Earth Sciences

Plankton appear to play a major role in regulating the global climate system, according to new research

David Siegel, professor of geography at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and director of the Institute for Computational Earth System Science, made the discovery with his former Ph.D. student Dierdre Toole, who is now based at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.

In an article in the May 6 issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the scientists explai

For years the debate about climate change has had a contentious sticking point – satellite measurements of temperatures in the troposphere, the layer of atmosphere where most weather occurs, were inconsistent with fast-warming surface temperatures.

But a team led by a University of Washington atmospheric scientist has used satellite data in a new and more accurate way to show that, for more than two decades, the troposphere has actually been warming faster than the surface. The new approach

University of Leicester scientists have made a unique discovery at an Atlantic island popular with British holidaymakers.

They have uncovered giant sand dunes on Tenerife that tell a tale of terrifying destruction in ancient times, when fiery clouds swept right across the island, leaving very little in their wake.

Volcanic islands – volcanoes whose summits poke out of the oceans – make popular holiday destinations, like Madeira, Hawaii and the Azores. Some, like Hawaii, erupt lava f

Think of ESA’s Proba as the little satellite that does a lot. It is only the size of a washing machine but its main instrument – the smallest hyperspectral imager ever flown in space – has an expanding portfolio of uses encompassing agricultural mapping, water quality monitoring, charting forest fire damage and disaster management.

Launched in October 2001, the Project for Onboard Autonomy (Proba) satellite measures just 60 x 60 x 80 cm. Its main instrument takes up around a third of t

The Younger Dryas period, about 12 000 years ago, was marked by a sharp cooling event in the Northern Hemisphere. Temperatures there fell by between 2 and 10°C. The East Antarctic in contrast experienced an episode of warming. Data have up to now been insufficient or too inconclusive to enable palaeoclimatologists to track this climatic event in the southern temperate regions and the tropics. An IRD researcher campaign took a 2 m drill core sample from the isle of Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu, found to co

Something is missing in the analysis of emissions of volatile organic compounds from a Michigan forest, and, according to a team of atmospheric scientists, what they do not know can have a large impact on air pollution in areas in and near forests.

“Organic compounds emitted by some trees play a role in ozone and aerosol production in the lower atmosphere,” says Dr. William H. Brune, professor of meteorology and head of Penn State’s department of meteorology. “It appears that, at least