Metallic plasma layers in Earth's ionosphere interfere with radio communications and produce odd echo behavior at specific frequencies.
Research Spotlights
Research spotlights are plain-language summaries of recent articles published in AGU’s suite of 24 journals.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Satellite Data Yield Detailed Picture of the Lunar Wake
Researchers use satellite data to characterize the physical properties of the lunar wake and the processes that govern it.
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How Do Tiny Ice Crystals Help Sea Ice Stay Thick?
Supercooled water contributes to sea ice growth in Antarctica.
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Precooled Aerosols Are Better Raindrop Nuclei
Cooling inorganic and organic aqueous solutions makes the particles into more robust seeds of clouds.
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A Modified Technique to Remotely Detect Subsurface Melt
Adapting a much-used analytical method to consider anisotropy opens up the approach to new uses.
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Shooting Stars and Cosmic Dust Help Form Clouds, Fertilize Plankton
Tons of cosmic dust enter Earth’s atmosphere each day, triggering a range of phenomena that scientists are only just beginning to understand.
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Survey Shows Where Arctic Marine Bird Populations Thrive
"Hot spots" of species richness currently include the Bering Sea, Lancaster Sound, Baffin Bay, and Davis Strait. Will this change as sea ice melts?
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Survival of Young Sardines Flushed Out to Open Ocean
Despite favorable conditions within eddies and streamers that form ideal habitats for larval sardines, the young fish may not survive when flushed into the open ocean.
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Salish Sea a Key Source of Regional Marine Nutrients
A new examination of nitrogen in the coastal waters off the Pacific Northwest shows that the Salish Sea delivers a large fraction of nutrients to shelf waters.
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Found: The Submarine Source of an 1891 Eruption Near Sicily
Analysis of a volcano may help explain why some eruptions produce volcanic balloons–hollow chunks of lava that encase a gas-filled cavity.