With more than half of humanity living in cities, the ability to model urban-climate interactions at relevant spatial scales is increasingly important.
AGU Advances
Going Down: How Do Cities Carry That Weight?
Calculations show that the added weight of growing cities can lead to tens of millimeters of subsidence, an effect that needs to be considered for coastal cities under threat by sea-level rise.
Deep Decarbonization? Yes We Can!
Modeling the U.S. energy system demonstrates several pathways to net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050. The pathway with the lowest cost, 0.2–1.2% of GDP, relies on >80% contribution of renewables.
Water Stress Controls the Capacity of the Terrestrial Carbon Sink
Despite increased photosynthetic activity at northern latitudes in recent decades, plant productivity in tropical zones suffers because of water limitations.
High Climatic Response of High-Latitude Forests
The seasonal amplitude of atmospheric CO2 is increasing, partly due to boreal forest responses to warming. Photosynthesis and expansion of boreal forests are shown here to be temperature-limited.
Life in the Chicxulub Crater Years After It Was Formed
While the seas were still churning from the impact and the seawater temperatures were high due to the hydrothermal activity, life was reestablishing itself inside the crater.
Citizen Scientists Observe Mysterious Green Streaks Below STEVE
Citizen scientists provided images of sub-auroral STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancements) showing fine-scale green features with narrow streaks propagating poleward toward STEVE.
Groove is in the Fault
Rock sliding experiments on meter scales show groove patterns which are controlled by normal stress. This may help better understand earthquake source conditions from exhumed faults.
Frequency Dependent Plates
Rocks stretch, break, and flow, depending on how and under which conditions they are loaded. A new formulation to better capture Earth’s rheology is explored in the context of plate thickness.
More Clustered Clouds Amplify Tropical Rainfall Extremes
Both satellite observations and model simulations reveal that more aggregated convection amplifies the increase in extreme rainfall events on a year-to-year basis.