Earth System Dynamics (ESD) is an open-access EGU journal focussing on an interdisciplinary view of the functioning of the Earth system and global change. Due its broad focus, ESD receives submissions of relevance to several different EGU divisions. Here, I would like to highlight five thought-provoking ESD papers that cover topics spanning environmental governance, extreme events, palaeo-climates ...[Read More]
Persistent atmospheric circulation patterns are not a necessary requirement for warm temperature extremes in Europe. This key finding from a recent study led by Emma Holmberg challenges a more traditional meteorological view of persistence, which typically considers summertime heatwaves, especially in northern regions of Europe, to be synonymous with persistent atmospheric flow patterns. Furthermo ...[Read More]
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]
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]
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]
The NPG paper of the month for January 2023 was awarded to “Brief communication: Climate science as a social process – history, climatic determinism, Mertonian norms and post-normality” by Hans von Storch. One could argue that climate science is part of geophysics, or more precisely that part of climate science is part of geophysics. But when referring to ”processes” in ”Nonlinear Processes in Geo ...[Read More]
We are running out of time in fighting the effects of climate change. With the greenhouse gasses emissions steady, the planet is reaching warming levels that could cause some large ecosystems to tip in different states. A tipping point in the climate system refers to a threshold beyond which a small change in a particular variable can cause a significant and potentially irreversible change in the ...[Read More]
Figure: DallE (the visual cousin of ChatGPT) has produced this image when I asked for “a cartoon showing a climatologist with research articles walking on a weather map” As a communication officer of the division of Nonlinear Processes I started to write posts for the EGU blog a few years ago and I found it a very difficult task: one has to find the right scientific sources about arguments ...[Read More]
Weather extreme events in the year 2022 are really hitting the Mediterranean basin very hard. Since the beginning of the year we are observing a widespread drought, heatwaves but also severe thunderstorms. Few days before the COP meeting in Sharm-el-sheik we discussed one of the experts of Mediterranean climate, Federico Grazzini, to unveil whether these events can be linked to climate change. Fe ...[Read More]
On October 23 2022, a tornado outbreak occurred in France, causing extensive damages. Tornadoes in France are a relatively rare phenomenon, even more so in the second half of October. This weather phenomenon is linked to intense thunderstorms, and it is difficult to predict because it is very localized. Will global warming make this weather more frequent or intense? A thundercloud that grows visib ...[Read More]