Climate of the Present

How glaciers record the winds of change

Martin Wegmann, Ingo Sasgen and Annette Salles April 27, 2022

Primary downlink station for the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and GRACE-Follow On satellite data in Ny-Ålesund, a town in Svalbard, operated as crucial part of the Ground Data System by the Helmholtz Centre Potsdam German Research Center for Geosciences for the joint mission with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Source: Carsten Falck from the German Research Center for Geosciences.

After decades of observation, one of the profound consequences of anthropogenic global warming is the rapid rise in temperature in the Arctic, refered to as Arctic Amplification. Compared to the mid-latitudes, warming in the Arctic is twice as fast. The reason is mainly due to the positive feedback of a melting cryosphere: Darker surfaces are revealed from melting cryosphere, reflecting less short ...[Read More]

Don’t miss out on these awesome #EGU22 activities!

Janina Nett and Ichiko Sugiyama March 9, 2022

Dear climate enthusiasts, EGU lovers, and early/senior climate scientists, With #EGU22 approaching, we wanted to give you a quick overview of the great short courses and great debates that are planned for this years’ General Assembly! If you want to learn more about the scientific sessions offered, please have a look at our Seasonal love letter from December. Short Courses If you are about to fini ...[Read More]

High school-University Connection: Teaching experiences in rural communities regarding climate change

Professor Lennin Florez-Leiva and The OCE team November 16, 2021

Figure 1. A world of words that describe the project of rural communities in Colombia.

Understanding how our environment is changing under a warmer climate will be one of the new challenges our children will face. Meanwhile, teachers are challenged to seek new pedagogical strategies for teaching climate change in the youngest, especially in rural communities, which are one of the most vulnerable to climate change impacts, as they lack resilience towards surviving extreme events. Alt ...[Read More]

Atmospheric Rivers: the water tap of extreme precipitation

Ana C. Pires, Alexandre M. Ramos and Ricardo N. Santos October 7, 2021

Figure 1. The atmospheric river over the North Atlantic that delivered record-breaking rainfall to Norway in September 2005. No-data areas are colored in gray (Source: NOAA, 2016).

Extreme precipitation events, i.e., heavy rain episodes of short duration, can lead to severe or even catastrophic social and economic impacts, as seen recently in different flooding and landslide incidents throughout the world. One of the drivers behind these events is the occurrence of atmospheric rivers (ARs), a mechanism that transports great amounts of water vapour across the globe, and signi ...[Read More]