The Madden-Julian Oscillation drives storms across the Indian and Pacific oceans every 30 to 60 days. New research suggests that clouds absorbing and reemitting radiative energy play a key role.
Research Spotlights
Research spotlights are plain-language summaries of recent articles published in AGU’s suite of 24 journals.
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Tracking Nitrogen in Arctic Plants
Prevailing nutrient uptake models do not fit Arctic plants. Scientists test a new option that overcomes older models’ shortcomings.
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Mysterious Particle Beams Found over Jupiter’s Poles
The unexpected character of the beams, revealed by NASA’s Juno spacecraft, suggests that the processes that produce Jupiter’s auroras are unlike those on Earth.
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Deforestation Effects as Different as Night and Day
Study investigates how deforestation can cause different land surface temperature effects depending on the time of day.
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Lab Experiments Show How Fault Surfaces Get Groovy
Formation of nanometer-scale quartz beads could promote linear “slickenline” patterns and facilitate fault movement.
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How Will Climate Change Affect the California Current Upwelling?
The results of new simulations that account for internal climate variability contrast with previous projections of how this vital West Coast current will respond to anthropogenic warming.
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Lab Tests Probe Carbon Planets’ Inner Dynamics
Thermal convection in deep interiors could be more vigorous in carbide planets than in comparably sized silicate planets, according to new high-pressure measurements of silicon carbide.
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Shedding Light on Intermittent Rainfall
A study provides a new modeling method to simulate rain when it pours and when it doesn’t.
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Global Atmospheric Observations May Need Tweaking for Turbulence
A new study that overturns an 80-year-old assumption about atmospheric turbulence may finally resolve discrepancies in observations of atmospheric heat, water vapor, and carbon.
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The Future of Earth Looks Drier…but Just How Dry?
New analysis of soil moisture projections from climate models could help resolve a discrepancy between expected increases in aridity and precipitation over land.