ISS astronauts and people in Singapore were treated to a spectacular show.
Category: climatology – Page 6
A bolt is born: Atmospheric events underpinning lightning strikes explained
Though scientists have long understood how lightning strikes, the precise atmospheric events that trigger it within thunderclouds have remained a perplexing mystery. The mystery may now be solved, thanks to a team of researchers led by Victor Pasko, professor of electrical engineering in the Penn State School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, that has revealed the powerful chain reaction that triggers lightning.
Mathematical model sheds light on internal ocean waves and climate prediction
Deep below the surface of the ocean, unseen waves roil and churn the water. These internal waves, traveling between water layers of different temperatures and densities, draw cold, nutrient-rich water up from the depths and play a major role in oceanic circulation. Understanding and modeling their behavior is critical for developing more accurate simulations of an increasingly unpredictable climate.
In a Nature Communications paper, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) Math Professor Yuri V. Lvov, Ph.D. and a team of oceanographers develop a first-of-its-kind model of internal wave dynamics that lays the foundation for new, more reliable models of ocean circulation.
“Internal, wave-driven, vertical mixing is believed to be a main driver of oceanic circulation,” Lvov said. “It shapes Earth’s climate by influencing sea level rise, nutrient fluxes, marine ecosystems, and anthropogenic heat and carbon uptake.”
Simulating the unthinkable: Models show nuclear winter food production plunge
A nuclear winter is a theoretical concept, but if the climate scenario expected to follow a large-scale nuclear war, in which smoke and soot from firestorms block sunlight, came to fruition, global temperatures would sharply drop, extinguishing most agriculture. A nuclear winter could last for more than a decade, potentially leading to widespread famine for those who survive the devastation of the bomb blasts.
Now, a team led by researchers at Penn State have modeled precisely how various nuclear winter scenarios could impact global production of corn—the most widely planted grain crop in the world. They also recommended preparing “agricultural resilience kits” with seeds for faster-growing varieties better adapted to colder temperatures that could potentially help offset the impact of nuclear winter, as well as natural disasters like volcanic eruptions.
In findings recently published in Environmental Research Letters, the team reported that the level of corn crop decline would vary, depending on the scale of the conflict.
How Google’s Android earthquake detection system can save lives
If you’re in an earthquake-prone area and own an Android phone, it could save your life. It may even have already done so. The Android Earthquake Alert (AEA) system, which began in the U.S. in 2020 and has since expanded globally, sends an automatic alert approximately one minute before the ground starts shaking. That can be enough time to take cover or warn others nearby.
In a new paper published in Science, Google explains how its detection system, which is built into most Android phones, works. They also share insights from its first years of operation and the improvements they’ve made.
Between 2021 and 2024, the AEA system sent warnings to millions of people in 98 countries. This included more than half a million people in Turkey and Syria who received an alert on February 6, 2023, just before a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck. Overall, Google’s researchers report that alerts were issued for 1,279 events, with only three of them being false alarms, two of which were triggered by thunderstorms.
Official Trailer
It’s the year 2073, and the worst fears of modern life have been realized. Surveillance drones fill the burnt orange skies and militarized police roam the wrecked streets, while survivors hide away underground, struggling to remember a free and hopeful existence. In this ingenious mixture of visionary science fiction and speculative nonfiction, Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Asif Kapadia (Amy) transports us to a future foreshadowed by the terrifying realities of our present moment. Two-time Academy Award® nominee Samantha Morton (In America, Sweet and Lowdown, Minority Report) plays a survivor besieged by nightmare visions of the past—a past that happens to be our present, visualized through contemporary footage interconnecting today’s global crises of authoritarianism, unchecked big tech, inequality, and global climate change. 2073 is an urgent, unshakable vision of a dystopic future that could very well be our own.
How Data Can Accelerate the Energy Transition
Using data and digitalization technologies could revolutionize industries and contribute to net-zero climate goals.
Scientists repurpose old solar panels to convert CO₂ exhaust into valuable chemicals
Centuries ago, alchemists worked furiously to convert the common metal lead to valuable gold. Today, chemists are repurposing discarded solar panels to create valuable organic compounds from carbon dioxide (CO2), a common greenhouse gas.
Significantly reducing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to mitigate the most devastating effects of climate change will require a large reduction in emissions as well as strategies designed to sequester emitted CO2 and other offending gases. While simply sequestering greenhouse gases would fulfill this goal, creating useful organic chemicals from waste CO2 is akin to generating valuable materials from trash.
A team of chemists from Yokohama National University, Electric Power Development Co., Ltd. and the Renewable Energy Research Center at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) recently decided to tackle two waste problems—excess CO2 emissions and decommissioned solar panels —in the pursuit of creating value-added organic chemicals. The team designed a study to determine if recycled components of discarded solar panels could be used to efficiently convert CO2 into useful, carbon-based compounds.
