Atmosphere News

June 15, 2024

Top Headlines

Significant Increase in Nitrous-Oxide Emissions from Human Activities, Jeopardizing Climate Goals

June 11, 2024 — Emissions of nitrous-oxide (N2O) -- a potent greenhouse gas -- have continued to rise unabated over the past four decades, according to an international team of ...

Major Milestone in Cutting Harmful Gases That Deplete Ozone Layer and Worsen Global Warming

June 11, 2024 — A new study has revealed significant progress in the drive to reduce levels in the atmosphere of chemicals that destroy Earth's ozone layer, confirming the success of historic regulations limiting ...

The Solar System May Have Passed Through Dense Interstellar Clouds 2 Million Years Ago, Altering Earth's Climate

June 10, 2024 — Astrophysicists calculate the likelihood that Earth was exposed to cold, harsh interstellar clouds, a phenomenon not previously considered in geologic climate ...

Earth and Space Share the Same Turbulence

June 7, 2024 — Researchers have discovered that the turbulence found in the thermosphere -- known as the gateway to space -- and turbulence in the troposphere, here closer to sea level, follow the same physical laws despite having drastically different atmospheric ...

Latest Headlines

updated 3:05pm EDT

Climate Change Will Make Ozone Pollution Worse: Here's How

June 5, 2024 — A new study finds climate change is likely to make upward spikes of ozone at ground level worse by 2050, which could result in many parts of the United States falling out of compliance with air ...

Electrified Charcoal 'Sponge' Can Soak Up CO2 Directly from the Air

June 5, 2024 — Researchers have developed a low-cost, energy-efficient method for making materials that can capture carbon dioxide directly from the air. Researchers used a method similar to charging a battery to ...

Arctic Melting Heavily Influenced by Little-Studied Meteorological Phenomena

June 3, 2024 — A team of scientists has combined paleoclimatic data from the last 2,000 years with powerful computer modeling and in-the-field research on lake ...

Aerosol Pollution, Greenhouse Gases Must Be Reduced Simultaneously to Keep Forest Fires in Check

May 29, 2024 — If we want cleaner air, fewer forest fires, and less severe climate change, a new study shows we must reduce aerosol pollution and greenhouse gases ...

Shedding Light on the Chemical Enigma of Sulfur Trioxide in the Atmosphere

May 23, 2024 — Researchers discovered that sulfur trioxide can form products other than sulfuric acid in the atmosphere by interacting with organic and inorganic acids. These previously uncharacterized acid ...

Did a Magnetic Field Collapse Trigger the Emergence of Animals?

May 3, 2024 — Researchers uncovered compelling evidence that Earth's magnetic field was in a highly unusual state when the macroscopic animals of the Ediacaran Period -- 635 to 541 million years ago -- diversified ...

New Nevada Experiments Will Improve Monitoring of Nuclear Explosions

May 2, 2024 — On an October morning in 2023, a chemical explosion detonated in a tunnel under the Nevada desert was the launch of the next set of experiments by the National Nuclear Security Administration, with ...

EPA Underestimates Methane Emissions from Landfills, Urban Areas

May 1, 2024 — The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is underestimating methane emissions from landfills, urban areas and U.S. states, according to a new study. The researchers combined 2019 satellite ...

Every Breath You Take: Study Models the Journey of Inhaled Plastic Particle Pollution

May 1, 2024 — With recent studies having established the presence of nano and microplastic particles in the respiratory systems of both human and bird populations, ...

Modeling Broader Effects of Wildfires in Siberia

Apr. 24, 2024 — As wildfires in Siberia become more common, global climate modeling estimates significant impacts on climate, air quality, health, and economies in East Asia and across the northern ...

Researchers Find Oldest Undisputed Evidence of Earth's Magnetic Field

Apr. 24, 2024 — A new study has recovered a 3.7-billion-year-old record of Earth's magnetic field, and found that it appears remarkably similar to the field surrounding Earth ...

High-Resolution Lidar Sees Birth Zone of Cloud Droplets

Apr. 24, 2024 — Scientists demonstrated the first-ever remote observations of the fine-scale structure at the base of clouds. The results show that the air-cloud interface is a transition zone where aerosol ...

Asian Monsoon Lofts Ozone-Depleting Substances to Stratosphere

Apr. 23, 2024 — Powerful monsoon winds, strengthened by a warming climate, are lofting unexpectedly large quantities of ozone-depleting substances high into the atmosphere over East Asia, according to new research. ...

AI Weather Forecasts Captured Ciaran's Destructive Path

Apr. 22, 2024 — The study highlights the rapid progress and transformative potential of AI in weather ...

Weather Prediction Models Can Also Forecast Satellite Displacements

Apr. 19, 2024 — Researchers have found that modern weather models can accurately predict the energy that Earth emits and reflects into space, which directly affects the movements of low Earth-orbiting (LEO) ...

Ice Age Climate Analysis Reduces Worst-Case Warming Expected from Rising CO2

Apr. 17, 2024 — A detailed reconstruction of climate during the most recent ice age, when a large swath of North America was covered in ice, provides information on the relationship between CO2 and global ...

Tracing the Largest Solar Storm in Modern Times from Tree Rings in Lapland

Apr. 4, 2024 — A research group was able to measure a spike in radiocarbon concentration of trees in Lapland that occurred after the Carrington flare. This discovery helps to prepare for dangerous solar ...

Blueprint for Mandating Indoor Air Quality for Public Buildings in Form of Standards

Mar. 29, 2024 — A group of international experts has presented a blueprint for national indoor quality standards for public buildings. The experts addressed setting standards for three key indoor pollutants -- ...

How Extratropical Ocean-Atmosphere Interactions Can Contribute to the Variability of Jet Streams in the Northern Hemisphere

Mar. 29, 2024 — Ocean-atmosphere coupling, the exchange in energy between the ocean and atmosphere, influences teleconnection patterns, the climate effects across vast geographical areas. However, its impact outside ...

Scientists on the Hunt for Evidence of Quantum Gravity's Existence at the South Pole

Mar. 26, 2024 — An Antarctic large-scale experiment is striving to find out if gravity also exists at the quantum level. An extraordinary particle able to travel undisturbed through space seems to hold the ...

Satellite Data Assimilation Improves Forecasts of Severe Weather

Mar. 21, 2024 — In 2020, a line of severe thunderstorms unleashed powerful winds that caused billions in damages across the Midwest United States. A new technique that incorporates satellite data could improve ...

Meteorology: Weak Polar Vortex Makes Weather More Predictable

Mar. 15, 2024 — Events in the stratosphere are making long-range weather in Northern Europe easier to forecast, researchers have ...

AI Analysis of Historical Satellite Images Show USSR Collapse in 1990s Increased Methane Emissions, Despite Lower Oil and Gas Production

Mar. 12, 2024 — An AI-powered analysis of 25 years of satellite images yields the surprising finding that methane emissions in Turkmenistan, a former Soviet republic and major oil-producing region, actually ...

Vehicle Brakes Produce Charged Particles That May Harm Public Health

Mar. 12, 2024 — Scientists know relatively little about particles released into the air when a vehicle driver brakes, though evidence suggests those particles may be more harmful to health than particles exiting the ...

Study Explores Impacts of Arctic Warming on Daily Weather Patterns in the U.S.

Mar. 11, 2024 — Arctic sea ice is shrinking as the world continues to warm, and a new study may provide a better understanding of how the loss of this ice may impact daily weather in the middle latitudes, like the ...

2020 Extreme Weather Event That Brought Fires and Snow to Western US

Mar. 2, 2024 — The same weather system that led to the spread of the devastating Labor Day wildfires in 2020 brought record-breaking cold and early-season snowfall to parts of the Rocky Mountains. Now, new research ...

Emergency Atmospheric Geoengineering Wouldn't Save the Oceans

Feb. 29, 2024 — Climate change is heating the oceans, altering currents and circulation patterns responsible for regulating climate on a global scale. If temperatures dropped, some of that damage could theoretically ...

Side Effects of Wide Scale Forestation Could Reduce Carbon Removal Benefits by Up to a Third

Feb. 22, 2024 — The side effects of large-scale forestation initiatives could reduce the CO2 removal benefits by up to a third, a pioneering study has ...

New Cloud Model Could Help With Climate Research

Feb. 21, 2024 — When clouds meet clear skies, cloud droplets evaporate as they mix with dry air. A new study has succeeded in capturing what happens in a model. Ultimately, this could lead to more accurate climate ...

What Turned Earth Into a Giant Snowball 700 Million Years Ago? Scientists Now Have an Answer

Feb. 7, 2024 — Inspired during field work in South Australia's Flinders Ranges, geoscientists have proposed that all-time low volcanic carbon dioxide emissions triggered a 57-million-year-long global ...