News by Subject Earth Science

Cold cloud top temperatures can tell forecasters if a tropical cyclone has the potential to generate heavy rainfall, and that is exactly what NASA's Aqua satellite found when it observed the temperatures in Tropical Cyclone Belna over northwestern Madagascar.

The light-absorbing retina in the eye has an exceptionally high metabolic rate which must be met by adequate oxygen supply. This study shows that oxygen diffusion constrained retinal morphology of ancestral vertebrates. It further demonstrates that animals that independently evolved good vision, such as birds, fishes and mammals, concurrently evolved new mechanisms to supply oxygen to their retina. This suggests that retinal oxygen supply was a physiological prerequisite for the evolution of the improved eyesight.

The identification of natural carbon sinks and understanding how they work is critical if humans are to mitigate global climate change. Tropical coastal wetlands are considered important but, so far, there is little data to show the benefits. This study, led by the University of Göttingen showed that mangrove ecosystems need to be conserved and restored as part of the battle against rising carbon levels in the atmosphere. The research was published in Global Change Biology.

A new study shows that the Met Office's operational seasonal forecasting system can predict June rainfall in the middle/lower Yangtze River basin up to four months in advance.

Environmental scientists are always in search of new tools that can better characterize the Earth's surface. In a new study published in Scientific Reports, a group of researchers in the US and Japan reported that Himawari-8, a new-generation geostationary satellite, was able to acquire cloud-free observations every 4 days and capture the seasonal changes of vegetation more accurately than before.

To better understand large, disruptive snowstorms, a University of Washington atmospheric scientist will lead a NASA field campaign studying major East Coast snowstorms beginning Jan. 15. She will present the field campaign this week at the AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco.

A new hydrous phase, ?-AlOOH, was observed to be stable at pressures above ?200 GPa. The stability of ?-AlOOH at extremely high pressures may affect the modelling results of the internal structure and deep water circulation of some extra-solar planets, such as terrestrial super-Earths, because the hydroxide may store water in these regions.