Tsunamis’ magnetic fields are detectable before sea level change

Phys.org  December 21, 2021 The motion of conductive seawater by tsunamis can generate magnetic fields in the presence of the background geomagnetic main field. Previous studies found that, using the tsunami-generated seafloor magnetic field, it is possible to predict the propagation direction and wave height prior to the actual arrivals of tsunamis. In this study researchers in Japan correlate the tsunami magnetic field and the tsunami sea level change using observed data and three-dimensional simulations of the 2009 Samoa and 2010 Chile tsunamis. Their direct comparison of the tsunami observed magnetic field and tsunami sea level change illustrated that the […]

Better models of atmospheric ‘detergent’ can help predict climate change

Phys.org  November 1, 2021 The hydroxyl radical (OH) sets the oxidative capacity of the atmosphere and thus, profoundly affects the removal rate of pollutants and reactive greenhouse gases. OH estimates for past and future periods rely primarily on global atmospheric chemistry models. The models disagree ± 30% in mean OH and in its changes from the preindustrial to late 21st century. A simple steady-state relationship that accounts for ozone photolysis frequencies, water vapor, and the ratio of reactive nitrogen to carbon emissions explains temporal variability within most models, but not intermodal differences. A team of researchers in the US (University […]

A comprehensive study of technological change

MIT News  August 2, 2021 Researchers at MIT have provided predicted yearly performance improvement rates for nearly all definable technologies by creating a correspondence of all patents within the US patent system to a set of 1757 technology domains. A technology domain is a body of patented inventions achieving the same technological function using the same knowledge and scientific principles. The domains contain 97.2% of all patents within the entire US patent system. From the identified patent sets, they calculated the average centrality of the patents in each domain to predict their improvement rates, following a patent network-based methodology tested […]

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 […]

Aerosol formation in clouds

Science Daily  March 24, 2021 Cloud processing is potentially important for secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation, a major aerosol component: however, laboratory experiments fail to mimic this process under atmospherically relevant conditions. An international team of researchers (Switzerland, UK, USA – Carnegie Mellon University, industry) developed a wetted-wall flow reactor to simulate aqueous-phase processing of isoprene oxidation products (iOP) in cloud droplets. They found that 50 to 70% (in moles) of iOP partition into the aqueous cloud phase, where they rapidly react with OH radicals, producing SOA. Integrating their experimental results into a global model, they showed that clouds effectively […]

Outbreak science: Infectious disease research leads to outbreak predictions

Science Daily  January 8, 2020 An international team of researchers (Finland, USA – Georgetown University, Canada) used information from the Global Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology Network (GIDEON) data resource to develop a simple approach to accurately predict disease outbreaks by combining novel statistical techniques and a large dataset on pathogen biogeography (spatial distribution of pathogens across the globe). The approach takes pairwise dissimilarities between countries’ pathogen communities and pathogens’ geographical distributions and uses these to predict country–pathogen associations. They compare the success rates of their model for predicting pathogen outbreak, emergence and re-emergence potential as a function of time…read more. […]

New technology developed to improve forecasting of Earthquakes, Tsunamis

Science Daily  November 22, 2019 Techniques currently available for seafloor monitoring work best in the deeper ocean where there is less noise interference. An international team of researchers (USA – University of South Florida, Italy) has developed and tested a new high-tech shallow water buoy that can detect the small movements and changes in the Earth’s seafloor that are often a precursor to deadly natural hazards. The seafloor geodesy system is an anchored spar buoy topped by high precision GPS. The buoy’ orientation is measured using a digital compass that provides heading, pitch, and roll information — helping to capture […]

Injection wells can induce earthquakes miles away from the well

Science Daily  August 30, 2018 Researchers at UC Santa Cruz analyzed spatial seismicity decay in a global dataset of 18 induced cases with clear association between isolated wells and earthquakes. They found two populations. The first is characterized by near-well seismicity density plateaus and abrupt decay, dominated by square-root space-time migration and pressure diffusion. Injection at these sites occurs within the crystalline basement. The second population exhibits larger spatial footprints and magnitudes, steady spatial decay over more than 10 kilometers, potentially caused by poroelastic effects. Far-reaching spatial effects during injection may increase event magnitudes and seismic hazard beyond expectations based […]