EurekAlert! News by Subject: Atmospheric Science - News by Subject: Atmospheric Science

Atmospheric Science

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 13-May-2025 17:09 ET (13-May-2025 21:09 GMT/UTC)

Complex drivers of phytoplankton bloom

Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (GEOMAR)
Peer-Reviewed Publication

06 January 2025/Kiel. The ocean is vital for oxygen, food supply, and carbon storage. At its core is phytoplankton - microscopic algae that produce biomass through photosynthesis, using nutrients, CO2, and sunlight. Researchers from GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, in collaboration with Oregon State University and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, have identified how a complex interplay of wind and current patterns affect nutrient delivery and phytoplankton growth in the equatorial Atlantic. Their study, published today in Nature Geoscience, reveals the seasonal nutrient dynamics critical for marine productivity and potential impacts of climate change.

Journal: Nature Geoscience

A change in the weather in the U.S. Corn Belt

National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
Peer-Reviewed Publication

New research led by NSF NCAR shows that the sweeping land use changes and irrigation of the U.S. Corn Belt, along with the influence of the area’s shallow groundwater, have significantly altered precipitation patterns in that vital agricultural region.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation

Research explores wildfire smoke’s effect on solar power generation across US

Colorado State University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The paper – published today in Nature Communications – shows that while wildfire smoke increasingly covers large portions of the U.S., losses of average, or background, photovoltaic solar resources remain modest outside of the areas immediately surrounding active fires, where smoke plumes are dense.

Journal: Nature Communications

Extended Paxlovid may help some people with long COVID

University of California - San Francisco
Peer-Reviewed Publication

An extended course of Paxlovid appears to help some patients with long Covid, according to a case series by UC San Francisco researchers that suggests this treatment option holds promise for some of those struggling with debilitating symptoms.

Journal: Communications Medicine

Citizen science reveals that Jupiter’s colorful clouds are not made of ammonia ice

University of Oxford
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Collaborative work by amateur and professional astronomers has helped to resolve a long-standing misunderstanding about the composition of Jupiter’s clouds. Instead of being formed of ammonia ice – the conventional view – it now appears they are likely to be composed of ammonium hydrosulphide mixed with smog.

Journal: Journal of Geophysical Research Planets

AMS Science Preview: Tall hurricanes, snow and wildfire

American Meteorological Society
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Early online research in AMS journals discuss earlier snowmelt's correlation with Alaska wildfires, which hurricanes are more likely to intensify rapidly, and whether irrigation will impact rain on the Arabian peninsula.

Journal: Earth Interactions

Increased wildfire activity may be a feature of past periods of abrupt climate change, study finds

Oregon State University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study investigating ancient methane trapped in Antarctic ice suggests that global increases in wildfire activity likely occurred during periods of abrupt climate change throughout the last Ice Age.

Journal: Nature
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation

38
39
40
41
42