The transmission of sunlight through Arctic sea ice depends on the presence of ice, snow, and melt ponds, data collected over 6 years reveal.
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Posted inEditors' Highlights
3D Radiation-Topography Interaction Warms Up Tibetan Plateau
3-D radiation-topography interaction, which can increase the sunlight absorption by the surface, is missing in all climate models, causing strong cold biases over the Tibetan Plateau.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
How Yellowing Seas Will Affect Ocean Temperatures
Materials that trap solar heat at the sea surface could cause more extreme temperatures.
Posted inScience Updates
Looking at “Night-Shining” Clouds from the Stratosphere
One research group studied noctilucent clouds at large distances from a different point of view, using cameras aboard a meteorological balloon that sailed into the stratosphere.
Posted inNews
Could Life Be Floating in Venus’s Clouds?
If present, microbes could explain evolving patterns in the planet’s atmosphere when observed in ultraviolet light.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Yellow Detritus in the Oceans May Help Reduce Warming
Dissolved organic matter in the oceans absorbs light near the water’s surface, leading to cooler waters that may help mitigate regional climate warming.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
How to Build a Better Light Trap
Nanosized chambers capture bits of light for infinite amounts of time.
Posted inNews
Exact Moonlight Measurements Could Aid Earth-Observing Missions
A new telescope’s unprecedented study of subtle variations in lunar light could finally give Earth-facing satellites a common reference point for their observations.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
On-the-Ground Measurements Overestimate Earth’s Albedo
Weather stations can be used to calibrate and validate albedo measurements from satellites, but they fail to account for variability across landscapes, overestimating how reflective our planet is.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Autonomous Floats Shed New Light on the Ocean’s Many Hues
Argo float data reveal regional deviations from existing models of the relationship between ocean color and biogeochemistry.