GeoLog

Atmospheric Sciences

Imaggeo on Mondays: A thermal inversion

May 18, 2015
Imaggeo on Mondays: A thermal inversion
Sunset over a tsunami of clouds - Slovenia. Credit: Cyril Mayaud (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu ).

This week’s Imaggeo on Mondays image is brought to you by Cyril Mayaud, from the University of Graz (Austria), who writes about an impressive hike and layers of cold and warm air. Thermal inversion is a meteorological phenomenon which occurs when a layer of cold air is trapped near the Earth’s surface by an overlying layer of warmer air. This can happen frequently at the boundary between mountaino ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Foehn clouds

May 11, 2015

This week’s post is brought to you by Stefan Winkler, a Senior Lecturer in Quaternary Geology & Palaeoclimatology, who explains how the mountain tops of the Southern Alps become decorated by beautiful blanket-like cloud formations. The Sothern Alps of New Zealand are a geoscientifically dynamic environment in all aspects. They are arguably one of the youngest high mountain ranges in the ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: The largest fresh water lake in world

March 2, 2015

Most lakes in the Northern hemisphere are formed through the erosive power of glaciers during the last Ice Age; but not all. Lake Baikal is pretty unique. For starters, it is the deepest fresh water lake in the world. This means it is the largest by volume too, holding a whopping 23,615.39 cubic kilometres of water. Its surface area isn’t quite so impressive, as it ranks as the 7th largest in the ...[Read More]

Geosciences Column: Fire in ice – the history of boreal forest fires told by Greenland ice cores.

February 13, 2015

Burning of biomass contributes a significant amount of greenhouses gases to the atmosphere, which in turn influences regional air quality and global climate. Since the advent of humans, there has been a significant increase in the amount of biomass burning, particularly after the industrial revolution. What might not be immediately obvious is that, (naturally occurring) fires also play a part in e ...[Read More]