When the Earth's and the Sun's magnetic fields meet, they realign in explosive and mysterious reconnections. Data suggest that plasma waves called kinetic Alfvén waves 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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When Income Goes Up, Does Pollution Go Down?
Scientists look at a possible connection between increased wealth and decreased water pollution in Louisiana.
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How Climate Change Affects the Flow of Carbon from Land to Sea
Changes in precipitation and runoff in New England may be driving more dissolved organic carbon into the Gulf of Maine.
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Swirling Eddies in the Antarctic May Have Global Impacts
A new model examines how eddies in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current affect volume transport of the world's strongest current.
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Fingerprinting the Source of Fore-Arc Fluids
A new model tracks boron and other tracers in fluids expelled from subducting slabs to help identify the fluids' source regions and migration routes.
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How Mars Got Its Layered North Polar Cap
Orbital wobbling shaped the dome of ice and dust at the planet's north pole.
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New Ground-Penetrating Radar Method Shows Promise in Aquifer
Recent advances in ground-penetrating radar data analysis could help reveal aquifer structure in unprecedented detail.
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Pulses of Rising Magma in Sierra Nevada's Past
A detailed study of layered igneous material at California's Fisher Lake offers a novel approach to identifying the pathways and timescales of individual magma pulses in volcanic arcs.
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Deep Drilling Reveals Puzzling History of Campi Flegrei Caldera
Results show that caldera collapse attributed to a super eruption almost 40,000 years ago was smaller than what scientists expected. So what might have really happened?
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Tiny Creatures Form Massive, Bright Ring Around Antarctica
Dense algae populations in the Great Calcite Belt could cause carbon dioxide release from the ocean into the atmosphere.