California’s trees are dying, and might not be coming back: Wildfires and climbing temperatures have caused a 6.7 percent decline since 1985
The State of California is banking on its forests to help reduce planet-warming carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. But that element of the state’s climate-change solution arsenal may be in jeopardy, as new research from the University of California, Irvine reports that trees in California’s mountain ranges and open spaces are dying from wildfires and […]
Light amplification accelerates chemical reactions in aerosols
Aerosols in the atmosphere react to incident sunlight. This light is amplified in the interior of the aerosol droplets and particles, accelerating reactions. ETH researchers have now been able to demonstrate and quantify this effect and recommend factoring it into future climate models. Liquid droplets and very fine particles can trap light — similar to […]
Iodine in desert dust destroys ozone: New study shows iodine from desert dust can decrease ozone air pollution but could prolong greenhouse gas lifetimes
When winds loft fine desert dust high into the atmosphere, iodine in that dust can trigger chemical reactions that destroy some air pollution, but also let greenhouse gases stick around longer. The finding, published today in the journal Science Advances, may force researchers to re-evaluate how particles from land can impact the chemistry of the […]
A spacecraft has ‘touched’ the sun for the first time
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe reached the sun’s extended solar atmosphere, known as the corona, and spent five hours there. The spacecraft is the first to enter the outer boundaries of our sun. “This marks the achievement of the primary objective of the Parker mission and a new era for understanding the physics of the corona,” […]
Trees are biggest methane ‘vents’ in wetland areas – even when they’re dry
Most of the methane gas emitted from Amazon wetlands regions is vented into the atmosphere via tree root systems — with significant emissions occurring even when the ground is not flooded, say researchers at the University of Birmingham. In a study published in the Royal Society journal, Philosophical Transactions A, the researchers have found evidence […]
Metals supercharge promising method to bury harmful carbon dioxide under the sea
There’s a global race to reduce the amount of harmful gases in our atmosphere to slow down the pace of climate change, and one way to do that is through carbon capture and sequestration — sucking carbon out of the air and burying it. At this point, however, we’re capturing only a fraction of the […]