New aircraft survey data show that although atmospheric chemistry above remote ocean regions is a considerable source of methanol production, the ocean’s net methanol emission is minor.
Research Spotlights
Research spotlights are plain-language summaries of recent articles published in AGU’s suite of 24 journals.
Atmospheric Turbulence May Promote Cloud Droplet Formation
Turbulence causes local variations in relative humidity, which can push particles past a critical saturation threshold for droplet nucleation.
How Did Diatoms Evolve to Swap Zinc for the Toxic Metal Cadmium?
New network analysis suggests that zinc and cadmium sulfides weathered simultaneously in geological history, making cadmium a suitable substitute in photosynthetic pathways when zinc was scarce.
The First Angstrom-Scale View of Weathering
Researchers observe how water vapor and liquid alter sedimentary rocks through physical and chemical processes.
The Space Dust That Causes Zodiacal Light Might Come from Mars
Serendipitous observations by the Juno spacecraft while it was en route to Jupiter suggest a Martian source for the dust, but how the dust escapes Mars or its moons remains unknown.
Satellite Captures Detaching Iceberg in Near-Real Time
NASA’s ICESat-2 satellite recorded the cleaving of a 315-billion-ton iceberg from Amery Ice Shelf in 2019, as well as years of subtle cracking and splitting prior to the calving event.
Researchers Home in on the Age of the Yangtze River
Findings on the river’s age also have implications for past landscape change in Asia.
Widespread Wildfire as a Proxy for Resource Strain
Researchers have found a strong correlation between the number of days with widespread, synchronous fire danger and resource allocation across the western United States.
