Direct observations from flights over coastal California reveal more about aerosol plumes released by burning biomass.
Research Spotlights
Research spotlights are plain-language summaries of recent articles published in AGU’s suite of 24 journals.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Precipitation in the Tropics: A New View
The first study to simultaneously investigate precipitation and cloud structures in tropical weather systems concludes observation systems significantly overestimate the height of raining clouds.
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A New Way to Analyze Evidence of Martian Oceans
Mars’s aqueous past holds the answers to many questions about the Red Planet. A new study provides a tool for scouring planetary surfaces for ancient shorelines.
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Are Soil Moisture and Latent Heat Overcoupled in Land Models?
A novel statistical approach demonstrates how to reduce bias in remote sensing estimates of soil moisture and latent heat flux coupling strength and clarifies the relationship between the variables.
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Improving Water Resources Management with Satellite Data
An extensive review reveals that remote sensing is changing the way we manage water resources and suggests that the coming years will bring both exciting advancements and new challenges.
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Unraveling the Origins of a Record-Setting Marine Heat Wave
The extreme heat wave in the southwestern Atlantic in 2017 was likely caused by upper atmosphere circulation patterns triggered by the Madden-Julian Oscillation tropical weather cycle.
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What Climate Models Get Wrong About Future Water Availability
Models that accurately represent past and present rainfall provide more accurate projections of water availability, a new study suggests.
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The Thermosphere Responds to a Weaker Than Normal Solar Cycle
Infrared emissions from nitric oxide and carbon dioxide in Earth’s upper atmosphere, which are closely tied to incoming solar radiation, are drastically lower than in the previous solar cycle.
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Through Flood and Drought: Reconstructing the Yellow River
Tree ring chronologies fill in gaps in the historical record and offer insights into the natural flow of China’s Yellow River.
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Aerosol Particle Size May Contribute to Varying Health Responses
Particulate matter in the atmosphere derives from industrial and environmental sources. The size of the particle determines how it deposits in the body and leads to different health challenges.