Research Spotlights Archives

Satellite photo of a massive ice shelf with a couple of large cracks

Melting Below the Pine Island Ice Shelf Minds the Gap

by Sarah Derouin 3 October 20223 October 2022

New research shows that increased calving from West Antarctica’s Pine Island Ice Shelf will likely drive increased circulation of warm water—and melting—below the ice.

Image overlooking a rocky coastline and water just after sunset with a bright blue line representing a fiber-optic cable curving over the water and rocks

Research Spotlights

Internet Cable Reveals the Source of Underwater Vibrations

by Saima May Sidik 30 September 202230 September 2022

A novel use of an existing fiber-optic cable off the coast of Spain has clued scientists in to how seismic noise is generated in the ocean.

Aerial view of a muddy river delta with meandering stream channels emanating from a river emerging from a forest

Research Spotlights

When Projecting Coastal Resilience, Sediment Compaction Is Key

by Morgan Rehnberg 30 September 202230 September 2022

The addition of new sediment helps build up lowland environments like deltas and marshes, but it also compacts materials beneath it—a vital, but often overlooked, factor in landscape evolution studies.

A bright red, orange, and yellow thermal image of London and the surrounding area maps hotter and cooler areas of the city. The center of the image is the city of London, which is yellow, indicating that it is hotter than surrounding suburbs, which appear in varying shades of orange and red. The suburbs tend to become cooler, and appear darker red, moving toward the edges of the image. The River Thames snakes from right to left across the center of the image. It and several water reservoirs to the left of center are black, indicating that they are much cooler than the neighboring land.

Research Spotlights

Satellites Can Accurately Take Earth’s Temperature

by Rebecca Dzombak 28 September 202228 September 2022

Satellite-based measurements of land surface temperature may prove to be an essential pairing with near-surface air temperatures to understand global warming and cooling trends.

Research Spotlights

MESSENGER Reveals a More Dynamic Mercury Surface

by Morgan Rehnberg 28 September 202228 September 2022

Image pairs indicate that 99% of the planet’s surface could be altered in the next 25 million years.

Air bubbles rise from a scuba diver who is looking at a coral reef.

Research Spotlights

Unchecked Ocean Warming Threatens Many Gulf and Caribbean Corals

by Rachel Fritts 23 September 202223 September 2022

Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean sea surface temperatures could surpass coral bleaching thresholds in the region as soon as 2050, motivating the need for prompt mitigation, researchers say.