New results presented this week at the EGU General Assembly have scientists adjusting the assumptions that have longed acted as bookends on the way we understand the evolution of planetary atmospheres. On one side, researchers have identified a previously unrecognised greenhouse effect that could have warmed the early Earth. On the other, the Curiosity rover has uncovered evidence that Mars has lo ...[Read More]
Atmospheric Sciences
Geosciences Column: Tag – you’re it! Chasing atmospheric tracers
I’ve been ruminating over the idea for this post for some time now; since last October in fact, when the EGU Twitter Journal Club discussed a paper about tagging (You can find the Storify for the discussion here). Not tagging as in the playground favourite, but the idea of keeping track of certain molecules in your chemical transport model, so you can follow them as they move through the atm ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: Light reflection
In this week’s Imaggeo on Mondays, brought to you by the photographer herself, Jacqueline Isabella Gisen (Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands) tells us about light refraction and reflection in a beautiful Autumnal landscape. This shot was taken spontaneously on my way to Clingendael Park in The Hague, Netherlands, for an Autumn’s photography activity on 4 October 2011. It was misty and ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: Blue haze
In this week’s Imaggeo on Mondays, brought to you by the photographer himself, Lukas Hörtnagl (University of Innsbruck, Austria) tells us about the ‘blue haze’ or ‘tule fog’ of California’s Sequoia National Park. I was visiting the United States to attend the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union in December 2011 and decided to stay four more weeks to visit some of the National Parks in C ...[Read More]
Roundup of EGU Twitter Journal Club 4
The EGU’s Twitter Journal Club had its fourth virtual meeting yesterday, this time focusing on a paper from the journal Atmospheric Environment. The work examines methods of assessing contributions of individual emissions to ozone and hence to climate change. Read a full transcript of the discussion on our Storify page!
EGU Twitter Journal Club: Article 4 — Ozone, nitrogen oxide emissions, and climate mitigation
It’s time for the fourth edition of the EGU’s Twitter Journal Club, our interactive online discussion about a timely scientific article. If you have not yet taken part in one of these discussions, read more about it in our introductory post and make sure to participate when we meet online next week! This time, we will be discussing a recent Open Access article from the journal Atmosph ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: Cloud sandwich
Lenticular clouds, also known as ‘flying saucer clouds’ or ‘cloudships’, have captured the imagination of humans since Biblical times. Normally aligned at right-angles to the direction of the wind, lenticular clouds are stationary, lens-shaped formations that form at high altitudes. Pilots of powered planes tend to avoid flying near lenticular clouds because of turbulence. Glider pilots, on the ot ...[Read More]
Book review: Continuum Mechanics in the Earth Sciences
This week’s guest post introduces a book recently published by Cambridge University Press. Written by William I. Newman, a Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, Continuum Mechanics in the Earth Sciences provides an introduction to continuum mechanics and essential mathematical and physical approaches in the Earth sciences. It also contains problem sets and worked examples, ...[Read More]
GeoTalk: Dr Pedro Jiménez Guerrero
GeoTalk, featuring short interviews with geoscientists about their research, continues this month with a Q&A with Dr Pedro Jiménez Guerrero (University of Murcia) focusing on air pollution and climate change. If you’d like to suggest a scientist for an interview, please contact Bárbara Ferreira. First, could you introduce yourself and let us know a bit about your research topic(s)? I wa ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: Cordillera del Paine
Images such as the one above inspire scientists and nature lovers alike. This photograph, showing a Chilean landscape with elements representative of various Earth-science disciplines, is simply stunning. In a beautiful mix of shapes and colours, a quiet lake with floating icebergs appears tucked in between a roughed mountain in the background and a colourful double rainbow in the foreground. The ...[Read More]