ... |
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Novel material supercharges innovation in electrostatic energy storage - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · Sang-Hoon Bae, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and materials science in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, has addressed this long-standing challenge in deploying ferroelectric materials for energy storage applications. In a study published April 18 in Science, Bae and his collaborators, including Rohan Mishra, associate professor of mechanical engineering & materials science, and Chuan Wang, associate professor of electrical & systems engineering, both at WashU, and Frances Ross, the TDK Professor in Materials Science and Engineering at MIT, introduced an approach to control the relaxation time—an internal material ... Read more ... |
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Q&A: Why are we drowning in single-use plastics, and what can we do about it? - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · Plastic is ubiquitous. It's in the clothes we wear, wrapped around the food we eat and in the toothpaste we use. It floats in the oceans and litters the snow on Mount Everest. Every year, the world produces nearly 400 million tons of plastic, a 19,000% increase from 1950. The amount is forecast to double by 2050 and 90% is never recycled. Over half of the plastics produced are used only once, for things like packaging, utensils and straws. "A lot of people have a hard time imagining that," said Phaedra Pezzullo, associate professor in the Department of Communication at CU Boulder. "But we produce an astronomical amount of plastics every day. Most plastic bags are used ... Read more ... |
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Researcher studies worst western US megadrought in 1,200 years - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · Drylands in the western United States are currently in the grips of a 23-year "megadrought," and one West Virginia University researcher is working to gain a better understanding of this extreme climate event. Steve Kannenberg, assistant professor of biology at the WVU Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, is using observations from existing networks of scientific instrument stations across the region to inch toward that goal. The megadrought is an ongoing climate crisis for natural ecosystems, agricultural systems and human water resources, but researchers have a limited understanding of the phenomenon. Kannenberg is seeking to identify where this drought has been ... Read more ... |
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Researchers realize hydrogen formation by contact electrification of water microdroplets and its regulation - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · Water microdroplets have been shown to possess a high electric field at the interface of microdroplets, which is sufficient to ionize OH- to produce free electrons spontaneously. Subsequent charge transfer can lead to a variety of essential hydrogenation reactions. In this study, the researchers found marked charge separation between oil-water microdroplets of different sizes through atomization. Compared with pure water microdroplets, the charge separation of oily aqueous microdroplets was improved due to the oil-mediated extraction of electrons from sprayed microdroplets, thus promoting the generation of hydrogen species. The hydrogen formation was proposed to proceed by ... Read more ... |
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Scientists discover forests that may resist climate change - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · The study, published in Ecology and Evolution, explores forests that experience "cold-air pooling," a phenomenon where cold air at higher elevations drains down into lower-lying valleys, reversing the expected temperatures—warm at the bottom, cold at the top—that typically occurs in mountainous areas. That is, the air temperature drops with descent from mountain to valley. "With temperature inversions, we also see vegetation inversions," says lead study author and former UVM postdoctoral researcher Melissa Pastore. "Instead of finding more cold-preferring species like spruce and fir at high elevations, we found them in lower elevations—just the opposite of ... Read more ... |
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Scientists reveal hydroclimatic changes on multiple timescales in Central Asia over the past 7,800 years - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · A recent study published in the PNAS shows that western Central Asia has experienced a long-term drying trend over the past 7,800 years. This discovery, based on the analysis of a stalagmite from the Fergana Valley in Kyrgyzstan, adds a critical piece to the understanding of westerly-influenced hydroclimatic patterns in Central Asia. Central Asia is among one of the most important arid regions in the world. With the acceleration of global warming, the region faces severe challenges such as accelerated glacier melting, shrinking lakes, and water scarcity. The shrinking of the Aral Sea has been described as "one of the planet's worst environmental disasters." Because of ... Read more ... |
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Slow recovery as Dubai airport, roads still plagued by floods - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · Dubai's airport, one of the world's busiest, witnessed major disruption for the third day in a row on Thursday after the heaviest rains on record drenched the desert United Arab Emirates. Emirates, Dubai's state-owned flagship airline, and sister carrier flydubai resumed check-ins after telling passengers to stay away on Wednesday, when thousands of stranded passengers clogged the airport. Some 1,244 flights were cancelled and 41 diverted on Tuesday and Wednesday, after torrential rains flooded the Middle East financial center including its runways and highways. Traffic congestion remained severe on Thursday, two days after the storms, with at least one major ... Read more ... |
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Unraveling the mysteries of consecutive atmospheric river events - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · A paper published in Communications Earth and Environment details their findings. California's winter climate is largely defined by these atmospheric rivers—long, narrow regions in the atmosphere that transfer water vapor from the tropics, most commonly associated with the West Coast coming from the Pacific Ocean. When they make landfall (i.e., pass over land), they can release massive amounts of rain and snow. The catastrophic environmental and economic effects of ARs highlight the urgency of studying them, especially as Earth's climate changes. "Atmospheric river events are likely to become worse with rising temperatures," explained Yang Zhou, Earth and ... Read more ... |
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Using deep learning to image the Earth's planetary boundary layer - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · "The PBL is where the surface interacts with the atmosphere, including exchanges of moisture and heat that help lead to severe weather and a changing climate," says Adam Milstein, a technical staff member in Lincoln Laboratory's Applied Space Systems Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "The PBL is also where humans live, and the turbulent movement of aerosols throughout the PBL is important for air quality that influences human health." Although vital for studying weather and climate, important features of the PBL, such as its height, are difficult to resolve with current technology. In the past four years, Lincoln Laboratory staff have been studying the PBL, ... Read more ... |
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NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter team says goodbye - for now - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 17) |
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Apr 17 · The final downlink shift by the Ingenuity team was a time to reflect on a highly successful mission - and to prepare the first aircraft on another world for its new role. Engineers working on NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter assembled for one last time in a control room at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California on Tuesday, April 16, to monitor a transmission from the history-making helicopter. While the mission ended Jan. 25, the rotorcraft has remained in communication with the agency's Perseverance Mars rover, which serves as a base station for Ingenuity. This transmission, received through the antennas of NASA's Deep Space Network, marked the ... Read more ... |
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Anthropocene activities dramatically alter deep underground fluid flux, researchers find - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 17) |
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Apr 17 · Mining, oil and gas production, water wells, and other human activities involve extracting various fluids from or injecting them into the ground. Much attention has been paid to the toll these processes take on shallow groundwater and the water cycle. But less is known about how these activities affect the deep subsurface (500 meters to several kilometers deep), much of which was previously isolated for very long periods of geologic time. In a new study in Earth's Future, Ferguson and colleagues illustrate how deep subsurface fluid flow rates associated with human activities such as oil and gas production most likely already exceed natural fluxes at these depths on a global ... Read more ... |
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Astronomers discover the most metal-poor extreme helium star - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 17) |
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Apr 17 · Using the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT), astronomers have performed high-resolution observations of a recently detected extreme helium star designated EC 19529–4430. It turned out that EC 19529–4430 is the most metal deficient among the population of known extreme helium stars. The finding was reported in a research paper published April 5 on the pre-print server arXiv. Extreme helium (EHe) stars are supergiants much larger and hotter than the sun, but less massive. They are almost devoid of hydrogen, which is unusual, as hydrogen is the most abundant chemical element in the universe. EHes are characterized by relatively sharp and strong lines of ... Read more ... |
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Biden administration set to deny 200-mile Ambler mining road through Alaska wilderness - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 17) |
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Apr 17 · The U.S. Department of the Interior is expected to issue an environmental report that recommends denying a permit needed to build a 200-mile access road to the Ambler mining district, according to national news reports on April 16. The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority applied for the permit to develop the road to access the mining district in Northwest Alaska. The Trump administration had approved the right-of-way permit in 2020. Conservation groups and Alaska tribal entities, including the Tanana Chiefs Conference, sued to overturn the decision. The Biden administration also said it identified legal flaws in the process related to subsistence impacts ... Read more ... |
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Dubai reels from floods chaos after record rains - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 17) |
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Apr 17 · Dubai's giant highways were clogged by flooding and airport passengers were urged to stay away on Wednesday as the glitzy financial center reeled from record rains. Huge tailbacks snaked along six-lane expressways after up to 254 millimeters of rain - about two years' worth - fell on the desert United Arab Emirates on Tuesday. At least one person was killed after a 70-year-old man was swept away in his car in Ras Al-Khaimah, one of the country's seven emirates, police said. Passengers were warned not to come to Dubai airport, the world's busiest by international traffic, "unless absolutely necessary", an official said. "Flights continue to be delayed and ... Read more ... |
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Earth Day: How a senator's idea more than 50 years ago got people fighting for their planet - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 17) |
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Apr 17 · Here are answers to some common questions about Earth Day and how it came to be: WHY DO WE CELEBRATE EARTH DAY? Earth Day has its roots in growing concern over pollution in the 1960s, when author Rachel Carson's 1962 book "Silent Spring," about the pesticide DDT and its damaging effects on the food chain, hit bestseller lists and raised awareness about nature's delicate balance. But it was a senator from Wisconsin, Democrat Gaylord Nelson, who had the idea that would become Earth Day. Nelson had long been concerned about the environment when a massive offshore oil spill sent millions of gallons onto the southern California coast in 1969. Nelson, after touring the ... Read more ... |
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