Alpine hydropower plants commonly flush sediment that accumulates at intakes, but the associated rapid rise in discharge, turbidity, and streambed instability put aquatic insects at risk.
Editors’ Highlights
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Atmospheric Rivers Trigger Heavy Snowmelt in Western USA
A rare atmospheric phenomenon that transports large quantities of water vapor into the coastal watersheds of the western USA is responsible for up to 10–20% of intense snowmelt events in the region.
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What Controls How Quickly Faults Heal?
The rates at which fault zones “heal” through secondary mineralization have been elusive, but uranium-thorium dating of calcite growth in fault-zone fractures may provide the answer.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Using a Machine to Help Us Learn About Jupiter’s Aurora
A first usage of principal component analysis on Hubble images of Jupiter’s auroral ovals reveals the most common patterns, and machine learning classification reveals their physical causes.
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Satellite Measurements of Stratospheric Forest Fire Smoke
Intense boreal forest fires in August 2017 caused smoke plumes that reached record levels in the stratosphere; satellite measurements show that the effects rivaled a moderate volcanic eruption.
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Why Is the Red Planet Red? Chlorate May Oxidize Mars’ Surface
Laboratory experiments and geochemical model suggest that chlorate is very effective to oxidize reducing iron to reddish iron oxides on Mars when liquid water was present on the surface.
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A Closure on Sea Level Rise Budget
Terrestrial water loss may explain the lack of previous budget closure in global mean sea level rise.
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Extreme Summer Heat over Europe Is Predictable Week-to-Week
Forecasts made one to a few weeks in advance, known as “subseasonal to seasonal” predictions, show more skill in predicting extreme summer heat waves over Europe than spells of normal or cold weather.
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Submarine Rivers of Sediment
Turbidity currents move suspended sediment into the ocean. In general, the more sediment, the stronger the turbidity current, but one process may generate turbidity currents from very dilute rivers.
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Examining the Structure of Tropical Cyclones’ Upper Levels
Unique observations used to examine the structure and mass balance of hurricanes’ top levels find that regions of high pressure violate the gradient wind balance.