Phys.org August 3, 2021 Climate negotiators from 196 countries and the European Union as well as businesses, experts and world leaders will gather in Glasgow in November for the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) summit. Under the Paris Agreement, countries are meant to have submitted updated 2030 climate targets ahead of COP26, but nearly half have yet to do so. China said they will soon release their updated plans. The United Nations is pushing for a global coalition committed to net zero carbon emissions by 2050 which will cover all countries. Many scientists now say 1.5 degrees must […]
Tag Archives: Climatology
Here’s What Ancient Climate Tipping Points May Be Able to Reveal About Earth’s Future
Science Alert July 30, 2021 In many cases, abrupt changes arise from slow changes in one component of the Earth system that eventually pass a critical threshold after which impacts cascade through coupled climate–ecological–social systems. The geological record provides the only long-term information we have on the conditions and processes that can drive physical, ecological, and social systems into new states or organizational structures that may be irreversible within human time frames. An international team of researchers (Germany, USA – Oregon State University, University Wisconsin, Arizona State University Tempe, UMass Amherst, Columbia University, USGS, University of Colorado, Northern Arizona University, […]
Major Atlantic Ocean current system might be approaching critical threshold
Science Daily August 5, 2021 The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC, transports warm water masses from the tropics northward at the ocean surface and cold water southward at the ocean bottom. It influences weather systems worldwide. A potential collapse of this ocean current system could have severe consequences. An international team of researchers (Germany, UK) have developed a robust and general early-warning indicator for forthcoming critical transitions. Significant early-warning signals are found in eight independent AMOC indices, based on observational sea-surface temperature and salinity data from across the Atlantic Ocean basin. The findings support the assessment that the AMOC […]
Earth’s interior is swallowing up more carbon than thought
Phys.org July 26, 2021 The best-understood parts of the carbon cycle are at or near Earth’s surface, but deep carbon stores play a key role in maintaining the habitability of our planet by regulating atmospheric CO2 levels. An international team of researchers (UK, Germany, China, France, Switzerland, Singapore) conducted a series of experiments that support growing evidence that carbonate rocks become less calcium-rich and more magnesium-rich when channeled deeper into the mantle. This chemical transformation makes carbonate less soluble meaning it doesn’t get drawn into the fluids that supply volcanoes. Instead, most of the carbonate sinks deeper into the mantle […]
Global evidence links rise in extreme precipitation to human-driven climate change
Phys.org July 7, 2021 Detecting anthropogenic forcing is difficult to detect in observational record. Researchers at UCLA used artificial neural networks to find patterns of extreme precipitation in weather records. They found multiple lines of evidence that human activity has intensified extreme precipitation during recent decades. Even when the data sets were widely different, they were able to see the human influence…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Has the stilling of surface wind speed ended in China?
Phys.org June 28, 2021 Since the 1960s, the global land surface wind speed (SWS) has significantly weakened, a phenomenon known as global terrestrial stilling. The stilling reversed around 2010 and global SWS is strengthening. It has seriously affected the ecological environment and social economy, especially restricting the sustainable development of the wind energy industry. Researchers in China analyzed the transition and regional differences in the long-term trends of the SWS in China based on observational SWS data from 1971 to 2019. The results showed that annual mean SWS in China underwent a reversal from a continuous weakening trend to a […]
Atmospheric metal layers appear with surprising regularity
Science Daily June 2, 2021 A team of researchers in the US (University of Colorado, UC Berkeley, Virginia Polytech, MIT) reported regular occurrence of mid-latitude thermosphere-ionosphere Na (TINa) layers over Boulder, Colorado. TINa layers occur regularly in various months and years, descending from ∼125 km after dusk and from ∼150 km before dawn. The downward-progression phase speeds are consistent with semidiurnal tidal phase speeds. One or more layers sometimes occur across local midnight. Elevated volume mixing ratios above the turning point of Na density slope suggest in situ production of the dawn/dusk layers via neutralization of converged Na+ layers. Vertical […]
Newly identified atmospheric circulation enhances heatwaves and wildfires around the Arctic
Phys.org June 2, 2021 An international team of researchers (Japan, USA – NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, South Korea) assessed comprehensive air pollution (PM2.5) in the Arctic for the past 15 years to clarify the relationships between variations in PM2.5 and aerosols, wildfires, and the relevant climate patterns. They found 13 out of the 20 months with highest PM2.5 in the Arctic during the 15-year period were in summer. The elevated PM2.5 levels were highly correlated with relatively higher organic carbon aerosol concentrations, implying active wildfires. In those months, the wildfires likely occurred under extremely warm and dry conditions. Those […]
New climate predictions increase likelihood of temporarily reaching 1.5 °C in next 5 years
World Meteorological Organization May 27, 2021 According to the Global Annual to Decadal Climate Update https://hadleyserver.metoffice.gov.uk/wmolc/ , produced by the United Kingdom’s Met Office, there is about a 40% chance of the annual average global temperature temporarily reaching 1.5°C above the pre-industrial level in at least one of the next five years – and these odds are increasing with time, according to a new climate update issued by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). There is a 90% likelihood of at least one year between 2021-2025 becoming the warmest on record. This is mainly due to using an improved temperature dataset […]
Understanding of invisible but mighty particles in Earth’s radiation belts
Science Daily May 26, 2021 In recent years, however, a growing body of experimental evidence has shown that EMIC waves can cause the scattering loss of electrons down to sub-MeV energies. Using measurements of trapped electron flux from the GPS satellite constellation, an international team of researchers (New Zealand, UK, USA – Los Alamos National Laboratory) investigated the ability of EMIC waves to cause significant depletions of radiation belt electron populations. They presented statistical evidence demonstrating global decreases in sub-MeV trapped electron flux in response to EMIC wave activity. Although they found that electron losses extend down to sub-MeV energies, […]