Climate Science

2007 – 2020Critical infrastructure is threatened as sinking land amplifies global sea level rise.In many parts of the U.S. East Coast, rising seas driven by melting ice and the thermal expansion of warming water is only part of what threatens coastal areas. The land is also sinking. This geologic two-step is happening rapidly enough to threaten infrastructure, farmland, and wetlands that tens of millions of people along the coast rely upon, according to a NASA-funded team of scientists at Virginia Tech’s Earth Observation…

The Arctic and North Atlantic oceans have seen an increasing number of days when precipitation falls as rain, not snow.The Arctic is known for its cold temperatures, which allow precipitation to fall as snow. But as temperatures warm, that snow is being replaced by rain. These changes can affect sea ice in the Arctic and weather patterns throughout the Northern Hemisphere.NASA scientists examined rainfall trends over the Arctic and North Atlantic oceans from 1980 to 2016 and found an increase in the frequency of rainy…

Microbe models leverage extensive genomic data to power soil-carbon simulations. Credit: Illustration by Victor O. LeshykScientists are using the DNA from soil microbes to model how they function and use carbon, ultimately helping to advance the accuracy of climate models.Climate models are essential to predicting and addressing climate change, but can fail to adequately represent soil microbes, a critical player in ecosystem soil carbon sequestration that affects the global carbon cycle. A team of scientists led by the…

Satellite images of Death Valley’s Badwater Basin captured on July 5, 2023; August 30, 2023; and February 14, 2024.Refreshed by precipitation from an atmospheric river, a temporary lake in Death Valley is extending its stay.An ephemeral lake in Death Valley’s Badwater Basin is showing its staying power. After forming in August 2023 in the aftermath of Hurricane Hilary, the lake gradually shrank but persisted throughout the fall and winter. A potent atmospheric river filled it back up in February 2024.This series of images…

Reforestation in the eastern U.S. has been shown to mitigate regional warming trends, with research highlighting forests’ significant cooling effects on both land and air temperatures. This underscores the potential of reforestation as a tool for climate adaptation and mitigation.Much of the U.S. warmed during the 20th century, but the eastern part of the country remained mysteriously cool. The recovery of forests could explain why.Widespread 20th-century reforestation in the eastern United States helped counter rising…

Scientists are zeroing in on the virus species in the world’s oceans that are most likely to combat climate change by helping trap carbon dioxide in seawater. Credit: SciTechDaily.comResearchers begin applying lessons learned from the ocean to soils.Armed with a catalog of hundreds of thousands of DNA and RNA virus species in the world’s oceans, scientists are now zeroing in on the viruses most likely to combat climate change by helping trap carbon dioxide in seawater or, using similar techniques, different viruses that…

NASA’s forthcoming PREFIRE mission will deploy two CubeSats to study heat loss from Earth’s polar regions, utilizing Mars-tested technology to enhance climate model accuracy. Credit: NASALaunching in spring 2024, the two small satellites of the agency’s PREFIRE mission will fill in missing data from Earth’s polar regions.Two new miniature NASA satellites will start crisscrossing Earth’s atmosphere in a few months, detecting heat lost to space. Their observations from the planet’s most bone-chilling regions will help…

Recent studies reveal a significant increase in marine heatwaves in the Arctic Ocean, with temperatures rising above average and thinning ice leading to a new Arctic phase. Human-induced greenhouse gases are a major contributing factor, threatening the region’s ecosystem. Credit: SciTechDaily.comMarine heatwaves will become a regular occurrence in the Arctic in the near future and are a product of higher anthropogenic greenhouse-gas emissions – as shown in a study just released by Dr. Armineh Barkhordarian from…

Artistic reconstruction of the Cabrières Biota. Credit: Christian McCallNearly 400 exceptionally well-preserved fossils dating back 470 million years have been discovered in the south of France by two amateur paleontologists. This new fossil site of worldwide importance has been analyzed by scientists from the University of Lausanne, in collaboration with the CNRS and international teams. This discovery provides unprecedented information on the polar ecosystems of the Ordovician period.Paleontology enthusiasts have…

Evidence contained within an ice core shows that in one location the West Antarctic ice sheet thinned by 450 meters — that’s more than the height of the Empire State Building — in just under 200 years. Credit: University of Cambridge/British Antarctic SurveyResearchers discovered rapid ice loss in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet 8,000 years ago, signaling potential future risks under global warming.Researchers from the University of Cambridge and the British Antarctic Survey have uncovered the first direct evidence that the…