A new study provides an updated hypothesis to describe a unique radar signature from plasma waves high above Earth, correcting errors that had stood for decades.
everything atmospheric
Posted inResearch Spotlights
New Data Record Extends History of Global Air Pollution
Researchers extend long-term aerosol records to the past 40 years by combining two existing algorithms to process satellite data over both land and sea.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Powerful Pacific Forces Disrupt the California Current
Scientists create a 66-year data record to shed light on the role of El Niño in the California Current System’s shifting temperatures.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Observing Mercury’s Brilliant Flares from Earth
Researchers make the first short-term observation of sodium flares in Mercury’s exosphere.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Tracking Meteor Trails to Study the Mesosphere
Twelve years of radar data reveal new phenomena in Earth’s upper atmosphere.
Posted inNews
O. Walter Lennartsson (1943–2017)
A pioneering leader in unraveling the complex plasma interactions that drive the dynamics of Earth’s magnetosphere and other space plasma environments.
Posted inNews
Could a Newfound Molecule on Titan Be a Building Block for Life?
The discovery of vinyl cyanide in the atmosphere of Saturn’s moon Titan has huge implications for life—but not as we know it.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Tiny Particles with Big Impact on Global Climate
A recent paper in Reviews of Geophysics suggests that new understandings of secondary organic aerosol may require a rethinking of atmospheric chemistry-climate models.
Posted inNews
Volcano’s Toxic Plume Returns as Stealth Hazard
During a closely watched eruption, plumes of harmful sulfur dioxide gas morphed into “plumerangs” of sulfuric-acid-rich aerosols that descended on populated parts of Iceland.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Testing Models of Near-Space Electrical Currents
Modeling Earth’s near-space environment and its electrical currents is challenging. A new study compares how four different models stack up against observations.