https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Snails carry weather records on their backs that could be used to map prehistoric cyclones, a University of Queensland study has shown. The project led by School of the Environment researchers examined the rings on the shell of a Biggenden Banded Snail (Figuladra bayensis) collected from Coalstoun Lakes National Park in southeast Queensland. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-snail-shells-weather-capsules.html Earth Sciences Mon, 14 Sep 2026 10:00:04 EDT news708594242 The historic droughts of 2023 and 2024 in the Amazon reduced river flows and altered the region's rainfall composition. Daily monitoring in Manaus, the capital of the Brazilian state of Amazonas, revealed these changes through the use of isotopes, which act as a kind of water "fingerprint." This method demonstrated how El Niño and warming in the North Atlantic affected the origin of moisture and precipitation dynamics. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-isotopes-reveal-early-drought-central.html Earth Sciences Thu, 10 Sep 2026 16:30:01 EDT news708274981 Despite protections, blue whales remain endangered, primarily because of the risk of collisions with ships. MBARI's Blue Whale Observatory uses a suite of technologies to study these animals and their primary food source, krill, in the Monterey Bay region. The findings from this body of research can help resource managers protect these majestic animals. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-precise-giants-reveals-blue-whales.html Plants & Animals Mon, 31 Aug 2026 16:00:04 EDT news707399617 Seismic waves produced by thunderstorms, called thunderquakes, can be used as a novel source for seismic imaging, according to a new study led by researchers at Penn State. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-thunderquakes-enable-seismic-imaging-earth.html Earth Sciences Fri, 21 Aug 2026 14:00:01 EDT news706362481 Amid current heat waves, urban greening is once again moving to the center of public debate. Greener cities are generally expected to have cleaner air because trees capture airborne particles, absorb gaseous pollutants and cool urban neighborhoods. But trees also emit biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) that, in the presence of sunlight and nitrogen oxides (NOx), can contribute to ground-level ozone formation. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-beijing-isoprene-emitting-trees-highlight.html Environment Wed, 19 Aug 2026 14:00:19 EDT news706278421 The summers of recent years have been hot, but not unusual from a meteorological perspective. According to researchers at Leipzig University, though, the next extreme summer would far exceed anything we have experienced so far. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-drier-soils-late-summer-prolonged.html Earth Sciences Tue, 18 Aug 2026 09:20:01 EDT news706263241 There is no question that the current global temperature increase is human-caused. Global warming has long since emerged as the dominant signal amid natural climate fluctuations. However, identifying how this warming manifests regionally remains a key challenge. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-reveal-regional-climate-fingerprints-human.html Environment Mon, 17 Aug 2026 17:00:05 EDT news706189971 Salt and sugar from the sea can rise as far as the free troposphere, thereby influencing both cloud formation and the Arctic climate. This is the finding of balloon measurements carried out by a team of researchers on Spitsbergen in autumn 2021 and spring 2022. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-arctic-balloon-samples-marine-sugars.html Earth Sciences Fri, 14 Aug 2026 09:40:01 EDT news705916225 Animals struggle to cool down in extreme heat and high humidity, and heat stress is rising in many regions around the world. This is especially true for people in tropical countries, including populous India. In a new paper in AGU Advances, researchers characterize the extent of India's "uncompensable heat stress" and project how the problem could worsen in the future. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-india-uncompensable-stress-monsoon-season.html Earth Sciences Thu, 13 Aug 2026 14:20:05 EDT news705839127 Before tropical cyclones can significantly strengthen, they generally must first become vertically aligned, with their rotating centers stacked through the atmosphere. New research using nearly three decades of NOAA Hurricane Hunter observations identifies four features that can help a tilted storm become aligned and more capable of intensifying. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-hurricane-hunter-reveal-early-tropical.html Earth Sciences Wed, 12 Aug 2026 11:20:05 EDT news705746009 Millions of people living on tropical islands could face a future of increasingly dangerous heat as climate change drives longer and more intense periods of humid conditions. While rising temperatures are often discussed as the main consequence of climate change, humidity plays a crucial role in determining how much heat the human body can tolerate. When the air is already full of moisture, sweat evaporates less effectively, making it harder for people to cool down. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-small-tropical-islands-dangerous-humid.html Earth Sciences Fri, 24 Jul 2026 07:20:01 EDT news704017856 A summer beach day in Oregon often involves a cool, gray blanket of fog that not only shapes the experience of beachgoers but also affects the coastal and inland environment. Now, commercially available surfing webcams are helping scientists measure Oregon's coastal fog, according to a study from the University of California, Davis, in collaboration with the USDA Forest Service. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-surfing-webcams-demystify-oregon-coastal.html Environment Mon, 20 Jul 2026 15:40:03 EDT news703776427 Japan is well known for its large earthquakes, but not all regions show the same patterns of earthquake activity. One way to understand which places tend to experience large or small earthquakes is the b-value, a key statistical measure long used by researchers to understand seismicity and assess earthquake occurrence patterns. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-mainshocks-earthquake-size-patterns.html Earth Sciences Mon, 13 Jul 2026 15:40:04 EDT news703169633 Cities are often described as "heat islands," with media reports warning that some neighborhoods can be 20° F (7° C) hotter than others. But those temperatures are often based on satellite data rather than the conditions people actually experience, due to the dearth of near-surface urban observations. This data gap hinders understanding public health risks during heat waves, planning for energy demand, infrastructure resilience, and climate adaptation. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-block-ai-uncover-real-urban.html Environment Wed, 08 Jul 2026 17:10:01 EDT news702746045 An interdisciplinary team from Florida State University's Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science has uncovered new evidence about processes that may have contributed to ancient mass-extinction events, some of the most dramatic ecosystem reorganizations in Earth's history. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-scientists-gas-emissions-contributed-ancient.html Earth Sciences Wed, 08 Jul 2026 14:00:06 EDT news702704476 Europe is still taking stock of a powerful heat wave in late June, but experts are already confident it ranks among the worst ever recorded—even rivaling a freak 2003 episode. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-history-european.html Environment Sat, 04 Jul 2026 04:10:01 EDT news702355927 Rainfall history is just as critical to predicting air pollution as where the air came from, a team led by University of Michigan Engineering researchers, in collaboration with scientists at the Appalachian Mountain Club and Plymouth State University, has discovered. The findings give meteorologists a physical benchmark to improve simulations that predict changes in pollution levels over complex terrain. They also show how air pollution can be deposited in sensitive mountain environments, with downstream effects for waterways fed from the mountains. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-year-goldmine-mountain-cloud-rainwater.html Earth Sciences Wed, 17 Jun 2026 17:40:01 EDT news700919521 Florida State University researchers have identified key differences in the root causes of long-term sea-surface temperature changes across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, a finding that could help guide future research on ocean variability. The study by Assistant Professor of meteorology Michael Diamond and FSU meteorology graduate alumnus Anthony Freveletti found that long-term temperature changes in the Pacific Ocean are driven primarily by internal ocean variability, while those in the Atlantic are largely the result of human emissions. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-atlantic-pacific-term-analysis.html Earth Sciences Wed, 17 Jun 2026 16:20:08 EDT news700918141 In the next five years, the Earth is overwhelmingly likely to surge again and again past the international climate threshold set as safe and shatter its hottest-year record along the way, according to new United Nations climate projections. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-hot-years.html Environment Thu, 28 May 2026 04:52:16 EDT news699162645 How are cold air masses advancing in the United States connected to fertilizers carried by "flying rivers" from Africa that nourish the soils of the Brazilian Amazon? An article published in Geophysical Research Letters reveals an atmospheric connection between these distant regions. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-heavy-atlantic-block-african-aerosols.html Earth Sciences Sat, 09 May 2026 15:00:01 EDT news697214979 Outdoor air pollution is estimated to contribute to more than 100,000 premature deaths in the United States each year, according to the National Weather Service. Accurate air quality forecasts—designed to protect public health, alerting communities to dangerous levels of pollutants linked to asthma attacks, heart disease and premature death—are critical for helping people limit exposure and for guiding regulatory action. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-irrigation-gaps-weather-skew-air.html Earth Sciences Wed, 04 Mar 2026 18:30:10 EST news691866181 People may be frustrated by the lack of detail when weather forecasters say, "There will be thunderstorms popping up, but we don't know where." Now a key finding in a study by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH), published in the journal Nature, is set to improve the certainty about the location of upcoming storms on hot days. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-satellite-million-thunderstorms-formation.html Earth Sciences Wed, 04 Mar 2026 11:00:10 EST news691840731 Forest soils have an important role in protecting our climate: They remove large quantities of methane—a powerful greenhouse gas—from our atmosphere. Researchers from the University of Göttingen and the Baden-Württemberg Forest Research Institute (FVA) have evaluated the world's most comprehensive data set on methane uptake by forest soils. They discovered that under certain climate conditions, which may become more common in the future, forest soils' capacity to absorb methane actually increases. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-forest-soils-methane-atmosphere-term.html Earth Sciences Wed, 04 Feb 2026 15:37:45 EST news689441821 In a critical advance for climate resilience, researchers from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) have developed an AI model that can predict dangerous convective storms—including Black Rainstorms, thunderstorms and extreme heavy rainfall like those that have hit Hong Kong—up to four hours before they strike. This world-first technology, developed in collaboration with national meteorological institutions and powered by satellite data and advanced deep diffusion technology, improves forecast accuracy by over 15% at the 48-kilometer spatial scale compared with existing systems. This breakthrough strengthens the overall accuracy of the national weather forecasting system and promises to transform early warning systems for vulnerable communities across Asia. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-ai-severe-thunderstorms-hours-higher.html Earth Sciences Wed, 28 Jan 2026 16:32:39 EST news688840321 The climate is changing and nowhere is it changing faster than at Earth's poles. Researchers at Penn State have painted a comprehensive picture of the chemical processes taking place in the Arctic and found that there are multiple, separate interactions impacting the atmosphere. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-feedback-loops-oil-fields-arctic.html Earth Sciences Fri, 12 Dec 2025 12:16:21 EST news684764161 Researchers at the Institute for Meteorology at Leipzig University have, for the first time, determined the climatic impact of contrails that form within natural cirrus clouds. Contrails account for the largest share of aviation's climate impact beyond carbon dioxide emissions. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-hidden-contrails-cirrus-clouds-contribute.html Earth Sciences Fri, 12 Dec 2025 09:20:23 EST news684753601 If you ever find yourself on Macquarie Island—a narrow, wind-lashed ridge halfway between Tasmania and Antarctica—the first thing you'll notice is the wildlife. Elephant seals sprawl across dark beaches. King penguins march up mossy slopes. Albatrosses circle over vast, treeless uplands. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-storms-southern-ocean-consequences-global.html Earth Sciences Sat, 06 Dec 2025 12:00:01 EST news684150861 A new study shows that during drought, it's not how hot or how dry it is that determines gas emissions from plants—but how quickly conditions change. This discovery reshapes our understanding of the relationship between drought, vegetation, and air pollution. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-rapid-weather-shifts-climate-air.html Earth Sciences Tue, 02 Dec 2025 14:34:21 EST news683908441 A team of researchers at the University of Miami has developed a global atmospheric modeling framework that blends powerful research capabilities with accessibility for students and scientists alike. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-python-based-framework-climate-dynamics.html Earth Sciences Wed, 01 Oct 2025 12:14:04 EDT news678539641 Many people look at trees to relax, taking in the soothing fractal patterns to adjust their eyes from too many hours spent at a computer. Dominick "Dom" Ciruzzi, assistant professor of geology at William & Mary, takes tree watching to a whole new level. An ecohydrologist, Ciruzzi is fascinated by how ecosystems and water interact, and he's taken a special interest in arboreal life. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-nature-language-video-analysis-tree.html Ecology Tue, 30 Sep 2025 14:22:04 EDT news678460921