Laser lightning rod: Guiding bursts of electricity with a flash of light
Lightning is a fascinating but dangerous atmospheric phenomenon. New research reveals that brief bursts of intense laser light can redirect these high-power electrical discharges.
View ArticleDiscovering the ozone hole: Q&A with Pawan Bhartia
On Sept. 16, 1987, representatives from nations around the world drafted a landmark treaty known as the Montreal Protocol. This step marked the beginning of the international agreement to phase out...
View ArticleUnusual tree growth patterns in the Southern Hemisphere linked to climate change
(Phys.org)—New findings from an international research team led by Western University geography professor Brian Luckman, based on tree-ring patterns, show unusual patterns of tree growth in the...
View ArticleFirst-ever hyperspectral images of Earth's auroras
Hoping to expand our understanding of auroras and other fleeting atmospheric events, a team of space-weather researchers designed and built NORUSCA II, a new camera with unprecedented capabilities that...
View ArticleThe Asian monsoon is getting predictable
(Phys.org) —For much of Asia, the pace of life is tuned to rhythms of monsoons. The summer rainy season is especially important for securing the water and food supplies for more than a billion people....
View ArticleTropical western Pacific regional cloudiness appears to form on its own schedule
(Phys.org) —Tropical cloudiness has its own timeline. That's what researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory found when they compared development of turbulent clouds to the timing of the...
View ArticleRare atmospheric phenomenon observed
Cameras operated by the Armagh Observatory have recorded one of the very few observations from the UK and Ireland of a very rare atmospheric phenomenon known as a 'sprite'. The detection, which was...
View ArticleNew study suggests more and longer atmospheric stagnation events due to...
(Phys.org) —A new study conducted by researchers at Stanford University has led to findings indicating that much of the world can expect to have more atmospheric stagnation events as the future...
View ArticleA new theory to explain superrotation on Venus
(PhysOrg.com) -- One of the mysteries in our Solar System is superrotation, a phenomenon known since the late 1960s, in which the winds on Venus blow faster than the planet rotates. Scientists have...
View ArticleLa Nina returns, bringing more severe weather: US
The weather phenomenon known as La Nina is returning for another season, likely bringing more drought, heavy rains and severe weather to some parts of the world, US forecasters said Thursday.
View Article2011 a record-breaking year for extreme weather: US
Last year broke records for extreme weather in the United States, with 14 events each causing at least a billion dollars in damage, US authorities said on Thursday.
View ArticlePhysicists surprised by disappearing and reappearing superconductivity in...
(PhysOrg.com) -- Superconductivity is a rare physical state in which matter is able to conduct electricity -- maintain a flow of electrons -- without any resistance. This phenomenon can only be found...
View ArticleGeochemist duo offer new explanation for dearth of xenon in Earth's atmosphere
(Phys.org)—The Earth's atmosphere holds far less xenon than chondritic meteorites, and researchers have sought for years to explain why. Now, geochemists Svyatoslav Shcheka and Hans Keppler of...
View ArticleNew sunspots producing space weather
On Jan. 13, 2013, at 2:24 a.m. EST, the sun erupted with an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection or CME. Not to be confused with a solar flare, a CME is a solar phenomenon that can send solar particles...
View ArticleSolar Dynamics Observatory shows a little rain on the Sun (w/ Video)
Eruptive events on the sun can be wildly different. Some come just with a solar flare, some with an additional ejection of solar material called a coronal mass ejection (CME), and some with complex...
View ArticleNJ flood mapper: A new tool for coping with sea-level rise
(Phys.org) —If sea level rises as scientists predict, will your New Jersey home or parts of your town be underwater?
View ArticleSpace weather research to look at energy distribution
A University of Texas at Arlington physicist has been awarded more than $400,000 in NASA funding to develop a 3D look at how electrodynamic energy from solar winds enters and moves throughout the...
View ArticleCitizen science to prevent the effects of floods
Researchers from UPM are involved in the development of a mobile phone application that allows user to share information about floods and their effects in order to help researchers.
View Article'Atmospheric rivers' weather phenomenon soaks California
They're called "atmospheric rivers" and they can dump massive quantities of Pacific Ocean water on California, carrying it through the air from as far away as Hawaii.
View ArticleImage: Solar surface from hot to hottest
This sequence of images shows the Sun from its surface to its upper atmosphere all taken at about the same time on Oct. 27, 2017. The first shows the surface of the Sun in filtered white light; the...
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