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The Earth, planetary and space science community affirms its commitment to support and promote scientific knowledge and research for the benefit of humanity.
The Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Working Group, which promotes and supports equality, diversity and inclusion of opportunities in the Earth, planetary and space sciences, seeks new members to help further its aims.
The European Geosciences Union (EGU) is seeking to appoint an IT Specialist to support the IT Manager. The deadline for applications is 30 September 2020.
The August 2020 edition of the EGU newsletter is now available.
Analyses of ancient rainforest leaves from New Zealand suggest elevated levels of carbon dioxide went hand-in-hand with an expansion of Earth’s forests. While that situation may be analogous to Earth’s near future, deforestation and climate-change stressors make it unclear what the net effects of current and future elevated carbon dioxide will be.
Water vapour has a complex spectrum and absorbs from the microwave to the near-UV where it dissociates. There is limited knowledge of the absorption features in the near-UV, and there is a large disagreement for the available models and experiments. We created a new ab initio model that is in good agreement with observation at 363 nm. At lower wavelengths, our calculations suggest that the latest experiments overestimate absorption. This has implications for trace gas retrievals in the near-UV.
We examine the sea-surface temperature response to an interval of climate ~ 3.2 million years ago, when CO 2 concentrations were similar to today and the near future. Our geological data and climate models show that global mean sea-surface temperatures were 2.3 to 3.2 ºC warmer than pre-industrial climate, that the mid-latitudes and high latitudes warmed more than the tropics, and that the warming was particularly enhanced in the North Atlantic Ocean.
Cirrus clouds appearing in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere have important impacts on the radiation budget and climate change. We revisited global stratospheric cirrus clouds with CALIPSO and for the first time with MIPAS satellite observations. Stratospheric cirrus clouds related to deep convection are frequently detected in the tropics. At middle latitudes, MIPAS detects more than twice as many stratospheric cirrus clouds due to higher detection sensitivity.
Recent assessments of the sustainability of global groundwater resources using the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites assume that the underlying trends are linear. Here, we assess recent changes in groundwater storage (ΔGWS) in the world’s large aquifer systems using an ensemble of GRACE datasets and show that trends are mostly non-linear. Non-linearity in ΔGWS derives, in part, from the episodic nature of groundwater replenishment associated with extreme precipitation.
In this photo taken on the Isle of Elba in Italy you can see several radiating crystals of greenish Hedenbergite, inter-grown with blackish coloured Ilvaite in skarn bodies. Skarn is an unique formation that formed as a result of the interaction between geothermal fluids and the host rock. In this case the geothermal fluids come from the Late Miocene Porto Azzurro monzogranite, and Mesozoic marble, within which you can see skarns occurring as lens-shaped bodies. Description by Samuele Papeschi, after …
The InterArctic project (Fig. 1) focuses on vulnerability, resilience and adaptation of northern societies facing global change. The current rapid warming of Arctic and Subarctic climates has already produced many changes in the social, economic and cultural behaviour of the populations inhabiting these regions and more changes are expected to come. In this context, looking at the past provides the opportunity to document the complex relationships between climate, ecology and human societies, which may provide a deeper understanding into ways …
Like a reasonably large proportion of the population, I have colour vision deficiency (also known as colour deficient vision or colourblindness). I’m not going to get into the technical aspects of what this is like as they are covered well here and here, and you can do an Ishihara test, and other tests here, to check your own vision. The other reason I’m not going to discuss the technicalities of what some might call ‘an affliction’ is basically because it …
