Viewed from a great distance in both space and time, the nighttime glow of inhabited areas on Earth is steadily increasing. However, the hidden variability within in this overall change has been demonstrated by a new analysis of satellite data undertaken by a research team from the University of Connecticut, in collaboration with NASA and researchers in the U.S. and Germany. “For the first time, daily satellite images were used for this purpose on a global scale,” says Professor Christopher Kyba, professor of nighttime light remote sensing at the Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, who participated in the study. The data confirm earlier studies that light emissions are increasing overall. However, the most important new finding is that fluctuations occur frequently, and are not solely attributable to major factors such as the COVID-19 lockdowns or the war in Ukraine. The researchers reported their findings in the April 8, 2026, issue of the journal Nature.

New study in Science Advances reveals that sinking land, not just rising oceans alone, will be the main cause of future coastal flooding along Indonesia’s most populous island. 

Despite the common perception of landslides to be naturally controlled, a new study reveals that most fatal landslides occur in human-transformed environments. Conducted by an international team of researchers from the University of Vienna, Ankara University, Istanbul Technical University, Bursa Uludag University, and the GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences, the study provides a global overview of how human pressure modulates landslide occurrences. The most important finding of the study is that land-use-land-cover change has a substantially greater influence on landslide fatalities than physical factors such as topography and precipitation, especially in low- and lower-middle-income nations. The study is published in the prestigious journal Science Advances.

Scientists at The University of Manchester have developed a new way to measure how traffic contributes to rising urban temperatures, revealing that everyday vehicle use can play a measurable role in making cities warmer.