Introduction Human-caused climate change is increasing the frequency of extreme weather events around the world, and Europe is no exception. These events typically last from a few days to several weeks or even months. Using climate models and reanalysis products, scientists are studying how extreme weather events will evolve and where they are likely to become more frequent and intense in a warmin ...[Read More]
Invited guest from the EGU 2025 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award Wind is not easily visible. On historical time scales, its directions and velocities have been measured and recorded by instruments. To some degree, these parameters can also be simulated by climate models. But how about winds in the more distant past? And why would we want to know about them? In many p ...[Read More]
Around 8,200 years ago, the climate of the Northern Hemisphere experienced an abrupt disturbance. In Greenland ice cores, the signal is unmistakable: a rapid drop in temperatures, followed by a gradual return to previous conditions. This episode, which lasted about 150 years, is known as the 8.2 ka event (“ka” meaning thousand years before 1950). It is often described as the most prominent ...[Read More]
The Asian summer monsoon is one of the most powerful climate phenomena on Earth. Each year, it brings life-giving rainfall to billions of people across South and East Asia. Its arrival determines harvests, water supply, food security, and economic stability. We often think of the monsoon as something driven locally: by the heating of the Indian subcontinent, by ocean temperatures, or by reg ...[Read More]
As we try to predict what will happen under increasing anthropogenic climate change, climate models can only get us so far. Another key is understanding past changes in the Earth’s climate. To do this, palaeoclimatologists turn to natural archives (e.g., sediment cores and speleothems) and extract records of past variability using their properties, such as chemical or physical composition. H ...[Read More]
Twenty years ago, a small group of scientists set out to create a journal dedicated entirely to understanding Earth’s climate history. That journal, Climate of the Past (CP), was launched in 2005 as an international open-access journal of the European Geosciences Union (EGU), and over the past two decades it has become a cornerstone for the paleoclimate community. From geological eras to the last ...[Read More]
The climate is not what it used to be and it will never be the same again. This is what the models say. Where does this knowledge come from? In short, we learn it from the clues that nature left on the planet since its formation. And it is precisely with these observations where our story begins. Since the beginnings of mountaineering, many visitors of the Alps and other mountain ranges have wonde ...[Read More]
The Pacific Ocean is a vast expanse that is punctuated by diverse islands and archipelagos. Some of these islands closer to Asia and the Australian landmass have been home to humans for tens of millennia. Others – spread across Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia – make up Remote Oceania and were only settled by humans within the past few thousand years. Archeological investigations have provided ...[Read More]
To understand Earth’s changing climate, scientists often examine how the climate has varied in the past, by studying geological records. These records allow us to reconstruct past climates and help us predict planet’s responses to different climate forcings. In this context, it has long been thought that past ice ages on Earth were relatively dry, whereas the warm periods between ice ages we ...[Read More]
Dear community of climate enthusiasts and EGU lovers, We know that being part of the EGU is not just about staying in the loop with the latest geoscience works – especially when it comes to our all-time favorite realm of sciences: climate sciences 🤩. It is also an amazing opportunity to spark exciting collaborations and expand your network with scientists from all over Europe and the world. EGU is ...[Read More]