Nonlinear Processes in Geosciences

Back in Green: The Return of Pineapple Express to California

Davide Faranda March 18, 2023

Satellite imagery via NASA Worldview from the Terra satellite. Source https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov/

If you Google Pineapple Express you’re likely to end-up with a stoner movie comedy, but for those who live on the West Coast of North America, it has an entirely different meaning. Pineapple Express is a weather phenomenon that refers to a strong atmospheric river that brings heavy rain and moisture to the region. Despite the shared name, the two Pineapple Expresses couldn’t be more di ...[Read More]

El Niño is back: What it Means for Global Warming?

Davide Faranda March 16, 2023

El Niño vs la Niña schematic representation of wind anomalies (arrows) and ocean temperature anomalies (colors). source: https://thecolumn.ahacentre.org/insight/vol-66-getting-to-know-el-nino-la-nina/

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has just announced that the La Niña episode has officially ended, and from autumn onwards, it should give way to an El Niño phase. But what does that mean? And what is the influence of these weather phenomena on global warming?For those who have never heard of La Niña before, here’s an explanation of this phenomenon. The Earth rotates, so there are ...[Read More]

ECS SpotLight: Climate change on extreme winds already affects off-shore wind energy availability in Europe

Lia Rapella March 3, 2023

Credit: https://openai.com/product/dall-e-2

Off-shore wind energy plays a key role in the transition to a renewable energy (RE) system, and its usage is expected to increase in the next few decades. Nevertheless, wind energy is one of the most variable and weather-dependent RE, because of its natural dependence on the wind speed, which can vary at different time scales, ranging from small-scale turbulence to seasonal oscillations and up to ...[Read More]

Sea level rise: a global threat in a warming planet

Marco Anzidei and Tommaso Alberti February 28, 2023

Credit: Marco Anzidei

Over 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered by seas and oceans but in the geological past the extension of sea and land has varied several times as sea level changed over time. During the past millions of years, the oceans have cyclically retreated and expanded with the alternating of warmer and colder climatic periods in consequence of the astronomical motions of the Earth, repeatedly changi ...[Read More]