Lightning, fire vortices, and black hail are some of the frightening features of fire-fueled storms, which may become more common in the future.
everything atmospheric
Atmospheric Rivers Have Different “Flavors”
New research is helping scientists understand why moisture-laden atmospheric rivers of similar intensities have different effects on land.
Atmospheric Rivers Trigger Heavy Snowmelt in Western USA
A rare atmospheric phenomenon that transports large quantities of water vapor into the coastal watersheds of the western USA is responsible for up to 10–20% of intense snowmelt events in the region.
Satellite Measurements of Stratospheric Forest Fire Smoke
Intense boreal forest fires in August 2017 caused smoke plumes that reached record levels in the stratosphere; satellite measurements show that the effects rivaled a moderate volcanic eruption.
Antarctic Ice Cores Offer a Whiff of Earth’s Ancient Atmosphere
Bubbles of greenhouse gases trapped in ice shed new light on an important climate transition that occurred about a million years ago.
Curiosity Rover Reveals Oxygen Mystery in Martian Atmosphere
An air-sampling study has captured long-term trends in the concentrations of five key atmospheric gases for the first time.
Sparks May Reveal the Nature of Ash Plumes
In lab experiments and models, researchers uncover how ash can affect the standing shock waves of erupting volcanoes. Their findings may lead to new predictions of volcanic ash hazards.
Golden State Blazes Contributed to Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide
A new case study investigates causes and effects of California’s 2017 wildfire season.
Atlantic Circulation Consistently Tied to Carbon Dioxide
Past ocean surface conditions suggest that over the past 800,000 years, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels typically rose on millennial timescales when Atlantic overturning was weaker and vice versa.
Did Bacterial Enzymes Cap the Oxygen in Early Earth’s Atmosphere?
A new theory suggests that nitrogenase from cyanobacteria could be the reason oxygen levels remained low after the Great Oxidation Event.
