The turbulent pockets of air inside storms can help to build up static electricity in the atmosphere, according to a new study.
Research Spotlights
Research spotlights are plain-language summaries of recent articles published in AGU’s suite of 24 journals.
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Time, Tides, and Wandering Poles
Models of Neptune’s moon Triton reveal curious behavior in how tidal forces and mass anomalies cause the poles to reorient their location.
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Sorting Waves in the Sky
Gravity waves in the atmosphere drive weather around the globe. A new study helps interpret gravity wave data and identify annual patterns of this atmospheric mechanism.
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Changes in Groundwater Flow Affect Nitrogen Cycling in Streams
Overpumping and other activities that affect groundwater levels could combine with increased nitrogen runoff to amplify threats to human and environmental health.
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Curiosity Spies Shifting Sands on Mars
Images from the rover’s pioneering encounter with sand dunes on Mars constrain wind speeds required to move sand in the thin Martian atmosphere.
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Massive Waves of Melting Greenland Ice Warped Earth’s Crust
A novel method uses shifting bedrock to trace pulses of mass that propagate down a glacier.
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How Shifting Winds Turn Tropical Storms into Hurricanes
Researchers present a novel method for analyzing how wind shear affects tropical cyclone strength and structure.
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Huge Storms Disrupted Jupiter’s Fastest Jet Stream in 2016
Recurrent jet stream disturbances provide glimpses of what lies beneath the gas giant’s thick upper cloud cover.
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How Quickly Is Mercury’s Surface Evolving?
New measurements of impact craters on Mercury’s smooth plains suggest that the topography of the solar system’s innermost planet is changing at twice the rate of landforms on the Moon.
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Using Multiple Satellites Gives a Fuller View of Cloud Structure
The unique strengths of different satellites reveal different facets of cloud systems and precipitation.