There's a stubborn, heat-absorbing particle that floats along in Earth's atmosphere: It initially doesn't like water, it absorbs light, and it takes its time moving on. Black carbon in the atmosphere tends to linger until ...
Earth Sciences
Sep 13, 2021
2
1005
Future changes in the precipitation on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) may have a profound influence on the ecosystem and environment of high-altitude East Asia. Despite this, climate modeling faces challenges in accurately simulating ...
Earth Sciences
Aug 30, 2021
0
144
Aerosols are small, solid particles that drift aloft in Earth's atmosphere. These minuscule motes may be any of a number of diverse substances, such as dust, pollution, and wildfire smoke. By absorbing or scattering sunlight, ...
Earth Sciences
Aug 18, 2021
0
1140
Earlier this month, New York City and other cities along the east coast experienced some of the worst air pollution in the world. The cause? Wildfires in California and Oregon so large they produced smoke that drifted thousands ...
Environment
Aug 4, 2021
0
4
Trees, crops and other vegetation in the midwestern United States act as large carbon sinks during summer, taking in carbon dioxide (CO2) and limiting the amount of the greenhouse gas that enters the atmosphere. What happens ...
Environment
Jul 20, 2021
0
4
Raging wildfires pump tiny pollutants into the air, degrading air quality across vast areas. These pollutants, or aerosols, can soar high into the atmosphere at the tops of smoke plumes or creep close to the ground where ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 2, 2021
0
2
When a volcano violently erupts, a plume of ash and gases spews skyward. The hot slurry quickly rises into the atmosphere, where various atmospheric dynamics interact to shape the volcanic cloud's composition, height, and ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 2, 2021
0
7
Measuring ethane in the atmosphere shows that the amounts of methane going into the atmosphere from oil and gas wells and contributing to greenhouse warming is higher than suggested by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, ...
Environment
Jun 24, 2021
0
8
Lightning bolts break apart nitrogen and oxygen molecules in the atmosphere and create reactive chemicals that affect greenhouse gases. Now, a team of atmospheric chemists and lightning scientists have found that lightning ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 29, 2021
15
3824
Lockdowns last year in response to COVID-19 resulted in drastic cuts to emissions, especially from vehicle tailpipes, and yet some urban areas saw a paradoxical spike in ozone air pollution. A new study led by the National ...
Environment
Apr 15, 2021
0
7
