Atmosphere of Earth

A new climate intervention strategy aims to decrease the amount of water vapor in the stratosphere by injecting it with ice-forming nuclei. The idea is that, by reducing the water content, more heat in the form of infrared radiation would leak out into space.Prepping the Sandworm Scenes in Dune: Part TwoScientists described the strategy a study published Wednesday in Science Advances. “It’s not a very complicated idea,” Joshua Schwarz, a researcher at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Earth System Research…

A solar storm this week means the Northern Lights are taking a trip south. The celestial display, also known as the Aurora Borealis, is expected to be visible in more than a dozen U.S. states on Thursday night, according to the Aurora forecast from the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Geophysical Institute.What Is Planet Nine and Why Can’t We Find It?The Kp-index, a global measure of geomagnetic activity, goes from zero to nine. On July 13, it is expected to hit six. Anything above a four is considered a storm, and a six…

A gust of wind from the great white north has pushed Canadian wildfire smoke down into the Midwest. Cities around the Great Lakes region are now shrouded in smoke. Skylines are pretty hazy, and air quality has plummeted. Coastal Animals Are Thriving on Plastic Pollution Out in the Pacific Ocean | Extreme EarthIt may not be the movie filter-like orange haze that we saw over NYC earlier this June, but it’s still pretty damn bad. The air quality right now is categorized as extremely unhealthy, and it’s the worst of any major…

The sky above New York City glows with a menacing orange color akin to the desert wasteland seen in films like Mad Max: Fury Road. With Canadian wildfires bringing a haze down onto the northeast U.S., users have helped the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s air quality app climb to be one of the world’s most-popular iPhone applications.Is This the End of Apple’s Lightning Cable?As of Wednesday afternoon ET, the EPA’s AIRNow app sat at number 13 most downloaded free apps on the App Store for iPhone. This made it more…

New York officials issued an air quality health advisory for regions across the state, including New York City, Long Island, and New York City Metro. Smoke traveling from wildfires in Canada blanketed much of the state in a brown haze Wednesday, in some cases creating scenes that looked straight out of a disaster movie. The New York Department of Environmental Conservation and the State Department of Health issued the advisory over concerns about the levels of pollutants in the air. The state agencies explained in a…

Solar geoengineering is a controversial proposed strategy to block sunlight from reaching Earth in order to slow down climate change. One of the leading geoengineering ideas involvesadding reflective particles to the stratosphere. But before humanity makes any more big changes to our atmosphere, it would probably be a good idea to try to understand it. At least, that’s the idea behind a recent National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration mission involving a retrofitted bomber aircraft from the 1950s.The U.S. In For A…

The aurorae over Teriberka, Russia.Photo: Jose D. RiquelmeTaken in Northern Russia in February 2022, getting this image required braving frigid temperatures. At about -22 degrees Fahrenheit, “you can only leave your tripod in one position because it will freeze, and you won’t be able to get it up or down,” said photographer Jose D. Riquelme. Behold the result: an arresting shot of the aurora’s arcs, sweeping across the sky. The aurorae over Teriberka, Russia.Photo: Jose D. RiquelmeTaken in Northern Russia in February…

Artist’s illustration of NASA’s GeoCarb mission.Illustration: NASA/Lockheed Martin/University of OklahomaCiting cost overruns, NASA has made the decision to terminate the GeoCarb mission, a satellite that would’ve measured greenhouse gas emissions above the Americas. The space agency will now consider newer, alternative ways of monitoring climate-impacting pollution.“Decisions like this are difficult, but NASA is dedicated to making careful choices with the resources provided by the people of the United States,” Thomas…

Two massive, catastrophic problems are set to become one in the near future: Climate change is likely to worsen the issue of space debris, according to a study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters last month.Shifts in air density could result in an extra-crowded upper atmosphere, making satellite collisions more likely. What’s more, the recent research projects that, under middle-of-the-road climate scenarios, the upper atmosphere will lose density twice as fast in the future as it has in the past.“Space…

Space launches, specifically morning space launches, are causing spectacular shining clouds to appear in new places, according to recent research published in the journal Advancing Earth and Space Science. Some 50 miles (80 kilometers) above the ground float the highest clouds in the Earth’s atmosphere. Called noctilucent, mesospheric, or polar mesospheric clouds, these aggregations of crystalized water vapor are high up enough to reflect sunlight, even after the Sun has set or even before it has risen.Because of their…